Oh god, not the Origin thread again.

[purf]

[...] but this time instead of hitting 1.5MBps I'm getting 0.5MBps. [...]

Aah, this must have been when Origin, during the last update, decided to find out how fast it could lock down my computer by sending me as much of a something as possible. When my computer told me that it had no hard-disk space left, I eventually discovered a file in the Origin folder which was 301 GB. Downloaded within an hour or so. (Don't know exactly - I had left the house during this update) (True story)

 

[isometry]

But at least steam gets a bit of friendly competition (eventually).

I disagree for two reasons:

1) Steam already has to compete with piracy. That's why the prices are so low, and the service is so efficient, because as Gabe Newell said piracy is a service issue, and valve competes with piracy by offering better service.

2) EA isn't trying to fight steam through market competition, they are fighting them with monopoly tactics. "Origin is the only place to get Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3" has no effect on improving steam through competition. Now, if EA sold BF3 and ME3 on Origin for lower prices than those games go for on steam, that would be market competition.

To summarize, Steam already has to compete with piracy, which does more to keep prices low and service quality high than competing with EA ever will. Furthermore, Origin's main tactic for "competing" with Steam is to exert the monopoly it has over EA owned sequels (BF3, ME3, and even TOR was a kind of KoTOR3). Origin does not offer any compelling reason to use it other than "this is the only way you can complete the game series that you started playing years ago."

That is flawed points to say the least.

1) Yeah steam has to compete with Piracy, but so does everyone else. And that is why Origin has the potential to compete with each other on every aspect of their business. Origin can copy Steams services and improve upon them. No matte who gets to make the best system to serve us we end up the winner.

2) Origin is young. Anything you said there can be said about steam as well. Steam wasn't even a shopping platform at first. Just a DRM. There is a much potential in Orgin as there is to Steam. The fact is I bought a game on sale already on Origin. Their main problem is that their library is to small. Time should change that thou.

1) Most business to not compete with piracy, they try and use legal tactics to fight it. To take a sports analogy, Steam actually plays against the pirates and wins, while other companies like EA spend the whole game crying for the ref to stop the pirates from cheating.

What you say might be true if EA showed us any sign at all that they wanted to compete with pirates by providing a better service, but so far they haven't.

2) Steam in 2004 is not really relevant in 2012. These are not little kids, where we excuse them and say "well little billy just started learning last month." EA is one of the richest global publishers, and they are leveraging the monopoly they have on their biggest franchises to force people into using a crappy service.

Suppose EA started a streaming video service and made it the exclusive source for some TV and movie franchises, and suppose that the service is a clunky piece of crap. Should we excuse them by saying "youtube didn't even come out until 2006, and realplayer totally sucked back in 2004." That is ancient history, it's not a good excuse for a crappy service in 2012.