EA Gets Ready to Throw Down With Steam - UPDATED

[Alade]

Usually I'd be skeptical but EA has a lot of funds at their disposal, they might be able to pull this off. But, if they do want to win, they're gonna have to use very dirty moves on Valve while still satisfying their customers (and third part supporters) however they can.

 

[Krantos]

Unlike a lot of people, I actually see this as a probable success. Not because EA is better than Valve or anything, but because D2D is the new retail for PC games. I fully expect PC games to disappear from store shelves in the next 10 years, with all sales being done via Download.

This has the bonus perk that most new releases can be pre-loaded, so you don't even have to go to the store on release day.

 

[Irridium]

From The Origin Help section [http://help.origin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2085/kw/activation%20limit]

QUESTION
I've received an error message on Origin, what does the error mean?
ANSWER
You may receive one of the following error messages if you have reached the maximum amount of times your game can be downloaded through Origin:
For security reasons, you are allowed # concurrently active licenses. This limit has been reached. Please wait until one of the other licenses auto-expires, then try again.
License response error: '78008,Max machine lifetime entitlement met:#
Error: 10000:78008
Every time the download button is clicked, a download count will be added to your lifetime total. If you have installed your game via Origin on more than three computers within a ten day period, you will need to wait until the first installation expires.
Note: Re-installing your operating system, or interrupting a current download, will count as a new computer installation.
If you have reached your download limit, click Contact Us and include your account name, the title of the file or game you are downloading, and a brief description of the issue.

So if you stop a game while it's downloading, you've used up one activation if you do this 3 times with in ten days of each other you have to wait at least ten days to finish downloading your games.

That's nuts if you ask me. I've stopped downloading huge games many times on steam because I wanted to stream a movie or download a patch for WoW or what ever.

And already Origin is inferior to Steam.

One reason I accept Steam is because I can download my stuff whenever I want, however my times I want, no matter what(well, maybe not when Steam's having one if its "fuck you" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/7827-Stolen-Pixels-211-This-is-Not-Funny] moments).

But apart from those times, there's no limit to how much I can download, or when I can download. I'm in control.

Good god EA, I really shouldn't be surprised at this, but just... god dammit. There is no reason for this. Steam doesn't need to do this, and has a great way of stopping it. Its called not letting one account be signed in from different locations at the same time. This makes sure only the owner can play.

Once again, EA shows how little it trusts its customers. And they expect us to trust them and let this program on our PC's?

Fuck you EA.

 

['Record Stops.']

Going against Steam is like fighting a lion.


Someone will do it, but will get ripped to shreads...

Depends on what you bring into the fight.

Valve and Steam are carrying in no short order, Tengen Topper Gurren Lagann, the BFG-9000, and several hundred tons of WIN-BOMBS.

EA has a tiny pistol with no ammo, a t-shirt with the words," Ful O' Fail" and a bladeless knife. Meaning just a wooden handle.

Oh, and Valve also has a portal gun.

So yes, EA IS boned.

 

[MazeMinion]

Origin is going to bomb.

Many Steam users (and PC gamers) do not want to download a mediocre version of Steam just to play EA games.

 

[Avaloner]

I'm amused by all those people claiming that the Monopoly is bad, first off yes, usual a monopoly will turn out to be bad, raising prices for everything and providing less for more money.

But honestly how long is Steam already the dominating force in the digital distribution market?
I myself only use it since a year or something, but the sales, the service and the wide range of market, as well as the fact that they include indie titles makes it so great.

Even if Steam will ever be just grow fat and lazy and ask for ridiculous prices, than I'm sure they will loose the fan support and people will just go back to retail and Stores from the developers(Ea Store..heh, but I'm not seeing this happening, steam has proven to be a reliable service, with great deals, great prices and a stable platform.

So yes I hope this ship sinks, I don't want all the developers having their own Stores and programs and should this ever end badly, we still have game Shops or Amazon for retail games.

