EA Origin Keeps your games after one year, possibly

[ThePuzzldPirate]

Isn't this like every other terms and agreements?

 

[Stormz]

I hate Steam but that's just ridiculous. Hopefully EA fails horribly. PC gaming keeps getting worse.

 

[Mr. Gency]

Wow, makes you wonder if Origin will even last a year. What do they have over Steam again?

Oh, that's easy, they- *gets tackled by Gabe Newell*

 

[WorldFree55]

I will give Origin 30 minutes after it launches to survive.

It'd survive that easily. Unless a singularity opens up and swallows the building the servers are located in. Which considering the hate ea has garnered like a gold farmer in wow, might actually happen.

ok ok fine....31 minutes

 

[Idsertian]

Whilst this seems like a typical EA dickmove, I am tempered by the guy saying that the image looks a little...odd. Indeed, why not just link to the EULA or copy pasta? While I wouldn't be surprised this is true, I'd rather wait for some more confirmation.

On an off topic note, I wonder if everyone who hates EA got together and pooled their money into one big pile, how much there would be? And to wit, exactly how many shares in the company that would buy? I imagine, if we all got off our arses and stopped complaining on forums and instead did something, we could probably have EA bought out and returned to who it belongs to (i.e. us, the gamers) in 20 or 30 years. Or I could just have a completely unrealistic pipedream...

 

[Nickompoop]

Fuck you, EA. I wouldn't buy any of your games if you weren't Bioware's publisher. By the way, Bioware, you really, really need to ditch EA. They don't exactly have their customers' best interests in mind.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

So EA might be scamming people by veiling Origin as a digital distribution service, when in reality it's a rental service? Now I know who not to "buy" games from, since EA considers them a service. Yeah, they're worse than Activision, in my eyes.

Of course, they're hiding all of this with legalese.

You mean something like

Valve hereby grants, and you accept, a limited, terminable, non-exclusive license and right to use the Software for your personal use in accordance with this Agreement and the Subscription Terms. The Software is licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Software.

Yeah, EA is the devil and Steam is divine...

I don't recall Valve banning people from single-player games just because someone said something they didn't like. I don't want to worry about saying something on a Bioware forum and suddenly finding myself unable to play Alice: Madness Returns. And Valve has yet to fuck me and many others over, with the exception of The Witcher 2, in which case I dodged a bullet when I decided to get that game via GoG.

And I don't recall Steam being the almighty Zeus, either.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I can't be surprised becuase this is exactly what I expected.

My god. Seriously. This is why I buy hard copies of any EA games. They are insane.

 

[Jeffrey Rodriguez]

So what! Valve is worse and you people seem to swear by it.

"Valve hereby grants, and you accept, a limited, terminable, non-exclusive license and right to use the Software for your personal use in accordance with this Agreement and the Subscription Terms. The Software is licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Software.

....

Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers. You acknowledge that Valve is not required to provide you notice before terminating your Subscriptions(s) and/or Account, but it may choose to do so."

And, good luck getting an account reinstated if it was terminated by accident, a rare occurrence but it does happen. So if EA is evil, for promising you'll have your game available for at least a year, Steam must be the 9th circle of hell. Avoid both if you're smart and not a Valve fanboy.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Another reason EA origins will fail to the point of no return against steam. Also, why does it matter if the game is bought on origins or steam? they get just as much money selling them for the same price, so does it really matter?

If they own Origin and distribute games through that service instead of Steam, they don't split the money with Valve.

This is very true and is in fact why Valve created Steam in the first place. It was their own platform to distribute Halflife 2 and the rest of their library (ie. TF2, L4D, etc). If EA sells their own titles direct to the consumer for, let's call it $29.99, the same price as on Steam, at Gamestop, Amazon, etc. then the amount of that money which is profit for EA is larger (obviously subtracting any associated costs with Origin and digital delivery which is now their burden, not someone else's).

You mean something like

Valve hereby grants, and you accept, a limited, terminable, non-exclusive license and right to use the Software for your personal use in accordance with this Agreement and the Subscription Terms. The Software is licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Software.

That is pretty much a standard EULA dude. The point in question is not what rights are granted by a purchase, but what rights you have to your purchase. If it's bestowed only temporarily as the OP implies then that's quite telling (and pretty bad form even for EA).

It's my understanding that Steam cannot take your purchases away for *any* reason, let alone *no* reason. They must have a valid reason and presumably there's a process whereby a) those reasons are published and visible to the buyer (even if they aren't obvious) b) they are proveable c) they are reasonable/fair. I also understand that if Steam ever had a problem and had to shut down, they would allow everyone to download their entire libraries without DRM prior to losing access. That's a damn sight better than a 1 year lease.

 

[Alucard788]

I can't even believe that someone thought it was a good idea.

Really what was marketing thinking?

