Gabe Newell: It's Up to Valve to Bring EA Back to Steam

[cynicalsaint1]

I believe Valve HAD to remove the games from Steam because EA violated their terms of service with DA2. They sold DLC through the game, rather than Steam, which cuts out Valve entirely.

EA can't have this both ways. They have to realize when they deliver games through Steam, they aren't just paying for the servers, they are paying for an Audience. Steam reaches TONS of people. They can't just sell the game there to then sell them additional game parts through the game so that Steam gets cut out.

And frankly, EA really needs to eat some humble pie. Customer support isn't earned by being pricks, blaming others, and certainly not through horrible ad campaigns. Valve has more than proved itself recently. EA on the other hand...

Only DA:O and ME2 both do the same things ... only they're still on Steam. So Valve is trying to have it both ways too.

As I said, both sides have been acting like twats over this. But people are somehow cool with it when Valve does it, and scream bloody murder when EA does it. Both sides are doing the exact same thing - looking out for their bottom line, you're just choosing to look the other way when Valve does it.

 

[PicassoCT]

Surely, EA can overcome there lousy customerservice, there tendency to shutdown everything that doesent return its value 3 second after launch. Remember how they did that C&C:Generals Balance Patch? Or how generous the offered The Sims downloadable content.

I still have my Battlefield 2142 Copy were i lay my purse upon every day, to remind me never- ever to buy EA-Titles if i cant avoid it.

If those guys can run something so depending on service like steam, i eat a skyscraper.

Also Gabe, less Interviews, moare Episodes of the Third kind.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Stop being so mature so I can make fun of you being fat. This is unfair to trolls everywhere.

 

[SuperGauntlet]

Is it just me or is Gabe just adorable. His face just makes you happy.

Also good on him being the bigger man and just trying to get things done, he sets a good example.

AHAHA BEING THE BIGGER MAN.

Genius.

But yeah, GabeN is awesome. Valve is loved the way it is because of his smart business decisions, like constant sales, not (overly) screwing the customers, etc.

 

[Weslebear]

Is it just me or is Gabe just adorable. His face just makes you happy.

Also good on him being the bigger man and just trying to get things done, he sets a good example.

AHAHA BEING THE BIGGER MAN.

Genius.

But yeah, GabeN is awesome. Valve is loved the way it is because of his smart business decisions, like constant sales, not (overly) screwing the customers, etc.

Oddly enough that was genuine, I didn't even mean to make a hidden fat joke.

 

[SuperGauntlet]

Is it just me or is Gabe just adorable. His face just makes you happy.

Also good on him being the bigger man and just trying to get things done, he sets a good example.

AHAHA BEING THE BIGGER MAN.

Genius.

But yeah, GabeN is awesome. Valve is loved the way it is because of his smart business decisions, like constant sales, not (overly) screwing the customers, etc.

Oddly enough that was genuine, I didn't even mean to make a hidden fat joke.

Yeah, maybe it was unconscious.

 

[yuval152]

Gabe for president!

EA for junkies!

A customer will install steam because it is a stable program for game purchases and some free games.
A customer will only install Origin because it was on the battlefield 3 disk.

That's one of the most smartest things I've ever read.

 

[Zhukov]

Steam was unadulterated shit for quite awhile after it came out. But Valve persisted, worked on it and now have a platform that, for people who buy digital, is pretty damn awesome.

Why are so many of you so insistent on not giving EA the same opportunity?

Because we don't want to put up with unadulterated shit a second time round?

Because we don't want to have to juggle more digital distribution platforms/account then neccesary?

Besides, at the end of the day EA simply don't command the same degree of goodwill and respect that Valve do.

 

[Callate]

I'm probably going to have to install Origin to install Mass Effect 3.

I give it maybe a year before EA comes out with a patch that makes it unnecessary.

EA? We don't want Origin. Please work it out with Valve so we don't have to have another program running on our computers, using up our bandwidth, and requiring another set of user names and passwords.

 

[Irridium]

Steam was unadulterated shit for quite awhile after it came out. But Valve persisted, worked on it and now have a platform that, for people who buy digital, is pretty damn awesome.

Why are so many of you so insistent on not giving EA the same opportunity?

Probably most people are just becoming sick of having so many damn accounts for so many services to play games. Many people still grudgingly accept Steam, and asking them to adapt another service, from EA no less, is basically asking too much.

Especially when the service brings nothing new or interesting to the table, and does not offer competitive pricing of any sort. For people to accept it, it'll have to do what Steam does, and do it better. Or in some cases, do what Steam doesn't, like letting you play your games without having to keep the client running.

