Origin Boss Says Steam Sales "Cheapen Intellectual Property"

[Supernova2000]

"Cheapens our intellectual property" really does speak volumes for the sheer, blind arrogance at work doesn't it? "No, our IP is special, therefore it shall NEVER be sold for less than the RRP, how dare you suggest such a thing!?"

Also, the idea of Steam "training" it's customers to wait a few months for a sale is just ludicrous; there are some games in my library that I swiftly regretted buying, sale or not, just like there have been some games that I bought on release and thoroughly enjoyed. Yes, it was somewhat irritating to see said games at a xy% discount later on but it didn't make me feel like an idiot for not waiting because I really liked those games. Big sales are a great way (that is, when demo's aren't available) of convincing the interested but undecided to try a game and if they really like it, then paying more, if not full price, for it's sequels will feel less risky to them but if they don't, then at least it was a cheap let down.

How the hell does Origin expect to compete when they utterly refuse to bend (or even remove the spyware, if what I've heard is true)?

 

[The.Bard]

I had zero plans to play either of the new Batman games, Asassin's Creed II, LA Noire, or Dragon Age II.

Thanks to Steam/Amazon sales, I picked up all of those games for about $20 total. That's money those developers would not have gotten from me otherwise.

I'm winning, they're winning...



... oh, except you, EA. I see now.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Yet another reason Origin will never be able to truly compete with Steam.

Well their servers are better than steam´s and don´t crap out when you don´t want them to.
Also the games launch faster.

That's purely subjective. I honestly don't recall the last time Steam's servers were down (if such a time ever happened in the first place), and I've never found myself booting-up a game via Steam and thinking to myself "Damn this is taking forever, I wish this would speed-up a little".

So I dunno. Maybe Origin does have better servers, but Steam's have never been noticeably poor enough for me to want to go looking for other options. And maybe Origin does boot-up games a little faster, but Steam isn't nearly slow enough on that front, either.

----------

As for the article, it isn't surprising to hear that coming from an EA executive. What he (and companies like EA or Activision) fail to realize is that not everyone wants to (or can) pay top dollar every time a Triple-A title hits the shelves; or in this case, the servers. In fact, that's one of the more prominent gripes with the industry today; video games are too expensive, and don't go down in price fast enough unless they're utter crap.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

I had zero plans to play either of the new Batman games, Asassin's Creed II, LA Noire, or Dragon Age II.

Thanks to Steam/Amazon sales, I picked up all of those games for about $20 total. That's money those developers would not have gotten from me otherwise.

Yeah, see? This is exactly what I'm talking about in my post.

 

[McGuinty1]

Sorry I was at a job interview and the escapist never seems to post the good stories when I'm around.

Anymore.

I know exactly what you mean, dude. BTW, I really liked how succinctly your post demonstrated the delusional and avaricious nature of Mr. DeMartini's opinion. Lots of damn good posts in this thread actually. I've been alarmed at what seems to be a continuous decline in the level of discourse on this forum over the last year or so, but threads like this give me hope.

Oh, and good luck landing that job, dude. I'll cross my fingers for you.

 

[KiKiweaky]

This coming from the e-commerce guy at EA??? That Valve are damaging the video game industry?

Fuck you sir, fuck you! I didnt buy battlefield 3 because of that piece of shit application you force people to run on their machines in the interests of providing a better service for consumers... we both know that is complete bullshit and I'm disgusted that you even got away with it.

Can you tell me how what is in quotation marks below, taken from nowhere else but your own EULA for Origin is helping anyone but you to compile stupid amount of information on your customers and how they use their computers?

"You agree that EA may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware"

Monitoring how people use your application fine, but other software it's usage and peripheral devices too, to me that seems almost like spyware.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Hmmm...I wonder what EA thinks of the free-to-play market. Specifically ones that aren't "Pay or you stand no chance in hell"

Probably this: "WHAAAT?! Let people play our game and potentially not pay us a single dollar?! That is insane! This is harming the industry (IE, EA only) and making people expect game for FREE!!!!! "

 

[The Wykydtron]

Well the epic amount of Steam games i've got from one sale that I don't think I will ever touch could lend credit to the "cheapens IPs" idea.

And come on when a game is at 85% off you've got to think "what's wrong with these things if they're going so cheap?" I do anyway

That's how retail does it after all, you know the crap at Poundland is terrible and just isn't as good as other retailers but shit everything for a pound buy buy buy!

Maybe Steam sales are a bit too... Frequent? It's never "OMG Amazing deals!" it's "oh Steam's doing another sale? Whatever!"

Though sales are sales... Even if I think there's something a bit wrong about hoards of people waiting several months to buy a game when there's so much riding on first week, even first day sales these days.

 

[sindremaster]

This is why Origin is a pile of shit. Well one of the reasons anyway.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

"It's an approach, and I'm not going to say it's not working for Valve. It certainly works for Valve; I don't know if it works as well for the publishing partners who take on the majority of that haircut."

Yeah, right... and if the publishing partners weren't seeing positive results from that they'd stopped participating in the sales.

I can see the rationale behind his desire to maintain a price point, but expecting gamers to pay a higher price because it's "better" for the industry is a pure pipe dream.

