Origin Boss Says Steam Sales "Cheapen Intellectual Property"

[Sylveria]

Oh man EA, only you have the balls to try and shame people into spending more money than they need to on stuff they don't really want.

Nah Origin, keep your games full price. I'm sure that people will be happy to pay $60 for ME3 a year after it's released with no DLC included.

 

[Josh123914]

Here's why I'll never buy from Origin, it's games are most likely never going to be cheaper no matter how old or how bad the game is, and how the standard price for most games on it are roughly the same price at retail (wait what? why should I have to pay EA £40 for a game without them adding the disc and box? (y'know, those things make games more expensive)) AND how it's EULA is-- well, you all know about that abomination.

 

[satsugaikaze]

All the EA-Is-The-Evil-Empire-of-the-World shit aside, I find this article kinda funny when it comes a couple of days after what I believe was a 50 or 66% off sale off a fairly large list of Origin titles.

I recently bought Medal of Honor: Airborne, Battlefield 2142, and some Bad Company 2 DLC within the price range of about 10 dollars each, adding up to just under 30 dollars. You have to understand, for an Australian that is a metric ton of dollars saved.

Thus, I am bemused by this silly man's statements.

Also, the Origin EULA has been redacted so much that all of that constitutional-violation argument is pretty much grasping at straws at this point.

 

[Korzack]

Well the biggest problem I feel is that PC releases tend to not get a playable demo to download and try before having to gamble £40 on something you've no idea whether the wallet damage will be worth it. What, we're supposed to trust EA's latest pile of pixels will be good out of faith and a couple of videos of vague relevance? I know I'm guilty of bargain shopping, it's the only way I can actually afford games these days.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

As this is coming from a PUBLISHER like EA, DeMartini's words could not ring more hollow...

If you don't know what I mean, ask yourself one question:

Who has put more development companies out of business: Steam, with ridiculous sales, or EA, trying to pad their bottom lines to appease their shareholders?

I think the answer will be obvious.


Aside from that, as Andy mentioned, Steam isn't moving physical copies. If you're an indie developer, you can sell 300,000 copies on Steam (with no publishing fees or printing/shipping costs)... as opposed to the maybe 3,000 copies you'd sell on physical media WITH additional costs. Having a lower price point on non-physical media MAKES SENSE.

This is yet another reason why I will never support EA. If their developers are smart, they'll quit their contracts and abandon ship now.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

"I just think it cheapens your intellectual property."

And we can't have that, Origin Guy. Hey, maybe Origin should do the opposite of Steam! You guys could have, like, reverse sales! "This weekend only, buy EA games at three times the normal price (while we fill your computer with spyware)!" Come on, it could work!

 

[dfphetteplace]

So Steam is #1, and are beloved by it's customers, so yeah, just ignore everything they do and hope for the best. I have no problem waiting for games to come down in price. I'm not paying $60 for a game, period. I waited until Skyrim came down in price when they released the Workshop, and the game was still good, it hadn't degraded in value at all! Who knew?
Although, I'm waiting for some company to get the idea that they will only sell it for a month, at $100, and after that, never sell it again.

 

[joshthor]

Here is the thing EA doesnt get. Not all games are worth 60 dollars. Hell. not all games are worth 20 dollars. However, really good games are worth a day 1 purchase.

Examples: Skyrim, Diablo 3, Guild Wars Factions Nightfall and Eye of the North, Dragon Age.

Examples of games that arent worth 5 bucks: Alpha Protocol, Far Cry 2, Wolfenstien.

Most other games fall in between. I regularly pick up games at 33% off on steam when they hit their very first sale, space marine, witcher 2, serious sam, batman arkham city.

the game industry needs to take a cue from every other entertianment industry and start putting out their product at a slight discount for the first week or two.

I strongly disagree with you there. Bought it for 15 bucks, never regretted it.

eh, everyone is different. for instance - i love mirrors edge while most people think it sucks for some reason

 

[Terratina.]

More like Origin Boss Says Steam Sales lessen our profit margins. Wah. It's just economics. It creates demand + plenty of supply = profit.

Of course it cheapens IP, it's on sale half the time!

 

[Cid Silverwing]

This is exactly what we need to be doing - deflating the gaming industry. It's becoming big and bloated thanks to fuckpuppetry by EA, Activision and Ubisoft, all and one unfailingly clamoring for undeserved profit from the gullible fanbase they so shamelessly exploit.

 

[Josh123914]

This is exactly what we need to be doing - deflating the gaming industry. It's becoming big and bloated thanks to fuckpuppetry by EA, Activision and Ubisoft, all and one unfailingly clamoring for undeserved profit from the gullible fanbase they so shamelessly exploit.

Yeah, as a user earlier wrote, EA is so used to automatically having a monopoly over its competition that when it suddenly has that taken away (like right now with Origin vs. Steam) it just continues its poor customer service while twiddling its thumbs wondering why they haven't drove their competitors out of business yet.