Plus, for a company to do this, they'd need a lot of goodwill. And... that is something EA doesn't have.

 

[Rutskarn]

Steam was unadulterated shit for quite awhile after it came out. But Valve persisted, worked on it and now have a platform that, for people who buy digital, is pretty damn awesome.

Why are so many of you so insistent on not giving EA the same opportunity?

Probably most people are just becoming sick of having so many damn accounts for so many services to play games. Many people still grudgingly accept Steam, and asking them to adapt another service, from EA no less, is basically asking too much.

Especially when the service brings nothing new or interesting to the table, and does not offer competitive pricing of any sort. For people to accept it, it'll have to do what Steam does, and do it better. Or in some cases, do what Steam doesn't, like letting you play your games without having to keep the client running.

Plus, for a company to do this, they'd need a lot of goodwill. And... that is something EA doesn't have.

Exactly. When Valve first released Steam, it required all their accumulated good karma and flawless public relations to keep fans from rioting.

EA has the accumulated good karma and flawless public relations of a public-masturbating neo-nazi 18th century industrialist.

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

I didn't expect that,Gabe.Stay classy.

you know what? i like steam... BUT! i've got an incredibly positive story to share about Origin.

Back in the day, i purchased a few EA games, hardcopies. Including Spore (and all expansions and packs) and the Sims 3. I registered these games back in the day to prove ownership. And some point between moving 3 times, being homeless for a year, and general life disorder, i lost the discs. But i knew that SOMEWHERE out there, my registration existed, proof that I had purchased these games legally.

Then Origin showed up, a Steam-eque digital download service. So i asked myself "If they have my information in their databanks, AND if they have the ability to offer the downloads digitally, what reason is there that I can't be granted digital rights to download a game i legally own?"

as it turns out, there is no reason. EA was happy to provide me with quick support offering digital downloads of ALL my registered products. Not bad for a company that has (i'll admit, rightfully so) been demonized by fans.

And i've read numerous stories of Steam not offering that same level of customer support, sometimes screwing customers over, though I've never had much issues aside from crashing or not loading from Steam)

Most of the hate seems to come from the general "mistrust" of EA or their hatred towards them for buying up series/studios and taking them in a different direction. There are several things that, IMO, people just need to get over. But people will hold a grudge for whatever reason in the end, so it's hard convincing those people to reevaluate their mindset.

I think it was covered in the boycott video by Jim.EA went from pure evil to at least trying not to be the same douches as Activision.And their games are still good.I see no reason for the bigotry about something that happened ages ago.It's not like they wronged you personally people.

 

[cynicalsaint1]

This is an educated guess, but with all of Steam's recent "Free-to-play" games showing up, they've probably had to change the Terms of Service for the devs/pubs (ToS might not be correct term here) so that Steam could keep track of everything a player has purchased for those F2P games. Those EA games were probably well past the point in development to even implement a change, so it wasn't feasible to make the necessary changes so the games would comply with the new Steam ToS. Those games could still be changed to meet Steam's rules, but I'm sure they're rather hesitant to do so now that Origin is in their business model.

That's rampant speculation rife with personal bias.
I could just as easily come up with some theory that supports EA and call it an educated guess. Also this still would require Valve to change the rules after it started selling DA2, because Valve didn't seem to have a problem with selling DA2 until after EA started rolling out Origin.

Other than that its pretty pointless to try and speculate about whats going on between the two behind the scenes - after all you're just going to come up with a story that supports your point of view.

And it doesn't change the fact that its still a little early to start calling Origin the Devil. So far the only reasons I'm hearing for people hating Origin always comes back to "Because I automatically have to decry everything EA does as evil and wrong" because apparently that's what all the cool kids are saying or something. That or petty little things that are just a smokescreen for the same thing.

Steam holds a stupidly large portion of market for online game sales, and I'm not convinced serious competition would be a bad thing. Whether Origin can provide that or not has yet to be seen.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

Steam was unadulterated shit for quite awhile after it came out. But Valve persisted, worked on it and now have a platform that, for people who buy digital, is pretty damn awesome.

Why are so many of you so insistent on not giving EA the same opportunity?

True but it did get better and I think, in some ways, has been the saviour of PC gaming but that's a whole different issue.

I think the cynicism is due to the fact that no one is sure whether Origin will be as good as Steam or will end up being another GFWL.

 

[captaincabbage]

I'm still suspecting his way of "convincing" EA back to Steam is to utterly crush Origin.

 

[Pinkamena]

Why don't EA put their god damn games on BOTH distribution platforms and let the people decide what program they wanna use? Sure, most people will use Steam, but at least they won't be alienating themselfs from them.