Has EA's Origin Service Improved Any Over the Last Two Years?

[Gailim]

I will care about Origin the day EA sells it off.

My aversion to the platform has nothing to do with it's technical capabilities and everything to do with who runs it.

What in EA's history makes you want to trust them with your digital library? The history of EA is a series of one anti-consumer move after another. A history of buying once great IP's and studios and running them into the ground. A history or braindead executives concocting scheme after scheme to wring every nickel out of you by any means necessary. A history of chasing quarterly profits at the expense of any long term strategy to build customer loyalty.

You think EA is changing by giving out 10 year games and allowing returns? Then your not paying attention. This is what EA does when it knows its losing. The moment EA thinks it's got any sort of momentum in the PC space it will "phase out" those programs.

Now tell me again why I should support this kind of blatant abuse of its customers when I can buy from any of the THOUSANDS of other devs that wont pull this kind of BS.

Once again I am not knocking the technical aspect. Origin may be better and EA does make some fun games. But the are so many other fun games out there from much better companies.

I haven't bought an EA game in 3 years, I don't expect I ever will again.

 

[Flammablezeus]

No matter how decent Origin becomes, it's still just DRM for EA games which are still pretty awful. They only seem to be getting worse, too.

 

[marioandsonic]

Meh, don't care.

Haven't bought an EA game in years, and I'm not really planning to in the near future. I also am happy with Steam.

So, all in all, don't really need Origin.

 

[Atmos Duality]

*snip*

^Entirely that.

Some will call it petty, I call it prudent.
I haven't bought a single EA game since late 07', and that has saved me a lot of grief.

The one thing I will add is that all improvements to Origin only exist because Steam demonstrates just how powerful and important the PC game market is; where previously EA treated PC as a DRM testbed only worthy of half-assed ports.

Should they ever meet parity (or heaven forbid, exceed) Steam, I would expect the quality of service to plummet, because that's what EA does with everything they own; purchase, repurpose, and pump until the profit well runs dry.

Caveat emptor.

 

[grigjd3]

I have to admit, I now consider Origin a viable source of games. Previously I had it only because I had to but now I check it once a week just like the other services (Steam, Gog, HumbleBundle and now, Origin).

EDIT: I think I had one of the creepiest Captcha's ever.

 

[Brennan]

For me it's a security thing.

Remember when Origin first came out, and there was all that scandal about the thing being designed to deep-data mine your PC? Then EA changed the EULA, and their defenders were all "IT'S COOL NOW, EVERYONE: THEY CHANGED IT!"

...Except they didn't change the software, they just changed the EULA terms. The actual software was still fully built to allow its masters to rummage around in your system at will, should they ever choose to.

You can say "EA isn't interested in your porn archive, dude", and I think that's true. I'm willing to believe they won't abuse that software ability, though not willing to disbelieve that they will, if you see what I mean. I don't trust them not to cheat, because all large organizations inevitably only have a "will I get caught?" concept of ethics, but I trust that they may not care enough to try.

...HOWEVER, at the time Origin came out, there were articles floating around by people who'd looked at the Origin client coding, and testified that it was a horrifying clusterfuck of lowest bidder sloppiness. And not long before Origin's debut there was the big PSN and Steam hacking incidents.

What this added up to in my mind was that regardless of EAs own intentions with the software, the first black hat to have a successful go at Origin a la the PSN incident would find himself sitting atop the proverbial Big Rock Candy Mountain, and everyone with a client installed would be fucked like they haven't been since grade school.

When people say that Origin is fine now, they're talking about using Origin being fine. But no matter how hassle free it might become for the gamer, I still feel like I shouldn't trust it 'til after it's had a hacking scandal of its own. Unfortunately, EA does not at all have a good track record for either due diligence or customer respect, so until they're forced to make a public show of ensuring their security is up to snuff, trusting Origin to be more secure than a wet cardboard box seems ill advised.

Reading through the EA/Origin forum thread linked in the article didn't assuage my concerns at all. Firstly, it was mostly talk of what the EULA allowed and not what the software was capable of or whether the software had been changed. Secondly, the resident community manager's "STFU, u R just rong" tone in replying to peoples issues and questions doesn't make me feel any better about their customer regard.

*EDIT* Also I have to point out that in the US not being allowed to return movies or CDs if the package seal has been broken is still VERY much the norm. Not that that effects the argument being made.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Has EA's Origin Service Improved Any Over the Last Two Years?

