Origin Boss Says Steam Sales "Cheapen Intellectual Property"

[BehattedWanderer]

In contrast, however, I've picked up games in some of Steam's super sales, something I'd heard about but wasn't sure of, only to pick up the sequel or a related title at or near normal price. Of course, since this is steam we're talking about, that normal price is only ever really under $20, which means I'm picking up more of them compared to the single EA title I buy a year, since it's a pain in the ass to shell out that much cash. Cheapen? Hardly. I value some of those $5 games more than I've valued the $30 gamestop would give me for returning some of their high priced swill.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

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.

Maybe you need to change your Steam server? I get more than double the speed on Steam as I did on Origin.

 

[Worgen]

As much as i hate to admit it training gamers to wait 3 4 months before buying a game is not good in the short run only in the looooooooong run.

Gamers are already trained to wait, box games tend to get cheaper rather quickly also, there are a few exceptions like the original halo and all of the cod games but for the most part if you just wait a few months then boom, cash off.

 

[maniacfox]

omg when's the last time this guy bought anything on Steam? it's always, always more expensive than a boxed copy. the only games that are cheap are indie titles that have no other real retail channel.

 

[SinisterDeath]

This guy reminds me of a Forum QQ'er.
Wah wah wah, they sell our games for cheap! wah wah wah I don't get as much profit!
Perhaps they'd learn something from steam, that sometimes those 4 hour games that cost $60... Arent actually 'worth' $60.

And it allows a greater number of 'their' products to hit even 'more' people that otherwise, wouldn't pay for it, becuase $60 is to much of a gamble on new IPs.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Personally, I think continually putting out sequels/reboots into "safe", mass market appeal games cheapens intellectual properties. Unfortunately that doesn't stop them.

 

[Andronicus]

You know what? That's fine by me, because I had absolutely no intention of buying EA crap in the first place.

Furthermore, I don't enjoy forking out for grossly overpriced games that merely look interesting, but I don't mind paying 75% off for games that merely look interesting. I might enjoy them, or I might not. EA's idea of a reasonable gamble is way too far outside my betting range; I simply wouldn't consider buying their product to begin with and, if my maths serves me correctly, 25% of the original price is approximately 25% more than 0%, so I'd say the dev's using Steam have the better deal.

 

[razor343]

I was just thinking, doesn't Valve have to pay a certain amount of money to the developer/publisher of a game before slapping it on a sale? That means the developer isn't losing as much (if any) money...or at the very least, I'm sure Valve need to get permission before selling a game at a lower price, so if these sales really do cheapen the IP then it's the choice of the developer/publisher and steam/valve don't really have anything to do with it.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Wait wait wait wait wait...

EA isn't going to have huge sales? Wow, totally didn't see that coming.

Oh, yes I did. Nevermind.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

by this idiot's logic, the Humble Bundles are cheapening intellectual property as well. the humble bundles undercut even the best of steam sales.

 

[thethird0611]

I wonder why he believes it to cheapin IP's. Most of the time the exposure will causea massive surge in normal game purchases. If someone see's an indie game on a weekend sale and buys it, plays it, and loves it, they will come back after the weekend and tell their friends, which may cause a surge.

Im pretty sure his whole statement was to try to demonize Steam for their tactics that are making the digital distribution platform highly competitive. Funny thing is if origin cuts their prices, the only person who takes a hit is EA (unless the company who produced it gets royalties). Higher prices does not always equal more money, as we have seen with Steam.

Also, yes, some people will wait to buy a $60 dollar game until it comes on sale because it is expensive, and they dont see an investment at buying it at that price. That is more market tendencies than 'cheapening IP's'. As we see with pre-orders now adays though, quite a few games have people who want to invest money in a gamble because they trust the developer.

 

[Baresark]

This reasoning is ridiculously flawed. Games depreciate in value over time. That doesn't change. People wait for sales on items they want in all other realms and this reasoning is never thrown at it. I am buying a Wacom Cintiq, I'm not going to shop at the most expensive place, I'm gonna go to the least expensive place. I'm also not going to throw $1000 at it now and break my bank account when I can save up more money and possibly find it cheaper in that time.

Take into account how most of the time people who don't immediately buy a game on release will move on from it as time goes on. Really, when it shows up on a Steam sale it is reintroducing it to the psyche of the person who passed it over.

This reasoning also shows the flawed view a company like EA has regarding game sales. They only pay attention to how well a game does for the first month or so. That is wrong. Especially in regards to digital sales because a game will sell continuously for years, if not super fast immediately. In physical sales, the game can actually become more rare the older it gets, so it becomes harder to find. But digital makes that view obsolete.