No really I'm completely mystified that someone... somewhere...got paid lots of money to come up with an idea like that.

...and as much as I want DA3 and MA3 I'll just ignore them if I can only play for one year.

Sorry EA I'll just fill in the blanks with fanfiction. >_>

 

[DustyDrB]

If they want to compete, then they're gonna have to do better than that.

 

[NickCaligo42]

It's my understanding that Steam cannot take your purchases away for *any* reason, let alone *no* reason. They must have a valid reason and presumably there's a process whereby a) those reasons are published and visible to the buyer (even if they aren't obvious) b) they are proveable c) they are reasonable/fair. I also understand that if Steam ever had a problem and had to shut down, they would allow everyone to download their entire libraries without DRM prior to losing access. That's a damn sight better than a 1 year lease.

To give you an idea of how good Steam is about remembering purchases...

I lost the discs to the Half-Life fat pack (included Half-Life, Blue Shift, Opposing Force, Counterstrike, etc.) a long, long time ago, as well as several of the discs for Half-Life 2. But before I did I had them all registered on Steam. It still remembers that I bought and own all of them and still allows me to download and install them at any time on any computer I can log into with my Steam account.

That's DAMN good. EA can't come close to a FRACTION of that goodwill. Origin is doomed.

 

[TimeLord]

Oh hello there EA!
I almost didn't see you from how far down you are in that hole you are digging yourselves!!!

 

[Imper1um]

EA keeps thinking they understand how to make a platform, but they keep releasing something like this. They have gone through about 18 iterations of the tool, and, every time, it just fails because its:

1. Confusing.
2. Annoying.
3. Just a download platform.
4. Slow (see 2)
5. Other alternatives are already offered.

I have a feeling that when BF3 comes out and people don't buy it as readily for the PC, they will stop, turn around and say, "Umm...Mr.Newell...you mind if we host our games on your steam again?"

 

[Akihiko]

The text seems to be strongly edited (it's pictures of text that has been cut out on certain edges, instead of, just say, copy/paste the text from the source). I'll wait for a more official statement regarding Origin's EULA.

Wouldn't surprise me, though. I mean, it -is- EA.


Don't jump to conclusions. That "article" is pretty dodgy, not having an actual link to the EULA, and the whole "picture of text" thing, instead of copy/pasting is also kind of curious.

I had a look in the EULA and I couldn't find it. http://eacom.s3.amazonaws.com/EULA_Origin+_June+launch_.5.17.11.pdf I searched for the word "year" and it didn't come up with anything, and then I briefly scanned through the document.

I also had a scan through their terms of Service as well. http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/ which only states about them being able to deactivate your account if you don't use it for 2 years(However EA did reply stating that is only there for legal reasons and they have no plan on doing it).

As mentioned in the other thread, this is in the FAQ -

"Q: Will my game download ever expire?
A: Digital download rights remain available for at least one year after purchase. Origin typically doesn?t retire games, and we?ve only retired around 10 of the 150 games we sell, and these have generally been because of the expiration of licensing rights. If you come across an issue, simply contact Origin Help and we'll reconfigure things for you."

Which pretty much again, suggests it's legal issues.


I don't and won't be buying things from Origin(Not unless they get cheaper). However, I'll wait to see if any of this actually happens to people before I jump to any conclusions regarding the service. Steam also has some mentions in their T&C/EULA regarding removing games from your account as well after all. Hell I'll find out myself whether it'll happen. Had to activate free copys of Crysis 2 and Mass Effect 2 via Origin. So if they disappear, then I'll know.

 

[yuval152]

OT:EA will get tons of shit for this stupid move and it was a very dumb not to sell on steam because they are trying to beat MW3(steam is far more better and popular than origin).

Fuck you, EA. I wouldn't buy any of your games if you weren't Bioware's publisher. By the way, Bioware, you really, really need to ditch EA. They don't exactly have their customers' best interests in mind.

Bioware should choose valve instead because EA is gonna jizz all over bioware when EA will start to lose money.


And I figured out that EA is shutting down the master servers for games that are starting to get old,EA you just lost another consumer.

 

[barash]

Hahahaha, EA is really trying to compete with Activision and Ubisoft for the seemingly coveted 'most pissed off customers of the decade' award.

The sooner people stop buying their shitware and they go under, the better.

 

[AlternatePFG]

I seriously doubt they will actually remove your games after owning it for a year but regardless I'm still not getting any games off Origin, cause frankly I don't need to use another digital distribution service. Nothing EA has in the upcoming year interests me, and if I have to end up using it, I'll wait for it be out for awhile so that can improve it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well if you ever played on EA servers you would know they turn everything off after a year, that to them seems normal, not to mention their install limits, project 10$, and anyone they don't like on their forums gets his game account banned... oh how we love you EA.

I do hope developers manage to migrate somewhere safe before EA goes pulls the trigger on the shotgun they are aiming at their face.