After taking a hatchet to the service in a column two years ago, Shamus looks at it again to see if things have gotten any better.

Read Full Article

Another nice thing is that with some of the older games, once you've installed them you don't need to open Origin to play, you can directly open the game without needing to worry about loading up the platform first. Sims 2 works just fine without Origin running, which is an advantage IMO over Steam as well.
I've no issue with Origin, never have and I get better download speeds than from Steam on a regular basis. (of course I'm speaking from continental US-centric POV so take that as you will).

 

[WeepingAngels]

Origin offers refunds now, right? I would call that an improvement over itself and it's competition. They are also giving away free games and that is something Steam does not do. Download speeds on both Steam and Origin are good and I haven't compared the two to see which is faster.

 

[Klaw117]

For me it's a security thing.

Remember when Origin first came out, and there was all that scandal about the thing being designed to deep-data mine your PC? Then EA changed the EULA, and their defenders were all "IT'S COOL NOW, EVERYONE: THEY CHANGED IT!"

...Except they didn't change the software, they just changed the EULA terms. The actual software was still fully built to allow its masters to rummage around in your system at will, should they ever choose to.

This myth isn't true. Just read this as it explains what's going on: http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2as6ba/origin_isnt_really_snooping_files/

This was also the case several years ago when people posted screenshots of Origin "accessing" some German guy's tax software. It wasn't Origin snooping, it was some unrelated Windows API call. I'd fetch a link to that too, but it's buried so deep in reddit that I can't find it anymore.

I completely understand the EULA thing since that was pure bullshit but even back then, Origin wasn't designed to spy on you...yet. If the EULA had gone unnoticed, then it's possible EA would've started actually spying on you after patching Origin to do so. The EULA was changed though, so EA can no longer reprogram Origin do that if that was ever its plan.

TL;DR: Origin was never designed to spy on you. Had the EULA not been changed, then EA might've modified Origin to do so in a future patch. It was changed though, so Origin remains in its original harmless form.

 

[shintakie10]

Origin offers refunds now, right? I would call that an improvement over itself and it's competition. They are also giving away free games as that is something Steam does not do. Download speeds on both Steam and Origin are good and I haven't compared the two to see which is faster.

Download speeds seem to vary from person to person. I know for me Origin downloads things far faster than Steam ever has. I downloaded the entirety of Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 3 DLC in less than an hour. It still takes Steam 40 minutes just to download and install Dragon Age Origins. Heck, Sims 2 complete collection took all of 7 minutes. Took Steam just as long to download friggin Fate of the World.

On topic!

I rather like Origin honestly. It's game browser isn't a gigantic pile of shit like Steam's. Its download speeds are phenomenal. It doesn't require itself to be on to play any of the older games you buy from it and I don't mean you can just go offline, I mean you can outright shut off Origin or just load up the exe on its own and Origin doesn't start. It has a refund policy that's a tad restrictive compared to Amazon, but also extremely easy to use. On top of that, free games! Plants vs Zombies, Peggle, and Battlefield 3 are mine and I didn't pay a dime for them.

Plus, aesthetically its so much better than Steam. The interface is wonderfully easy to use and pleasing to the eyes without needing to modify anything.

 

[Denamic]

Well, no one uses it, so the downloads are fast. As for prices, last I checked, new releases were still more expensive than physical copies even when you include shipping.

Not good enough. I still say fuck Origin.

 

[Rednog]

Origin still falls flat to me on principle the idea of "The EA monopoly store" whist throwing their toys out of the pram and refusing to work in a competitive enviroment still irks me. Origin, through it's many improvements, is still "That service that keeps games i want prisoner". It's still a service meant to keep a monolithic grip on their PC titles and their prices; a kick in the dick to an open platform.

...But that's exactly what steam is doing with their games. You can't pat Valve on the head with one hand and then backhand EA with the same hand. Valve games are exclusively locked to steam, they aren't available through other digital platforms. Heck it was the original complaint about Steam.

 

[Brennan]

This myth isn't true. Just read this as it explains what's going on: http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2as6ba/origin_isnt_really_snooping_files/

This was also the case several years ago when people posted screenshots of Origin "accessing" some German guy's tax software. It wasn't Origin snooping, it was some unrelated Windows API call. I'd fetch a link to that too, but it's buried so deep in reddit that I can't find it anymore.

