EA Gets Ready to Throw Down With Steam - UPDATED

[The Random One]

I can't see EA doing better than Valve, but I could certainly see Microsoft, a company with decades' worth of experience with software and internet as well as two midly to highly succesful consoles under its belt, providing a service that tackles Steam to the ground; and yet GFW is by all reports a pile of manure. Therefore, by my unflappable logic, if Microsoft should be able to outdo Valve and couldn't, EA shouldn't be able to outdo Valve and therefore will.

 

[Superior Mind]

Not keen. Digital distribution services should earn customers because of a good service, not exclusivity. If you can only get certain games by subscribing to certain services you'll find yourself handing out your personal and credit card information everywhere - and recent events have proven that to be far from a good idea.

Also I don't like a whole bunch of rubbish fucking up my system and getting in the way of me playing my game anyway. EA Download Manager, Games for Windows Live, Rockstar Social Club, uPlay, there are all things I like to avoid. Steam is fine, it's one service, it does its job, I don't want any more.

Nice try EA but I will be giving Origin a wide berth. If you constantly try to push it on me through your titles then I'm just going to stop buying them, sorry.

 

[dallan262]

i would have agreed timed exclusives for their download service but not letting them on any other service such as Steam is moronic at best.

 

[General Vengeance]

I don't understand why they are doing this. Why do they want people to use this service?

Greed

Don't forget folks,
The ticker symbol for Electronic Arts is ERTS and it is traded on the Nasdaq.

 

[Pinstar]

Regardless of the fact that Crysis 2 was taken off steam by Valve's hand, I still am wary of EA. They have lost any and all goodwill on me due to securerom. I shop at Steam or GoG for my electronic downloads.

 

[Pyrokinesis]

... Oook, So Basically Steam is imposing some "mysterious business Terms" That i can only presume mean "You can only offer it here". EA says, hell no, were gona make it so that its only offered over "here" now on a new program no one has heard of yet and make more money on our own... whut?

Thats like saying "A movie theater tells me I cant sell my movie to a different movie theater company so.. im just gona setup a projector in my garage and sell tickets there, its got great publicity over your 'big theater'"

Sounds like a case of "Oh yea, well fine ill make my own X, I dont need you". We all know how well those turn out. The sad part is alot of games go un-heard of because they are not on steam, and vise versa alot of small games get big publicity because they are on steam. You may not like their style but theyll compensate you with the extra publicity, which will intern increase sales, alot more than just rag-tagging your own program no-one knows of.


-Edit
Also on another note. Why is EA doing so Well at pissing off its customers? Its "Anti-renting system" more formerly know as "multiplayer passes" Is just a kick in the nuts to its customers. Alot of its games are starting to go Down hill or already were downhill from the start (Mass Effect not included bioware got that one right so far as I can tell) Its developments appear to be either stalling or hitting squeal-itus. And alot of their squeals are pissing of their devoted fans (yes im referring to dragon age.) In all honesty from my view, EA isnt looking to hot.

 

[Waaghpowa]

1. Using their CD key on steam and uploading it via Origin.
2. Continue playing the unsupported version. (there might be a work around via messing with the steamapps files when a patch gets released on origin, i dont know)
3. Consider this a gigantic breach of trust and the final nail in the coffin for loyalty with EA

I've been skimming the Mycrysis forums about this, and apparently the Steam version will still be supported.

 

[Watchmacallit]

Oh for fuck sakes. I already have to put up with Steam's shit and now Origin...Everyday I play a game on the PC and Steam fucks up some how kills part of my soul...Now it can die twice as quick. Thank you Valve, thank you EA.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Why does EA all of a sudden feel the need to challenge everything lately. Why do they feel they need to be the best at everything. They want Star Wars:The Old Republic to beat World of Warcraft, they want Battlefield to beat Call of Duty and now they are going after Steam.

But yeah, this won't fly. It's most likely going to fail horribly.

 

[Waaghpowa]

... Oook, So Basically Steam is imposing some "mysterious business Terms" That i can only presume mean "You can only offer it here".

