EA Gets Ready to Throw Down With Steam - UPDATED

[Canid117]

Sorry EA but I trust valve more than you.

 

[moose_man]

Wait, what about Bioware games!? Do I have to download this Origin shit to play Bioware games?!

For future games most likely.

Oh God.

OH GOD.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[archvile93]

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah... this idea's gonna tank. And tank horribly. They'll wind up going back to Steam once Origin fails miserably.

The problem is it won't fail. If horrible things like GFWL still exist I can't imagine this will die.

If Origins winds up costing EA more money than they're making from it: they'll cut it. Keep in mind: EA is a corporation, and corporations are ALL about money, no exceptions.

I have my doubts, but I really hope you're right. I can already tell this is going to be bad, and I don't want this starting a trend where every game company has to have its own mandatory online distribution and DRM system. If i have top have 18 of those things running on my system at once to play my games I may just have to get a 360 and let MS bleed me dry with a gold membership so I can play the other half of the games I buy.

Edit: oops wrong quote, sorry...okay there we go

 

[synobal]

I'll wait to see if Origin actually works. Considering that this is EA, I'm not expecting it too.

As of right now it's just a rebranded reskinned version of EADM with some tacked on social networking features. Their DRM and download system works the same.

 

[WonderWillard]

Why all the hate for EA and Origin? I used it to get my free copy of Mass Effect 2 for the PC, from Bioware's sequel celebration with Dragon Age 2, and it seems to work fine for me. I don't use it or Steam too often though, so I can't say too much.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

As someone who has fought tooth and nail with the EA download manager for years via The Sims 3. I would highly advise against even going near this thing

It will probably make kittens explode as a random bug.

 

[aashell13]

"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," the company explained. [...] 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."

Wait. So Valve kicked Crysis 2 off steam because crytek made it available on other digital distribution platforms? Did I read that right?

Because if so, this is the first major misstep which I can recall valve making with steam. Ejecting a product from your service because the producer decided to make it available somewhere else also can't be good business, can it?

 

[The Sane]

"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," the company explained. [...] 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."

Wait. So Valve kicked Crysis 2 off steam because crytek made it available on other digital distribution platforms? Did I read that right?

Because if so, this is the first major misstep which I can recall valve making with steam. Ejecting a product from your service because the producer decided to make it available somewhere else also can't be good business, can it?

Of the little information I've seen on the subject, it seems Valve kicked Crisis 2 off because EA refused to supply Steam any game patches, opting for a separate downloader only.


Or something.... ?

 

[Sean Strife]

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah... this idea's gonna tank. And tank horribly. They'll wind up going back to Steam once Origin fails miserably.

The problem is it won't fail. If horrible things like GFWL still exist I can't imagine this will die.

If Origins winds up costing EA more money than they're making from it: they'll cut it. Keep in mind: EA is a corporation, and corporations are ALL about money, no exceptions.

I have my doubts, but I really hope you're right. I can already tell this is going to be bad, and I don't want this starting a trend where every game company has to have its own mandatory online distribution and DRM system. If i have top have 18 of those things running on my system at once to play my games I may just have to get a 360 and let MS bleed me dry with a gold membership so I can play the other half of the games I buy.

Edit: oops wrong quote, sorry...okay there we go

I pride myself in having an above-average understanding of how the corporate and marketing minds work. I give it a year tops, and if Origins winds up costing them too much money, they'll cut it.

 

[aashell13]

Of the little information I've seen on the subject, it seems Valve kicked Crisis 2 off because EA refused to supply Steam any game patches, opting for a separate downloader only.


Or something.... ?

Ok, that makes more sense. Still, I find it curious that EA would say that this is "...not the result of any action by EA" if it was an EA decision to discontinue support for the steam version which prompted the game's removal.

 

[jpoon]

Can't wait to see this one flop, even though I don't use steam.

 

[Aprilgold]

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?

 

[Atmos Duality]

And Blizzard is wondering why most of South Korea is still sticking with the original Starcraft...

To be fair, they did come in and try to muscle out their national sport.
Even if it was their copyright software, it was still bound to piss off everyone and everything that was already established.
Quite an odd situation when you think about it.

Despite EA's idiotic sales tactics, the only thing that they're concerned about is the bottom line. That's why they launched Origin in the first place- they want a bigger cut of distributor prices than what they were getting for their games on Steam. However, Origin is next to unknown compared to Steam, and limiting hot games to it would hurt sales. And a comparatively smaller cut of the sales is better than no sales at all.