 

[Dylan Rushing]

Every time I hear the argument that "Steam Lowers the value of video games" I just sigh. On paper, yes, it does, because statistics show that video games are selling for lower and lower prices. However, before Steam came along, what were we doing to get our video-game fix without authentication B.S. and all the troubles of physical copies? Pirating!

We pirated everything to, and still do to an extent. Steam -does- cheapen video games, yes, but it's beating -free-. Video game companies are making more money then ever, especially indie games, thanks to Steam able to mass distribute with digital copies. Video games are worth less, but video game -companies- are worth more in the long and short term.

 

[Doom-Slayer]

eh, everyone is different. for instance - i love mirrors edge while most people think it sucks for some reason

Internet high five *tsh* Loved that game to bits. Ignoring the fact that I beat it on the harder difficulty in one sitting.

We pirated everything to, and still do to an extent. Steam -does- cheapen video games, yes, but it's beating -free-. Video game companies are making more money then ever, especially indie games, thanks to Steam able to mass distribute with digital copies. Video games are worth less, but video game -companies- are worth more in the long and short term.

This and all of this. I can admit I used to pirate a fair bit, mostly just getting pirated stuff off my friends because it was easier. And now that I have a part time job and a Steam account, I have not pirated a game in about 2 years.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Your games are still sixty bucks on a wholly digital format, David DeMartini. EA doesn't give two shits about intellectual property; the CEOs just know giving consumers a fair deal isn't filling their swimming pools of money any faster. Screaming about threats against intellectual property has become another way of saying "the consumer is doing something I don't like".

I agree that the Steam sales discourage people from buying the games right away, but you know what else does? Making them so fucking expensive in the first place, especially over a digital platform. There's no excuse for it other than you expect us to pay for your luxuries, and to that I say "Guess I'm not buying your games at all, then".

And when I do feel like getting a PC game, guess who's going to get that money? And if I like it enough, I'll go and buy it at full price and send it to a friend later, because it was worth the cash. I spend my cash on the things that I think earn it, not your marketing or your propaganda. Steam earns my business; articles like this just put EA on my list of companies that don't. So enjoy your smug self-satisfaction, Dave; you think people will buy it anyway, and I'll enjoy my own self-satisfaction in proving you wrong.

 

[Idocreating]

Here's why I'll never buy from Origin, it's games are most likely never going to be cheaper no matter how old or how bad the game is, and how the standard price for most games on it are roughly the same price at retail (wait what? why should I have to pay EA £40 for a game without them adding the disc and box? (y'know, those things make games more expensive)) AND how it's EULA is-- well, you all know about that abomination.

At one point, Kingdom's of Amalur: Reckoning (A game published by EA, which owns Origin) was actually £5 cheaper on Steam compared to Origin. No sale was going on, Steam just charged less by default.

When your own published games cost less on your rival's platform, you've proven you've got no bloody clue what your doing.

On the same topic: Dragon Age Origins was £40 on Origin. In 2012. And the digital deluxe edition was £35. Origin is run by a group of brain-dead giraffes.

 

[Cyberjester]

I just wish DICE wasn't with EA, since I would truly want to play Mirror's Edge.

Mirrors Edge is on Steam, and a fair few other digital distribution sites for that matter. No Origin in site since it wasn't even around when the game was released. If you want to play the game, do so. I highly recommend it.

It's not only Origin I have beef with, it's EA. It may be on Steam, but it's still EA. So, I'll keep sticking to my guns for now.

EA are getting progressively worse in my humble opinion, so you should really play it ASAP before it's equivalent to a Blizzard game. I can't even use the "EA only published it" line since DICE developed it from the start.

How about, read this book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Light then play the game if it's the only EA game you ever play. Don't think of it as giving EA $5, think of it more as a memorial to a great author. Also the best game EA has ever made and probably ever will make.

 

[AlexLoxate]

Well, boo hoo, EA.

 

[tmande2nd]

"Hey we are not greedy! We just want all your money we can possibly squeeze out of you for the least effort!"

Origin is shit.
EA is shit.
Their games are shit.
This guy is full of shit.

 

[Ardure]

How many of us have bought a game on steam during a sale that we were interested in at some point but didnt feel interested enough to buy it for full price... most of us. Hell there are a few games in my steam library that are complete duds and i played them didnt really like them but i dont feel ripped off because i only paid about $5 for them.

Steam sales i think tend to sell more games that are older and people have forgotten about. You do see a big blockbuster game go on sale on steam every now and then but that's usually not the bulk of their sales... its usually older or more indie titles which i think everyone is happy are getting sold at all, even at sale prices. Hell i bought Beathazard for $2.50 and i love the game, its not from a big company but it is definitely a fun game... but would i have bought it at $10? Probably not...

 

[Snotnarok]

His statements are totally irrelevant because every game that is put out in todays market is $60USD no matter the length of gameplay, replayability,quality, the budget or anything. Games aren't priced to their value to begin with so when a sale comes up the players can choose when they feel like buying it.