EA Gets Ready to Throw Down With Steam - UPDATED

[Double A]

This would be a good idea if people actually liked EA as a company. And the only people who are even close to liking EA are generally console-only players because EA gives even more of its crap to PC players than console-owners. This is gonna take a dive, and fast.

So, what about people who bought it, and other EA titles on Steam? Will they still be able to play it?

Not exactly looking forward to how this turns out, since EA doesn't have the same amount of care for its customers that Steam/Valve does. As evidence by how they say they have the right to ban you from playing your games if you say something naughty in their forums.

And what the hell is with EA challenging everything lately?

Because it's EA: Challenge Everything.

 

[Somebloke]

Competing with better service: fine, great.
Competing by *forcing* customers to come to you, through exclusives... Well, that just says: "Yep, we're evil, you got it allright", doesn't it?

Not that the pot and the kettle shine all that differently.

 

[ascorbius]

This is why I hate the idea of a service where you're not in charge of how you play a game.

With a DVD, you're the boss.. you're also responsible for updating it.
With Steam, you need to be authenticated against a service which has to be available (which will only be available while their business model holds up - it's done well for 10 years because of the Halflife Universe - without any real competition...)

With Origin, again you need to be authenticated against a service which will be dropped like a hot rock as soon as the EA Execs decide that it's not making as much money as they hoped.

If Steam or Origin end, how will you play your games?

Also, consider this... It occurs to me that there is a very real risk that this generation of games will disappear into the ether with no way to play them as soon as their service shuts down or if they're dropped by their service when no longer making any money.

There will be no retro gaming with this generation of PC titles.

 

[synobal]

Can't tell if they're covering their asses or if it's true that this is a Steam decision, not one of theirs. [http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20071213-1/updated-eas-crysis-2-new-alice-game-gone-from-steam/]

So the story on IRC is it happened something like this. Crytek signed a deal with EA to only support the Origin version of Crysis 2 with future updates (bug fixes) and DLC. Rather than sell a game that is gimped and won't be receiving updates or any more support from it's developer only because of the fact it's on steam. Valve decided to remove it from their catalog.

 

[Zeraki]

I seriously can't find the words to describe this stupidity accurately. They might as well have shot themselves in the face with a ten gauge.

.

Also, if Mass Effect 3 is Origin-exclusive, there will be blood.

Or at least, you know, angry spittle.

I'm sure it will be, since Mass Effect is BioWare's biggest franchise right now. If I were getting the PC version, I'd be a little murderously enraged.

 

[synobal]

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.

 

[TimeLord]

What bucket were the planning department sitting in when they thought this up?

 

[Royas]

I prefer hard copies of my games anyways. So far, I'm not impressed by EA's online efforts, they can't even get all of the things in the Sims 3 store right. It may very well be that, given a few years to mature, Origin might compete with Steam in the digital download arena, but it's not going to be because EA pulled their games from Steam. All that's going to do is torque a lot of people off, and not lead to any increase in sales.

 

[shrekfan246]

Snipping

"I think long-term you'll see we believe in reach so we will have other digital retailers for our products because we want to reach as many audiences as possible," he continued. "But at the same time if we can use exclusive content or other ideas to help grow our audience then we're going to do that because we're growing a platform."

Snipsnip

Ignoring for the moment how EA is planning to take on Steam, they clearly have absolutely no knowledge of the English language either. They are not growing a "platform", they are trying to start a digital distributor for an already existing platform. And the fact that the EA President mentioned Halo: Reach and Uncharted 3 as platform exclusives just increasingly shows how apparently oblivious he is to the meaning of the term. Imagine if PSN or XBLA had to compete with another digital distributor for their consoles? How stupid would everyone think that is?

EDIT: Unless he's trying to imply that starting another program for a few exclusive titles means growing the PC gaming market, which in itself is also stupid.

 

[Timbydude]

You know, EA, you could just try to make a better digital distribution service, instead of simply trying to gimp the other ones. There's a LOT of stuff that Steam hasn't done yet; wouldn't it be a little smarter to start there?

 

[Genixma]

I can see it now!
"Steam, everything your mother hates!"

This is going to be interesting.

 

[thejackyl]

And what the hell is with EA challenging everything lately?

Well, that was their slogan a few years back. Anyways, I don't think it was a good move anyways, perhaps having some sort of exclusive for buying it via Origin, but removing it from Steam (unless it's still playable) is a good way to piss off your consumer base. If it's still playable, it's not as bad. But I doubt anyone wants to install a second Steam-like client JUST for EA games. I know I don't, but most EA games I buy I get on console, since any non-FPS game plays better on console (for me at least)

 

[synobal]

It appears that EA's plan was to sell an inferior version with no developer support on Steam (making steam look bad) and to have Crytek only support the Origin version of the game with future DLC and updates. Valve wasn't having any of that so they pulled Crysis 2 from the Steam store.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Well, I guess that means I won't be getting anymore EA games.

Also:

Who else thinks LulzSec is gonna attack Origin the moment it goes live?

 

[blindthrall]

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

Pretty much this.

Look on the bright side. Maybe lulzers will hack Origin and leave everything else be.

 

[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.

 

[Katana314]

According to the statement from EA, EA had nothing to do with its removal:

"It's unfortunate that Steam has removed Crysis 2 from their service. This was not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA.

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. Unfortunately, Crytek has an agreement with another download service which violates the new rules from Steam and resulted in its expulsion of Crysis 2 from Steam.

Crysis 2 continues to be available on several other download services including Origin.com."

I have some vague ideas about what sort of agreement could be violated. Speaking ludicrously;
"We want to make our game only playable on weekends, to drive up the demand."
"What? That's bullshit. If you're doing that, we're not selling it. We don't sell artificially-limiting games."
"Fine. I'll make my own store, and it'll be TWICE as awesome!"

I'll wait and see if EA does any good with this. We all know more likely than not, it'll fail outright due to them expecting $60 prices for every single game to always work.

 

[Azhrarn-101]

And what the hell is with EA challenging everything lately?

Well, that was their slogan a few years back. Anyways, I don't think it was a good move anyways, perhaps having some sort of exclusive for buying it via Origin, but removing it from Steam (unless it's still playable) is a good way to piss off your consumer base. If it's still playable, it's not as bad. But I doubt anyone wants to install a second Steam-like client JUST for EA games. I know I don't, but most EA games I buy I get on console, since any non-FPS game plays better on console (for me at least)

The game is still playable (and I assume downloadable) if you bought it from Steam prior to its removal.

The only problem I have with this EA and Steam conflict is the fact that I am not in a country supported by Direct2Drive and Impulse has region locked all it's EA content to the US and Canada only, in other words, I can forget getting any digitally distributed EA games from now on unless I buy it from Origin (which I must add, is already up, it just replaced the EA downloader, the client looks pretty slick).

 

[Sartan0]

Be careful guys. I bet they pull the whole small print on the box trick for ME3. (If you buy it from the store you still have to run it on their service.)

As to their service. I have no use for it. Steam, Impulse and GoG's is more then enough.