WTF EA Origin!!!!

[EL_n00biachi]

I understand,but why would\should a company be forced to use Steam with all the drawbacks that may be and lose all the profits; be it financially or commercially when the Internet is such an open place to do business.....it surprises me that it took so long for EA to start up a portal them selfs.

[Batwing~SPARTA~]

I do agree with N00b about this.

 

As i said earlier on this thread, to me is the competition making a good market for the Buyer.

 

I do not care much about the Store when I buy something. Bottom line, when you buy something is not the Store making the difference but is the Brand you are buying.

 

I keep it generic, not necessarely related to games, but games are nothing more than items I can buy, anyway.

 

I love to have many stores available, because there will be more and more "Specials" to capture my interest. I really don t care if Steams works better than Origin or viceversa. If I buy a game, i just get the game, then if the game is not working, I cannot make an action versus Steam or Origin. They are just "media" for me to get the game. Those I have to blame are producers, so that is another story.

 

What I need as a Consume is just as much as shelves for me to choose from, to get the better deal. Bottom line BF3 is exactly the same game if I buy it on Steam or Origin or BestBuy.

[Rooster90]

Agreed with Watchman's clutter point. It's yet another service on my computer clogging up space, another login/password to remember, and more data about me ready to get hacked. Hacktivists hate EA as much as most gamers do, so they are certainly a big target.

 

I understand your point about the game being the game, regardless of distributor. But it's a convenience thing. I like having all of my eggs in one basket (if I can). What EA did was inconvenience thousands, perhaps millions, of potential Steam buyers. Not a smart move on their part, considering the already staggering amount of resentment most gamers have towards them.

 

"but why would\should a company be forced to use Steam with all the drawbacks that may be and lose all the profits"

 

First, what "drawbacks"? You have the largest community/audience of PC gamers at your disposal with Steam. All it takes is your game to be on the front page of Steam for a day or two and you'll likely go from zero to hero (as an indie dev). I don't think EA needs to worry about advertising BF3 though, pretty sure everybody who knows anything about video games has probably heard about it already. As for "lost profits" I can't imagine Valve taking any more than 30% of a sale. And considering that EA doesn't have to pay for manufacturing, shipping, or retail cuts and are still selling the game at full price, I'm sure they're already poised to make loads more than a physical copy. But EA said that wasn't good enough and that they want 100% of the profit, and STILL charge full price for it on their own service. No pre-order discounts, nothing. Instead you get a pre-order "fee" on top of the game itself. Sure, they have every right to do so as a business, that doesn't mean we should support that kind of behavior.

 

It really comes down to business ethics/practices for me. EA has a history of conducting themselves in a way to only help themselves and their shareholders and not giving two shits about the consumer. Whereas Valve has a history of generosity, care, and love for the PC platform and indie developers. This recent story just adds to their long track record of support:

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/25/how-project-zomboid-was-saved-by-steam-desura-and-fileplanet/

 

These decisions for both BF3 and SWTOR are simply a continuation/worsening of EA's practices and it's something I won't support. I'd rather see them lose money on physical copies than make money on digital ones. It would've been one thing if DICE was selling the game digitally straight from them (the actual developer of the game), but its a whole 'nother thing when EA (their publisher) steps in and takes the reins on the whole thing and shits all over it.

[Steel~Sparta~]

 

It really comes down to business ethics/practices for me. EA has a history of conducting themselves in a way to only help themselves and their shareholders and not giving two shits about the consumer. Whereas Valve has a history of generosity, care, and love for the PC platform and indie developers. This recent story just adds to their long track record of support:

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/25/how-project-zomboid-was-saved-by-steam-desura-and-fileplanet/

 

These decisions for both BF3 and SWTOR are simply a continuation/worsening of EA's practices and it's something I won't support. I'd rather see them lose money on physical copies than make money on digital ones. It would've been one thing if DICE was selling the game digitally straight from them (the actual developer of the game), but its a whole 'nother thing when EA (their publisher) steps in and takes the reins on the whole thing and shits all over it.

 

I came here to say THAT ^^^

[EL_n00biachi]

Agreed with Watchman's clutter point. It's yet another service on my computer clogging up space, another login/password to remember, and more data about me ready to get hacked. Hacktivists hate EA as much as most gamers do, so they are certainly a big target.

 

I understand your point about the game being the game, regardless of distributor. But it's a convenience thing. I like having all of my eggs in one basket (if I can). What EA did was inconvenience thousands, perhaps millions, of potential Steam buyers. Not a smart move on their part, considering the already staggering amount of resentment most gamers have towards them.

 

"but why would\should a company be forced to use Steam with all the drawbacks that may be and lose all the profits"

 

First, what "drawbacks"? You have the largest community/audience of PC gamers at your disposal with Steam. All it takes is your game to be on the front page of Steam for a day or two and you'll likely go from zero to hero (as an indie dev). I don't think EA needs to worry about advertising BF3 though, pretty sure everybody who knows anything about video games has probably heard about it already. As for "lost profits" I can't imagine Valve taking any more than 30% of a sale. And considering that EA doesn't have to pay for manufacturing, shipping, or retail cuts and are still selling the game at full price, I'm sure they're already poised to make loads more than a physical copy. But EA said that wasn't good enough and that they want 100% of the profit, and STILL charge full price for it on their own service. No pre-order discounts, nothing. Instead you get a pre-order "fee" on top of the game itself. Sure, they have every right to do so as a business, that doesn't mean we should support that kind of behavior.