Believe me, I know their business strategy. For the longest time, Publishers have held a natural monopoly on their product, but have been held back by restraints of distribution. The obvious long term strategy, to correct this, would be to cut the middleman out entirely.
Of course, now that we're at that point, we're looking at invasive DRM and increasingly absurd degrees of authentication.

The problem now, is that Steam provides better service and uses a less bullshit form of DRM.
To compete with Steam, they literally have to either pull exclusivity deals, or price competitively, and I'm sure you can guess which one they aren't likely to do.
They can "compete" with Steam, but only as long as their product remains in sufficiently high demand.

I agree that EA might make an exception to Mass Effect 3's exclusivity, and its odds are better than many people think. EA is running exclusive download disribution rights on The Old Republic as a field test for how effective it can be. This is very risky, as MMO sales and subscription fees literally keep the game alive. EA has dumped more money into this game than any other of its titles, so it might be killing TOR before it even began with this tactic. Perhaps in order to save such an enormous investment they'll be forced to crawl back to Steam for increased ranges of sales. At least they'll still get the subscription fees. And if it fails, Mass Effect 3 will be up on Steam.

*snip*

In the end, it comes down to how well TOR will do on Origin.

You are dead on correct about TOR being the make-or-break point for EA. That much I have known for a while now. This is where EA might establish itself as a genuine competitor against Blizzard (rather than Steam) directly, or die trying.
If TOR fails to take off as they hope, (even if they only break even) expect heads to roll at EA. Many, many heads. Especially at Bioware.

Slightly Tangential: EA is currently fighting a prolonged war against the two-headed beast that is Activision-Blizzard. TOR on one hand (against WoW), and Battlefield/Medal of Honor on the other (against Call of Duty).

The only remaining thought I have here is, "How will EA respond to Blizzard's Titan after TOR?"
Blizzard is already a step ahead of them there and TOR isn't even out yet...
There are a few possibilities to consider, but my are the consequences ever so dire for each of them.

 

[Dragonborne88]

Wait. So Valve kicked Crysis 2 off steam because crytek made it available on other digital distribution platforms? Did I read that right?

Because if so, this is the first major misstep which I can recall valve making with steam. Ejecting a product from your service because the producer decided to make it available somewhere else also can't be good business, can it?

Uh, I doubt thats the story. At all.

They sell a lot of games on STEAM that are available on other platforms, like GoG, and Impulse. They still have EA games on the store too, it's just the recent titles they are removing. And, note, that Valve have refused service in the past before if they aren't given the rights to have patches and whatnot available, which is why they don't support their console releases. They don't want to have to charge for the packs and content generally.

Story I hear is that Crytek has an exclusive deal with EA that only allows patches through Origin, which doesn't really surprise me.

Ok, that makes more sense. Still, I find it curious that EA would say that this is "...not the result of any action by EA" if it was an EA decision to discontinue support for the steam version which prompted the game's removal.

Welcome to the corporate world, where ever word said is said to make you look good, and every other word is a lie to make you look good.

 

[aashell13]

Why all the hate for EA and Origin? I used it to get my free copy of Mass Effect 2 for the PC, from Bioware's sequel celebration with Dragon Age 2, and it seems to work fine for me. I don't use it or Steam too often though, so I can't say too much.

I suspect the hate for EA in general and origin specifically stems from EA's history of building notoriously half-assed online systems and then making their use mandatory, even on top of other DRM schemes like CD keys or SteamWorks.

 

[Eireronin]

So apparently Valve screwed over EA?

Wow, i am genuinely surprised.

 

[DontPunchTrees]

Nothing on the computer can compare to Steam, I don't see why EA's so desperate to be different...

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

This is desperation. They knew they didn't have a chance.

This won't help them, though.

 

[Worr Monger]

Hope this bombs badly...

..Well, I can still take comfort in the fact that I enjoy Collector's Edition Bioware games as it is. So I'll have a physical copy anyway... and no one will be able to see the embarrassing amount of hours I put into them on Steam.

I will fight this though... no game will be purchased on Origin by me. Not a one.

 

[The Sane]

Of the little information I've seen on the subject, it seems Valve kicked Crisis 2 off because EA refused to supply Steam any game patches, opting for a separate downloader only.


Or something.... ?

Ok, that makes more sense. Still, I find it curious that EA would say that this is "...not the result of any action by EA" if it was an EA decision to discontinue support for the steam version which prompted the game's removal.

If it is because of not being able to patch the game through Steam, which is in my opinion a perfectly reasonable (and easy to fulfill) requirement from Valve, then I'd say they are trying to be clever with their wording. Rather than being taken off the service because of an action by EA, rather taken off by their inaction in supplying updates.