I love what this guy is doing here. He is acting as if videogames are not a business. In business, the money is the bottom line, so anything that can increase sales by thousands of percent (according to numbers released by Valve) should be considered a good thing. I'm not saying people don't wait till it's on sale, but I'm saying that the people who wait may also not have ever even bought the game at all. It's no different than waiting a year to get a game at $20 rather than $60 at a store location.

Captcha: nice job

Edit: Another aspect of this that drives me nuts is: They are making a pro-consumer policy try to sound like a bad thing. And that drives me nuts. The main issues is that the policy seems to be benefiting everyone but the competition. Companies products are not placed on sale against the companies will, they allow it to be put on sale.

 

[kajinking]

All I can do is list my personal experience with steam sales ironically having to do with a EA title. Basically I loved the sims and sims 2 but when sims 3 came out my family hit a bit of low point when it came to money (A foodstamp level of money problems). I managed to get the original sims 3 but when the ungodly expensive expansion packs came out I simply couldn't afford them and I lost interest quick. So over time more and more came out with me no being able to buy any of them due to needing to buy food over games. Finally I got a job but by that point I felt I was too far behind in the expansion packs to even bother with the game. That's when I finally looked at steam after having done nothing with it for the past three years after installing TF2 and it just happened to be the summer sale. There before me was a sims 3 bundle, all the expansions and stuff packs for $80 when normally they would have cost me over $200. I managed to rack up a bill of over $300 my first steam sale and bought games I still haven't gotten around to playing a year later. Now that I'm all caught up I actually plan on buying future expansion packs and maybe even some stuff off the store. So EA if Steam sales are so bad please explain why in my case they managed to get you another loyal customer for your franchise who otherwise would have just dropped it?

P.S. Waiting for the next steam summer sale to buy the showtime expansion since it's so close.

 

[jawakiller]

"Wait, do you think everyone has the intelligence of a four year old? Yes? Okay give them this press release." - The guy who wrote this shit

I still don't understand the logic though. If I want a game, I buy it. If I don't, I won't get it... Unless it's on sale. EA is either A) fucking retarded or (more likely) B) thinks everyone else is fucking retarded.

 

[mad825]

Steam is already way too expensive. I mean, the sales are the only real reason to buy from there otherwise it's usually cheaper and more worthwhile buying it retail. Same with Origin.

 

[McGuinty1]

Steam Sales don't cheapen Intellectual Property, EA does.

Personally, I think continually putting out sequels/reboots into "safe", mass market appeal games cheapens intellectual properties. Unfortunately that doesn't stop them.

I'm surprised that it took till page two for this idea to be posted. The only way that Steam sales "cheapen" IP is by making early adopters second guess whether it was worth it to pay a full $50-$60 for a new AAA game at launch when they could have waited a matter of a month or two and saved 10, 15, even 20 %. The people who buy at launch aren't going to care unless they feel cheated by a lackluster experience, and the people who waited for the sale wouldn't have paid full price no matter how long they had to wait for the sale.

As Waaghpowa pointed out, it's the protectionist and greedy practices of giant publishers that really cheapens people's view of the value of any given IP, as well as indirect negative consequences of these practices on developers and the mainstream gaming press. This cognitive dissonance really shows the mindset of these empty suits and should be reiterated every time one of them express yet another idiotic anti-consumer opinion, as well as the examples of developers for whom Steam sales have been a boon or occasionally a life saver.

 

[Treblaine]

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.

Congratulations, your the first person I've ever heard say good things about Origin.

Shame it isn't true.

I play on TF2 servers in the United States from the UK and get consistent 50-100ms ping. But BF3 is still a buggy mess as fas as I can tell.

Oh and Battlefield Premium LOOOOOL! They aren't even trying to hide how they are charging you DOUBLE the initial price to get to all the game's content. They are changing as much for the extra content as the INITIAL GAME!

As far as I'm concerned, David DeMartini just told me not to even bother shopping on Origin.

EA marketing at its finest. Maybe he thought he was talking to a stockholder rather than any of his actual customers. But have faith, it may soon be done yet:

http://investor.ea.com/stockquote.cfm

It's at a year long LOW in stock price. And has been steadily falling since NOVEMBER. Last time I saw a ski-slope like that was with Game Group. With any luck they will die and their studios will be free! At the very least they could purge the executives (don't worry, I assure you they all have Golden Parachutes, no ill will on any individuals) and put some people in charge who aren't money gouging hacks but rather some people you'd actually like to invest in.

I definitely wouldn't invest in Origin as you may very well be left renting a service that will very soon not exist at all.