 

[Antari]

Thanks EA but I already have Steam, if you want to make some money put it on there. And atleast I can trust Valve to be somewhat honest about the way they do things.

Awesome, does what I was going to rant on, also, where did you get your avatar?

Had to make it myself as avatars didn't really exist back when the company was alive. Its the Intellivision Running man. A very early version of Mario depending on how you look at it. All the people on the Intellivision looked like that.

 

[INF1NIT3 D00M]

EA can suck my balls, I'm buying a boxed copy of The Old Republic.
I've spent quite a bit of money on Valve's Steam service, and I am NOT going to sign up for another download service for ONE game. I'll just stick my .exe shortcut in my steam library and pretend there's only one download service out there.

 

[thefire]

I really hope it dies before battlefield 3 comes out, I want that on steam.

 

[notimeforlulz]

It's probably got a lot to do with steam being a soaked game market. There are a large number of games on steam that come up next to EA's titles and are better than EA's titles. EA simply doesn't want to compete with it's competitors at the digital distribution level. What this move of theirs will do is cause the other major publishes to create their own steam clients that allow them to exclusively release their titles there. Segmented the digital distribution platform so that the games and brands from different publishers aren't so easily comparable. If EA could own the retailers, and only let their own games be stocked, they would. This is simply a step in that direction. This strategy however depends upon there being a large install base for their store. And with their line up this year, it's a really good time to try it.

That being said. I will not be buying battlefield 3 if it isn't available on steam. And I love me some battlefield.

 

[Dys]

Everyone seems to think this is going to fail....I don't see how or why.

Steam may be the biggest service, but it's horribly flawed and generally way overpriced, it has apparently has restrictive limits on what developers can release (hence crysis being pulled). Assuming EA aren't flat out retarded, there service will succeed, at least as a medium for their own titles...If battlefield 3/the old republic/the sims/any of EAs other massive franchises are origin locked a lot of people will get origin.

 

[Dys]

Everyone seems to think this is going to fail....I don't see how or why.

Steam may be the biggest service, but it's horribly flawed and generally way overpriced, it has apparently has restrictive limits on what developers can release (hence crysis being pulled). Assuming EA aren't flat out retarded, there service will succeed, at least as a medium for their own titles...If battlefield 3/the old republic/the sims/any of EAs other massive franchises are origin locked a lot of people will get origin.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

"Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers hoping to sell content on that service - many of which are not imposed by other online game services."

Way to bury the lead.

The is the problem specific to EA or is Steam the new evil empire we get to shake our tiny internet fists about?

Quick does someone have a copy of the "business terms"?

 

[drosalion]

On the SWTOR forums a dev posted about Origin/TOR, saying that you will NOT need Origin installed to run, play, update TOR. You will only need Origin if you want to purchase the game online as it is the sole online distributer for TOR. I would have thought the mmo would have been the 1 game that WOULD require you to have Origin to update etc, so if you dont need it to play TOR, then i cant see you needing it to play ME3, BF3, etc.

Here's the quote for those interested explaining it a little bit more:

------------------------

"No, you won't.

While Origin will be the exclusive digital retailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic (in other words, if you want to buy it online and download it, you?ll do so through Origin) that does not mean that Origin is required for you to access or play The Old Republic.

Origin is a digital storefront, and the desktop application is there to give you quick access to Origin exclusives and deals.

However, you won?t need to launch the Origin application to run The Old Republic, nor will you patch the game via Origin. Once the game is on your hard disk, you?ll be connecting to our servers to patch and launch the game, and Origin does not have to be running to do that.

To answer another question - boxed versions of the game will include the client on DVD(s)."

------------------------

And another semi-related post:


"The Origin desktop application does not need to be launched to play The Old Republic.

However, if you want to purchase and download the game digitally, you'll need to do that via Origin. As you can see if you visit Origin today, purchasing a title there doesn't require you to download the Origin desktop application. You might also notice if you look hard enough that Origin ships physical products (ie boxes) as well as digital ones.

(Yes, you'll still be able to purchase SWTOR at a local retailer.)"

