EA Gets Ready to Throw Down With Steam - UPDATED

[InevitableFate]

Once again, I'll repeat myself:

"In the case of Star Wars we're trying to build an audience for Origin. And it's also an opportunity for us to better manage the downloads and how we bring people over from the beta and that sort of thing. For a lot of reasons it made sense for an MMO, which is a highly complex deployment,"

No it does not make sense. Any MMOG planning to go up against WoW needs to be easily available. Limiting platform is insensible.

A far wiser move would be to make Origin a necessary [and restrained!] inclusion in The Old Republic, as a centralised updating platform, but still sell it elsewhere.

They'd still get all the Origin users but additionally a bunch of people from Steam.

They do this in some cases already as far as I know, with the EA Download Manager.

 

[Kataskopo]

I find myself fearing this might work for EA. I mean, I dislike EA as much as the next guy, but if they actually design a good platform, non-intrusive, with good titles and incredible sales like in Steam, it may actually work.

And this could even improve Steam, with good 'ol competition.

 

[Woodsey]

I agree, it makes no sense. Downloading The Witcher 2 through Steam was made to be less appealing by CDP (since GOG got the pre-load) and yet that's still on there. This is very bizaree.

I can't see why they'd outright lie when Valve can prove them wrong in a matter of seconds, but then I can't see why Valve would do this, and only to Crysis 2.

Well all we have to do is wait a day to find out if EA is telling the truth or like you believe they are lying. If valve does not contridict them then we will know it was them who pulled the game and nothing to do with EA. Its not exactly very far fetched to believe that valve is the one who pulled the game.

"I can't see why they'd outright lie"

"you believe they are lying"

Anyway, it would seem silly to do something after-the-fact, seemingly pull just one game, and then lost the money from it.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

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

inorite? But maybe this a good thing. Competition means better quality products for customers after all. Well, they better at least match steams quality anyway or, yes, they will tank.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Well, any hope of me playing Mass Effect 3 on Steam just vanished.
I'll settle with...not playing it at all.

Because honestly; Fuck EA. This is their stepping stone to "Always online DRM".
That's it. It's the only reason they would do something like this, because the notion of EA competing with Steam is quite frankly laughable.

 

[Alucard788]

*hysterical laughter*

If this were any other company but EA I'd be cheering them on...but I'm not sure that this is going to end well for us gamers.

Anyone want to hedge bets on how long it will take for EA to come crawling back to Steam?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

but if they actually design a good platform, non-intrusive, with good titles and incredible sales like in Steam,

If they do that, I'll believe Microsoft want to help PC gaming, the Wii U isn't just an Ipad and Bobby Kotick has played WoW for more than one session.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Good luck fighting Steam. I'd be nice to have to rely on the generosity of Steam to not just close up shop and make your games worthless but It's going to be hard to take on the juggernaut that is Steam.

 

[Worgen]

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

inorite? But maybe this a good thing. Competition means better quality products for customers after all. Well, they better at least match steams quality anyway or, yes, they will tank.

the thing is that we already have competition, we have impulse and direct 2 drive, not to mention brick and morter, chances are this will only be an ea game store so its not really competition, its just EA's baby and it will just be an annoyance for people who want to play a game by ea, besides, if microsoft cant make a good online service like steam I have doubts as to ea being able to, its not exactly easy

 

[Undead Dragon King]

Well, any hope of me playing Mass Effect 3 on Steam just vanished.
I'll settle with...not playing it at all.

I highly doubt that. As much as EA might like its new pet project, they wouldn't let the conclusion to one of its flagship serieses be exclusive to Origin. And Valve would be idiotic to NOT have Mass Effect 3 on Steam.

 

[C14N]

Iono, competition is good but only as long as EA keep their games on Steam too. Otherwise it's just a big inconvenience. Don't EA already allow downloads of their games with some other software?

 

[headshotcatcher]

And what the hell is with EA challenging everything lately?

I'm sure there is a lame EA Sports "Challenge Everything" joke I could put in there, but I'm not clever enough.

Also, Origin will tank, Crysis 2 probably just blew a few sales with the decision for it not to be on Steam.

It's actually E A Sports, it's in the game!, not Challenge Everything (I think that's the old EA slogan, it was in Battlefield 1942 at least )

 

[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.

 

[Vrach]

So... now that it's become known that it's Valve chasing exclusivity and not EA, I wonder, how many people here are gonna ***** at Valve like they did at EA?

Personal guess? Not many. Hypocrites, ho!

 

[synobal]

Um Valve didn't kick them out chasing exclusivity try reading the thread a little.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Well, any hope of me playing Mass Effect 3 on Steam just vanished.
I'll settle with...not playing it at all.

I highly doubt that. As much as EA might like its new pet project, they wouldn't let the conclusion to one of its flagship serieses be exclusive to Origin. And Valve would be idiotic to NOT have Mass Effect 3 on Steam.

Taken from a purely-pragmatic point of view: Exclusives are exactly what EA needs to launch Origin.
What incentive do I have to play on EA's Origin when I can get it somewhere else without their bullshit attached to it? I can practically guarantee that it will be much more intrusive than Steamworks (based on EA's previous attempts at enforcing draconian DRM).

Also, it might not be up to Valve. EA owns the rights for licensing their published games. Unless they're already locked into a contract with Steam (with the appropriate inescapable clauses), they can choose who does and does not get to market their game on a First Sale Basis.

I agree that from a purely economic standpoint that EA should not limit sales to their new system, but at the same time they have just created their own conflict of interest in doing so, at least in comparison to Steam.

They may make an exception for Mass Effect 3, but certainly not for all of their future titles afterwards.

Perhaps a more appropriate comparison could be made to Blizzard's Battlenet 2.0, which sounds functionally similar to Origin.

 

[let's rock]

Brink already tried compeating with an established valve product. In the end, it came nowhere near as awsome as TF2. So what makes EA think this will do any better against steam?

 

[coldfrog]

The fact that EA doesn't wish to discuss Steam's required agreements makes me want to side with Steam. I hate these sorts of shoddy press releases where they give just enough information to make it sound like they're in the right. Come on guys, until you let us know WHY you conflicted with Steam's agreement, it really speaks poorly about you. And even if releasing these details causes some blame for you, at least do it so we can say you handled it without deception. I'd rather hear "We nullified the contract, but it was a business decision" than "We're going to be just vague enough to make you think it's all Steam's fault".

However, whatever the case may be, I'd love to see a modern Digital Distribution system that will be able to compete with Steam. You know, one that isn't utter garbage [http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/].

 

[squidbuddy99]

Let's see, Steam, which is owned by Valve, a superb gaming company with outstanding customer support and a nearly flawless library of games, has near-constant sales, promotes the indie developers, and is safe and reliable.

If EA thinks it stands a chance against the company that made perhaps one the greatest single-player FPS' ever made, then every person in that company deserves a gold-plated Darwin award before they are annihilated by their own stupidity.

 

[Shifty Tortoise]

Well, this can only go horribly wrong for EA, there missing out on millions of possible customers. Doesn't help that Valve is being kind of a dick though... Surely by their own rules they should drop every game that appears on GoG as well?

If you think real hard you will see why this fact makes EA's arguement a lie. Or at least a twisted truth. There are tons of other games on GOG and D2D and steam and nobody has had a problem until now. Think.

Ah ha, it's all so clear now, nearly had me fooled there EA... You tricky bastards