This is where I believe the GOG.com's criticism of Steam sales stands while EA's fails - GOG proposed lower regular prices alongside the reduced discounts in their criticism whereas EA's proposal seems to be along the lines of "fuck you. money. now."

Even though Steam-style sales are off the table, DeMartini said EA has "got something else that we do believe in that we'll be rolling out" to attract customers. I can't imagine what it could possibly offer as an effective substitute for ridiculously cheap games, but I sure am looking forward to finding out.

Okay, I'm calling it right now; EA-TV... a collection of EA shilling vlogs and any webshows they can buy (or blatantly rip off without IP hassles). Pride of place will go to 2 shows, one is where are bro, a faux geek and a pair of tits fellate EA's latest franchise shittings and the other is where retired sports stars 'use' EA Sports games to recreate classic matches of their careers.

Any show that doesn't cause an automatic eye gouging reaction in at least 50% of viewers will be put on the subscription only channel.

 

[Daverson]

The thing is though, it's not like Valve are just saying "this is the price we're selling the game at in our sale, as a publisher you must sell your game at this price". Independent Developers and Publishers sign up to be in a sale because it makes them money.

Chances are the majority of people who don't buy the game on release date for the full price, won't buy the game for full price at all. As a publisher, that essentially means your product isn't making you money. You don't even need to know what business is to know that isn't good business.

EA can't succeed in this sector if they look at how other people are doing things successfully and say "we won't do that!".

 

[Zaik]

This is weird.

Didn't they put ME2 on sale for 75% off just a few weeks ago?

Pretty sure they sent me an email about it and everything, wish i hadn't deleted it now, could use a good laugh.

 

[Lillowh]

I fail to see how this is Steam's fault. The exact same things happen with used games, and don't they not get money from used games? If anything, Steam gives them sales that they otherwise wouldn't have.

Though, that's their entire point. They didn't go into and try to push digital distribution to more conveniently get their products to consumers. They went in and want everything sold through them digitally because it makes it so everyone has to pay full price for their game because they wouldn't have a choice since you can't buy a used digital game. They refuse to lower the price of their digital copies event though it cost $0 to distribute it. Why would they do this instead of lowering the price on digital release slightly instead of charging the same that Brick and mortar distributors charge and take a cut of the sale from? They think, and, to be honest, for the most are, too stupid to realize this face and they make an extra $X rather than lowering the price to draw people to their service because they don't want people to realize that there's no reason other than greed that they sell it at that price when everyone eventually switches over to Digital only. They're scumbags and should be shunned from the entire industry for insulting Steam, or even Target for that matter, in any way, shape, and/or form when they're demanding customers give them money for no other reason than they feel entitled to it, like a Elementary School bully.

 

[DTH1337]

With comments like that, it's no wonder why EA was voted the worst company in America.

You just don't get the message, do you EA? You're simply treating the consumers (the people who buy your games legally either from you or from some other service) like they are the criminals and you're punishing them with things such as high digital distribution prices and online passes to prove their loyalty, and when we show our loyalty, you give us nothing but inconvenient services and empty wallets.

Make Origin a better platform that can actually compete with Steam or just go home!

Oh, and by the way, thank you EA for ruining the Dead Space franchise. The horror genre is just one step closer to extinction in the games industry.

 

[Terminate421]

I have to admit that he is right. Its kind of like buying a used game from gamestop (Though the developers still get the money).

We just need to find the right price point for online stuff that is cheap enough for gamers but expensive enough for developers, I'd think maybe about $30-40 should suffice personally.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

Steam sales are REALLY useful for selling sequels. I've bought plenty of games at full price because I liked the previous entry in the series that I got for only ten bucks.

QFT.

I've done exactly that before, bought games in the Steam sale then bought a sequel full price later. Heck, even with physical media I've done the similar - bought a GOTY edition of a game but then bought the sequel full-price later.

I'd also hazard a guess that the kind of person who would wait for an item in the Steam sale is exactly the same person who would do the same if there was no Steam. Pre-Steam, when everyone used to buy from physical stores, there were still people who'd wait for a price drop.

Or they'd get a pre-owned copy (which is quite arguably worse for the publisher than buying it up to 75% off standard retail price on Steam).

 

[Royas]

The only reason Origin has anybody using it at all, is because EA has started to tie it to their retail games. Without that, they'd have exactly nothing. If you can't compete on price (and they've pretty much guaranteed that by saying no big sales), then you better have something frakkin' incredible to bring to the table. I'm not seeing anything like that from Origin. Bottom line, only EA exclusive games are going to sell at all well on Origin if they can't match the Steam price point. That's basic economics.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

We just need to find the right price point for online stuff that is cheap enough for gamers but expensive enough for developers, I'd think maybe about $30-40 should suffice personally.

They could start with fucking off regional pricing first.

 

[deth2munkies]

Reason number 347 that Origin can fuck itself.

I had that on my computer for all of 12 hours while playing ME3 and I felt dirty the whole time.

Reasons 1-346 being hate EA because everyone else does?

No, but I could cram that one in there when I take it up to 500.

To be fair though, I'm counting every sports game they've released post 2000 as an individual one, the actual list if I clumped all the "Annual full price rerelease franchises" into one it'd be significantly shorter.