 

[Gametek]

Everyone seems to think this is going to fail....I don't see how or why.

Steam may be the biggest service, but it's horribly flawed and generally way overpriced, it has apparently has restrictive limits on what developers can release (hence crysis being pulled). Assuming EA aren't flat out retarded, there service will succeed, at least as a medium for their own titles...If battlefield 3/the old republic/the sims/any of EAs other massive franchises are origin locked a lot of people will get origin.

Steam can be flawed all you like, but it's not so overpriced as you say. And for the restrictive limits of what Valve publish n it, Crysis 2 is the very first game they are pulling out. The story that Valve did so because the game signed up is distribution with another online down loader is fishy, as Steam is not the only one, and many other posses on their list the AAA game.

And, Ea is being a dick with is (PC) customer from so long that it's like they are trying to aid the piracy, let's forgot their commercial campaign [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2794-An-Open-Letter-to-EA-Marketing], the fact that they don't sale you game but license -that they *have* the right to take away from me-, and usually look their customer as dork [want to see my inbox on the Ea forum? Well, you can't because I was banned because I start modding Dead Space 2!], on the Origin term of use there is politely write that blocking the download of the game more than 3 time in a time laps of ten day end up wasting a license for the game.

 

[th155]

I checked out the Origin site.

All of the games they are featuring have horrible prices - $80. A quick browsing of the steam store shows those same games at $40 or $50, so no, Origin is not cheaper than Steam.

Also, i hated the UI of the online store, it looked like it was discouraging me from buying the games, with tiny prices and tiny spaces for each game. Compare it to the Steam store, where we say HUGE displays for the game of the day/week/month and a similarly HUGE box with the price of the game, making it feel that much more like they are not trying to hide something. Steam also has a much more chaotic UI, which makes it feel like i'm not shopping from a catalogue (like what Origin looks like to me), but from something that is more friendly, and more personally tailored to me, even though it isn't.

 

[infohippie]

And boycotting their digital sales because they don't like the business getting monopolised?Cmon you're gonna miss out on awesome games

No, we're going to miss out on EA games. Generally mediocre, with the occasional flash of inspiration that quickly gets buried under too-expensive DLC and extremely poor customer service. And shoehorned-in mechanics that nobody likes - thermal clips for instance.
I'll buy ME3 in a bricks-n-mortar store because I want to see the end of Commander Shepard's story, but I don't plan on buying any EA game that requires me to use Origin.

[sub]Boycotting a big name publisher isn't all that hard - I've been ignoring all of Ubisoft's releases for a long time now and I'm more than willing to do the same to EA. There's plenty of great indie games to buy on Steam, after all.[/sub]

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Wait a sec, does that mean people who bought Crysis 2 on Steam don't have it anymore?

Very good question...will have to wait till after work to go home and find out :-\ I doubt though they would take it away from owners; only new purchases are likely to be no longer available.

Very strange behaviour Valve.

I won't switch to another digital distribution platform with over 300 titles in my steam library. I have one or two on D2D and a handful on GOG but Steam is my first stop. I know I'll be getting Old Republic and ME3, if they're not available on Steam then I guess I'll have to go elsewhere...maybe just get a boxed copy. Don't think I can deal with another login/launcher/community.

Addendum: Remoted into my home PC from work, Crysis 2 still shows up and after a brief bit of funny business, started fine (although my remote control app couldn't display the actual accelerated images). No idea what it would mean if it was owned but not installed. I would maintain above guess however. Steam won't take games away from owners, just remove it from store front.

 

[Bobbity]

Seems to me like keeping TOR exclusive to Origin will hurt EA more than it helps it. Sure, they attract customers to their new service, but they lose many more customers from amongst the millions who frequently log onto Steam and try out the new recommended games.

 

[mrF00bar]

in related news, ea decides to be totally retarded and do the stupidest thing it can think of

you know cause if there is one thing pc gamers love its having to have a bunch of background programs open to run their games library

You took the words right out of my mouth.