After Electronic Arts’ attempt to dip into the indie bundle scene, the publishing monolith has come up with a new way to cash in on the latest in video game trends, Kickstarter projects. Surprisingly enough, Wasteland 2, one of the biggest publicly funded projects so far is going to be a part of this.

EA recently announced that they were trying to increase the number of independent video games on Origin, by offering a developers a 90 day period during which the compony would not charge any publishing costs. This initiative is of course in no way supposed to aid the further growth of the indie community, but to profit from “what’s becoming a trend” though the trend is to actually step away from big name publishers.

Origin SVP David DeMartini said, “The public support for crowd-funding creative game ideas coming from small developers today is nothing short of phenomenal. It’s also incredibly healthy for the gaming industry. Gamers around the world deserve a chance to play every great new game, and by waiving distribution fees on Origin we can help make that a reality for successfully crowd-funded developers.”

In other words “Hey, they’re making money, we want that too!”

What is an interesting turn out is one of the first developers who agreed to publish his Kickstarter project on Origin, InXile Entertainment’s Brian Fargo.

“I have had a long relationship with EA and it is great to see them recognise and support the crowd-funded games model,” Fargo said in an interview with Edge. “Having Origin waive their distribution fees for 90 days for fan-funded games is a major economic bonus for small developers. We look forward to bringing Wasteland 2 to the Origin audience.”

Needless to say it is a smart move on EA’s part, I simply fear for the impact this could potentially have on small companies. Who else is supposed to take on the fight?