EA Origin, or "look at those fucks at Valve making money, I want me some of that"
Goose!
That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
That's me, honeyShow me the way home, honeyRegistered User regular
The EA store reopened on June 3rd and was renamed Origin. It is now their answer to the growing number of digital distribution services out there, of which Valve has led the way with Steam. There are, of course, other alternatives (Direct2Drive, Amazon, Impulse, Greenhouse but that seems to be abandoned now, Capsule from Green Man Gaming, and there are probably others I am missing) out there as well, but EA is one of the largest video game publishers in the world, offering titles like the Mass Effect series, Dragon Age, the Battlefield series, etc.
Well, when I first heard of Origin I thought to myself that there would probably be some butting heads between it and Steam. The first evidence of that has come to pass: Crysis 2 has been pulled from Steam and is now being described as available "only on Origin." Except that other services that carried the game still do appear to have the game available (D2D, Amazon, etc). And of course, since the game came out nearly 3 months ago now, the impact is probably minimal, but it sets an interesting precedent and could lead to more EA games staying Origin exclusive. With the way EA has dealt with digital rights management in the past, I am interested in how this whole Origin thing plays out.
Also hoping that it doesn't go to the extreme of no EA games ever being released anywhere else because I like Steam and what they do for the most part.
Well, when I first heard of Origin I thought to myself that there would probably be some butting heads between it and Steam. The first evidence of that has come to pass: Crysis 2 has been pulled from Steam and is now being described as available "only on Origin." Except that other services that carried the game still do appear to have the game available (D2D, Amazon, etc). And of course, since the game came out nearly 3 months ago now, the impact is probably minimal, but it sets an interesting precedent and could lead to more EA games staying Origin exclusive. With the way EA has dealt with digital rights management in the past, I am interested in how this whole Origin thing plays out.
Also hoping that it doesn't go to the extreme of no EA games ever being released anywhere else because I like Steam and what they do for the most part.
Goose! on
0
Posts
I guess I'll buy my Bioware releases somewhere else?
That just sort of makes sense, y'know?
Or without installing steam, even
The difference seems to be that people don't mind using steam
i'm also more wary that this will lead to similar moves by Ubisoft, Activision, et al, and we'll suddenly see a glut of direct download services, with tons of great games limited to those services.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
I can fault them for all the bullshit they put me through with Spore, though
I mean, they're fighting the enormous networking benefits of Steam's already tremendous userbase and vendor network
I just don't see how it's ever going to be something you do anything but grudgingly open up when you want to play an EA game
edit: also my Steam games list has 93 games on it and is worth $1,262.18
do they seriously think I'm going to walk away from that in favor of their platform?
And that anyone who tries to compete with them fails to grasp the convenience of steam's setup
They always include some kind of DRM or are just plain obtrusive
but...like, I also hate having to have a bunch of different programs running to buy and play different games.
Follow me on Twitter??
I know "Xbox Live-esque" is like acid to PC gamers after Games for Windows, but I would not mind a more integrated social experience in that vein if they can just do it...not...shittily, and to a greater extent than Steam currently manages to.
Follow me on Twitter??
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/06/14/gamesgate-explain-freegames/
But then you have to make sure the end user can't just copy the file and torrent it or whatever
And that's where DRM comes in
and moreover
will they have tons of sales so i can arbitrarily waste money on games i love to have and play in spurts but will never, ever, ever finish
This actually sounds pretty cool. Depending on the games available I'll give it a shot.
Or whatever that free client was, that you can download and then get older games for free/cheap as shit or something? Based on a subscription?
I dunno but I remember cancelling it was like making out with a cactus
Still, I guess one can't fault them for wanting to compete in a lucrative market.
something tells me EA is not interested in competing in price
pretty sure they're just interested in competing by restricting as many games as they can from distribution on Steam
...but it's EA that's throwing down.
i was actually looking at things from the opposite direction: it's a good thing Valve has so far stood in the way of EA being total douches.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
I doubt they'd risk making the standard version exclusive, though
No, I'm not using more than one digital distribution program at a time.
Sorry, Mass Effect 3. I guess I'm buying you retail.
[edit] Oh, okay.
Sorry Mass Effect 3: Collector's Deluxe Turbo Edition. I will never know how sweet it is to have Sonic the Hedgehog unlockable for my squad.
it seems like that wouldn't really help them compete in the long run!
yeah.
the only reason i even used something like big fish games was when i had a job as a reviewer
what if the retail version requires origin to run
well the download manager failed, too
did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?
There are dark nefarious ways around that.
Like not buying the game at all, then, thank you very much.
I mean it seems like this is slightly different than just a download manager and they're actively promoting it
the key thing will be if they let you download the game after you've owned it for six months because the old policy was some bullshit
(also I think a lot of dudes have it on their computers now just because of the free ME2 when you buy DA2 thing, so maybe if they're gonna keep throwing free games at me I'll keep it around)
yeah this largely doesn't affect me
I can't think of a single EA game I wouldn't rather play on a console anyway
but Shoe,
first they came for the PSNs
and i didn't speak up because i wasn't an SDF-fanboy
then they came for the Nintendos
and i didn't speak up because i wasn't a Mii
and then they came for the Steams
and i didn't speak up because i wasn't Steampowered
then they came for me
and there was no one to speak out for me
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
Yeah. Without a doubt I will fold immediately and buy ME3 for Origin if that's literally the only way I can get it.
I don't know, would a surge of patronage for only a handful of big-budget titles per year offset the costs of running the servers? Especially if a lot of them end up being retail purchases anyway?
link? who broke the story?
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
it's Patrick Klepek over at Giant Bomb
although I guess I should point out that that's just what EA is saying.