Origin is a digital shopping and downloading platform from Electronic Arts. Basically, it's a sort of Steam that you need to install and use if you want to play any of this North American company's most important releases.
To enjoy all the latest games from EA, you'll need to access this platform, through which you can comfortably buy games and download them as many times as you need to. You can also maintain a list of friends and talk to them whenever you want - even gift them games.
A great thing about Origin is that it allows you to keep everything on the Internet, so you don't have to worry if something happens to your computer. You can always go back and re-download your purchase, even starting a saved game right where you left off, since those files are stored in the cloud.
On top of everything, the platform comes with some free games so that you can start enjoying the system without even having to take out your wallet. Battlefield Heroes, Need for Speed World, and Battleforge are just some of the titles that you can play.
At the moment, Origin is not as essential as Steam. But if EA continues to make its big new releases exclusive to the platform, there's no doubt that you'll need to have it installed on your hard drive.