That isn't it at all, Crysis 2 was being distributed on several other digital services such as Impulse, the reason for removal was because Crytek/EA was no longer going to support the steam version in the hopes of moving people over the Origin. That got reversed pretty quick seeing as the Mycrysis forums are claiming the the steam version will still be supported with future patching etc.

From the forums...

Anyways an update @everyone else, I just got off the phone with EA support. Crysis 2 will still receive product support on Steam. Meaning you will still get any future updates and all the rest. It just means that Crysis 2 will no longer be sold on Steam. That's all. Everything else is still the same.

 

[synobal]

The huge difference between EA and Valve is EA is a publicly traded corporation that deals exclusively in publishing games. Essentially their entire job is marketing and nothing more. Their goal is to make the most money for their share holders and they have no need to even deal with video games beyond selling them. I imagine there are plenty of people in EA who have never dealt with video games beyond figuring out how to sell them.

Valve is a company of gamers for gamers, that sells games digitally. They didn't sell out and become publicly traded after the success of the Orange box or Portal 2. Gaben is in touch with the PC gaming community and knows what we want. Can anyone even name EA games CEO off the top of their head? I sure as hell can. EA is just a faceless soulless corporation. We have enough of those for my liking.

 

[Razzigyrl]

Considering the several rants I've heard about regarding EA's customer disservice, this is likely a terrible idea. But on the bright side, perhaps miserable failure will force them to fix issues they already have rather than adding newer, more exciting mistakes and glitches. One can hope, right?

 

[Azaraxzealot]

I think perhaps 'grow our audience' might be code for 'grow our wallet'.

I'm not signing up to another bloody digital distribution service just because EA wants to grab every last penny they can.

and you think valve doesn't with steam? i know that people like to look at EA and Activision as big "evil" corporations, but this is someone just trying to challeng Valve's monopoly. I don't know why everyone looks at them as some sort of folk hero when they're SWIMMING in cash.

Valve don't have a monopoly. Unless you're talking about TF2, Portal and their own titles which as far as I know you can only download through Steam. Otherwise, last time I checked Direct2Drive and GameTree were all operating fine. The reason Valve have such a high market share and everyone's love in the digital distribution market, which I think is what you were getting at, is that Steam does its job, is not intrusive, and they so regularly do discounts on most titles that you rarely have to pay full price beyond release week. It's a system that works.

EA wanting to set up their own digital downloads is just the same as Activision wanting to find a way to get a cut of Xbox Live's monthly fees for playing CoD. They don't like the idea of anyone making any money out of their products that they themselves could be making, so they want to mess with a system that works perfectly fine and force people to do things their way, which will probably be far less pleasant in its user friendliness.

valve DOES have a monopoly on the digital distribution side of sales when it comes to PC games. and it's nice how if EA does it then they're a bunch of money-grubbing soulless baby-eaters, but if valve wants to keep prices of their games at 49.99 forever they're still considered the paragons of the gaming industry...

 

[RepeatAfterMe]

No. Valve will remain god of the PC gaming world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Q7b-vHY3Q

 

[AntonicKnight]

EA is sending itself on a suicide mission.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

valve DOES have a monopoly on the digital distribution side of sales when it comes to PC games. and it's nice how if EA does it then they're a bunch of money-grubbing soulless baby-eaters, but if valve wants to keep prices of their games at 49.99 forever they're still considered the paragons of the gaming industry...

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. You can buy and download PC games from Direct2Drive, GOG, GamersGate. Valve most definitely does not have a 'monopoly'. And since when do they keep their prices at 49.99 forever? Steam's reputation is literally built on the fact that Valve regularly offers discounts on just about everything.

 

[synobal]

valve DOES have a monopoly on the digital distribution side of sales when it comes to PC games. and it's nice how if EA does it then they're a bunch of money-grubbing soulless baby-eaters, but if valve wants to keep prices of their games at 49.99 forever they're still considered the paragons of the gaming industry...

So what's Amazon's download service, Impulse, GOG, Direct 2 Drive Gamersgate and a handful of other digital distribution to Valve if not competition? Maybe they are all in some sort of secret cabal and Gabe Newell is the it's Leader, they all dance around their cauldron of video games and hexing anyone else who tries to launch their own service?

 

[Comma-Kazie]

If this interferes with the release of ME3 I will be MOST unhappy.