EA Games Probably Won't Be Origin Exclusive, Says EA Exec

[ph0b0s123]

A few issues with article as it seems very confused.

Despite high profile games like Battlefield 3 being Origin only, Uwe Intat said that EA valued competition and consumer choice too highly to start yanking its games from services like Impulse or Direct2Drive.

I hope by saing BF3 is 'Origin only' the article meant it only has Origin DRM and not that it is only available to purchase via Origin, as that would be untrue...
http://www.direct2drive.com/10557/product/Buy-Battlefield-3-Limited-Edition-Download

Of course, there's a lot more to Steam's success other than it being the only place to pick up Half-Life 2 on the PC,

I assume by 'only place to pick up', the article mean only on-line service this is available from, otherwise this would also be untrue.
http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/119757/Half-Life-2/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=half+life+2&urlrefer=search

This article seems a bit Fox Newsy to me and with this lack of acuracy really does not help this debate.

People need to work out the difference between a game being exclusive, i.e only available to be purchased from one place and a game being locked to one type of DRM (i.e Steamworks, Origin or GFWL).

Getting bored of this Origin Vs Steam argument. I don't care whether Steam is the more user friendly service. I don't want either, hence why I brought games from neither, but still get stuck with them. They are both two forms of DRM that are forced on me. At least with Secure rom used in the passed, it was there and did not bother me. Yay, progress...

So 3 games I was interested in this year. BF3 which means I have to have Origin installed. COD MW3 so now I have to have Steam. And Arkham City so I have to have GFWL. Even if I buy all three on CD. I love the freedom and choice you have with PC gaming right now.....

 

[Antari]

I have a strange feeling the board of investors is going to be calling for this guy's head shortly. Hes displaying support for the customer!

 

[Atmos Duality]

Origin is just a bid to capitalize on the nature of their product. They have a natural monopoly on their own titles. Which isn't a bad thing, it's just the way it works.

Yet from a business sense, I cannot fathom why they would go to such lengths to create such an extensive system of DRM (and don't forget the spyware rootkit you agree to install if you use Origin!) specifically to bypass the retail part of the PC market altogether, and then not force their customers to use it.

Blizzard is doing it, and it's not hurting their business significantly.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

I just wish they'd make origin OPTIONAL. I don't want it, I don't care that BF3 isn't on steam, but needing origin to play it after the privacy issues makes me not want to buy it. I'll probably only buy Skyrim this november :/

I'd rather Origin not even exist at all. It's a blatant violation of privacy.

Captcha: subject inismen

 

[Galletea]

EA putting consumers first? I doubt that very much. Very very much. Maybe they got consumer and profit mixed up. Origin doesn't sound like a good idea at all, like steam but more invasive and annoying. If it gets hacked does that mean lots of people would be at risk? I don't know, but it all looks dodgy and needless.

 

[ScrubberDucky]

Call me a typical cynical Escapist, but I call "damage control." They saw the ridiculous outcry at Origin, now they're trying to compromise so they get some money out of the ordeal.

 

[]DustArma[]

Wait. They still think they can make Origin work? Come on, the whole "We can scan your pc for whatever the fuck we like" was pretty much the final nail in thatbitches coffin.
ive it up EA, Origin is gonna fail and its gonna fail hard.

Honestly? Posts like that make me think that people are complaining not because of the privacy issue that a lot of companies are guilty of, including VALVe (fan of Valve btw), but because it's EA, it's fun and acceptable to complain about them, same would happen if this was Activision we were talking about.

Hell, let's look at Punkbuster's EULA while we are at that.

Why would an Anti-Cheat client need to collect information about the files in your PC, the only thing it needs for the heuristics is a RAM scan and possibly scanning the running processes but I see no Escapist articles and posts demonizing them despite the fact that their Anticheat quality is at best regular and has a tendency to kick and ban for false positives.

 

[BabyRaptor]

So only make the games they know for a fact are gonna sell like hotcakes lodged in an unreleased Harry Potter book set during Hermoine's bi-curious phase Origins exclusive...Yeah.