That's just a single example of suspicious behavior being debunked. It does nothing to debunk the "myth" of Origin being able to spy in general, as there are many different types and means of spying.

I completely understand the EULA thing since that was pure bullshit but even back then, Origin wasn't designed to spy on you...yet. If the EULA had gone unnoticed, then it's possible EA would've started actually spying on you after patching Origin to do so. The EULA was changed though, so EA can no longer reprogram Origin do that if that was ever its plan.

TL;DR: Origin was never designed to spy on you. Had the EULA not been changed, then EA might've modified Origin to do so in a future patch. It was changed though, so Origin remains in its original harmless form.

Source? The original EULA explicitly laid out the intent to spy, strongly implying the software was already designed for such. If I'm going to make a security decision based on whether or not that ability was already present, or merely roadmapped for a future update that never happened, I need real info. Without that all the above is just random hearsay, making the more conservative call the better gamble.

 

[Atmos Duality]

They are also giving away free games and that is something Steam does not do.

List of games I have received for free from Steam via public events (not gifts, available to anyone) since the start of the year:
-Arma
-Sniper Elite v2
-Red Orchestra 2

If I dig long enough I can probably find other free stuff too.

Now, you could argue that it isn't Steam giving the games away, but the developers (via Steam).
But then I can argue that is no different from EA doing it since they own most of what is available on Origin.

Come to think of it, I have received games from Valve, for free too:
-Team Fortress 2
-DotA2 (back when betas were 30 bucks anyway)
-Portal
-Left4Dead (plus one spare copy that went to a friend)

 

[WeepingAngels]

They are also giving away free games and that is something Steam does not do.

List of games I have received for free from Steam via public events (not gifts, available to anyone) since the start of the year:
-Arma
-Sniper Elite v2
-Red Orchestra 2

If I dig long enough I can probably find other free stuff too.

Now, you could argue that it isn't Steam giving the games away, but the developers (via Steam).
But then I can argue that is no different from EA doing it since they own most of what is available on Origin.

Come to think of it, I have received games from Valve, for free too:
-Team Fortress 2
-DotA2 (back when betas were 30 bucks anyway)
-Portal
-Left4Dead (plus one spare copy that went to a friend)

Yes, now that I think of it Portal was free at one time in 2010 or 2011. I didn't get it free but I recommended it to others.

I still think Origin is offering free games at a faster rate and as for refunds, Steam needs to get on the ball.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I still think Origin is offering free games at a faster rate and as for refunds, Steam needs to get on the ball.

Before, refunds via Steam were less of an issue of quality and more a matter of regular buyer's remorse.
But with the rampant abuse of Early Access, it's no longer tolerable.

 

[Ieyke]

Origin is never coming anywhere near my PC.

 

[Avalanche91]

I was fully prepared to read another article of (justified) EA bashing. Though I didn't get that, I am glad to see they are at least making some progress.

Still not gonna install it though.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

After taking a hatchet to the service in a column two years ago, Shamus looks at it again to see if things have gotten any better.

Funny coincidence you should actually mention Origin. Last week I (re)installed it on my computer to play the Mass Effect games (not sure if I want to play 3, there is a sweet mod/hack that re-writes the game's ending. Seems to get high praise, apparently requires all the paid DLC, I don't (but...) {not weapons, or appearance packs [http://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/66/?]}. Kinda dismayed that Mass Effect 1 has issues running under Windows 7 and Mass Effect 2 still requires online authentication via the built in Cerberus network logon. Kinda figured Origin would handle that last one. Those are the only 3 I have, not counting the free Peggle they gave me and Command & Conquer 4 (it barely counts as software, so I don't think it counts as a game).

I am pleased that the platform has improved in the intervening time.

 

[Kahani]

The big problem Origin has is nothing to do with any of the things Shamus mentions, it's simply that it's EA. As in, you can only get EA games. That makes it completely worthless as any sort of shop. Why would I waste time browsing Origin for games released by a single publisher, when I could instead use Steam and GoG and have access to any game made by anyone? Origin may be getting to the point where if I happen to know a game I want is published by EA it's a place I could go to get it, but it's never going to be competition for Steam because it's just not doing the same thing.

And yes, I'm aware there are a few non-EA games on Origin. About 40, it appears. And that includes publishers which no longer exist, and some developers apparently being incorrectly listed as publishers. Most non-EA publishers on Origin only have a single game available. That's just not anywhere near good enough if they want to be considered an actual useful shop that people might want to browse through.