 

It really comes down to business ethics/practices for me. EA has a history of conducting themselves in a way to only help themselves and their shareholders and not giving two shits about the consumer. Whereas Valve has a history of generosity, care, and love for the PC platform and indie developers. This recent story just adds to their long track record of support:

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/25/how-project-zomboid-was-saved-by-steam-desura-and-fileplanet/

 

These decisions for both BF3 and SWTOR are simply a continuation/worsening of EA's practices and it's something I won't support. I'd rather see them lose money on physical copies than make money on digital ones. It would've been one thing if DICE was selling the game digitally straight from them (the actual developer of the game), but its a whole 'nother thing when EA (their publisher) steps in and takes the reins on the whole thing and shits all over it.

 

Wasnt aware you were quoting me but,seriously....Valve is not just a company...its competition....how @#$#%@ dumb are you if you have the competition sell your games!! 30% of the price when such a big company like EA can do it all alone!?.......hell i'd do it myself if Valve my competitor would take 5% of the price.

EA and the BF franchise sure as hell dont need Steam for exposure,and people that hate EA the most are usualy the one's that buy their games at launch.........

 

 

About the pc clutter,Gamersgate fe is webbased,it doesnt install anything....Steam itself is clutter with its freaking resident bs always running

 

Anyway,you're the consumer and you have power,i quit buying EA games for the pc after i bought BF2142 at launch and i dont care what im missing they are not taking my money!...........ok i got BC2 on Steam sale so what?! lol

 

Oh and dont make Valve\Steam holy,they #$%^@ sucked when they first started,hell i lost my entire account with HL2 and Deathmatch and a few other games...after that i said never again.........until Haj convinced me earlier this year that they were cool again

[Rooster90]

I was a hater of Steam for many years. I was an early adopter, a little while before HL2 came out. It bogged my computer down, the Friends system only worked half the time (if you were lucky), downloads were slow and errors/crashes ran rampant.

 

Now-a-days Steam runs as light as whipped cream on my computer. Barely uses any resources at all. I don't notice any difference when it's running and when its not. The community features are fantastic, the Store is notoriously awesome, and the Steam Overlay (with a built-in web browser) eliminates the need for me to ever alt-tab. Valve proved to us over 10 years that they were dedicated to making a service by gamers, for gamers. It's rare that downloads ever get below 1.5 MB/sec and I haven't encountered a bug or crash for nearly 3 years. It's become so much more than just a download manager. It is bar-none THE central gaming hub for PC gamers everywhere. I'm sorry you had such a poor (and extremely rare) experience by losing your account. You're quite honestly the first person I've ever heard that had something like that happen.

 

Origin makes a half-assed attempt at doing anything it does offer correctly. It's 10 years late to the game and it's nothing more than a re-skinned EA Downloads Manager, a horrible piece of software that has plagued EA's PC games for years.

 

And Valve is a developer, not a publisher. They only own games that Valve makes. EA on the other hand, is the largest gaming publisher on the planet. They own hundreds of development studios across the globe (and thus, all of their games as well). Valve is hardly a drop in the bucket for competition (money-wise). That's why this decision makes zero sense beyond them being the greedy bastards they are. They're doing this only because it benefits themselves, not the consumer. There's no price competition going on here either, Origin has the same exact prices as Steam does (hell, some of them are even more expensive), so that argument is completely moot. They didn't even think twice that maybe, just MAYBE, 30 million PC gamers love and use the Steam service every day and that they like having their products all in one convenient place. Instead, they shove a dick in their ass and tell them to beg for their games at their own store, or stores of their discretion.

 

As EA would say to the average PC consumer, "Fuck em! And fuck you too! I piss in yo faces."

[Donziboy2]

EA pretty much is the rich evil bastard child of the gaming industry.

[Rooster90]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/27/dragon-age-2-has-vanished-from-the-steam-store/

 

And so the exodus continues.

 

This is what I fear most about this whole debacle. The problem with this whole (fake) controversy that EA has created, is that EA is the largest publisher of games in the entire world. What this means is that at some point in the not so distant future, EA simply will not allow their developers' games to be sold on Steam. That is to say, a very LARGE percentage of games will no longer be available from the worlds biggest, best, and proven PC gaming service. Instead, it will create forced/unwanted "competition" in the digital market for consumers. And what that really means is that there will be no competition, since EA will be selling it directly from themselves at whatever price they choose (likely full price with nary a sale for new games in sight for years). And since they're the publisher, they have the final say on price when other digital stores want to sell their games as well.

 

This is not healthy competition. This is a funneling of the market to start a true monopoly based on greed alone. True competition would be to sell their product everywhere, but provide better service and prices at their own store. To call this competition is almost insulting to my intelligence. Valve started humbly and alone and grew based on the merits of its service. EA is starting big and wants to end with it all.

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

Dammit!

Just signed up to an alpha-trial and if I go ahead I'll need to install Origins.....

 

Dammit!

Just signed up to an alpha-trial and if I go ahead I'll need to install Origins.....

[custard~SPARTA~]

I had to instal origin for the shift2 update, works like a charm no drama and it doesn't want to start at startup

[Rooster90]

I've had to use Origin for the BF3 alpha testing. It's not HORRIBLE, but it's still pretty buggy. Had to reinstall on my C drive just to make BF3 recognize that I had it. Plus I need to create a new EA ID practically for every game.

 

It's not so much Origin itself thats bad, it's the tactics used to force players to use it. That's what gets me hot and bothered. If EA would just be honest with everybody and say "Hey, we want to dominate the PC market and take it from Valve, so we will no longer be selling games we publish on that platform." it would be a lot better than lying through their teeth and trying to deflect and hide their agenda (which they do very poorly).

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

They want their way? I don't think so. The consumer has the last word. Boycot Ea and lets see how long it takes them to go belly up. No problem for me, I won't buy anything that has EA on it anyway.

Edited July 30, 2011 by Athlon64~SPARTA~

[Gon5~SPARTA~]

BF3 dude