Origin Cheapens IP With Deep-Cutting Sales

[samaugsch]

Uh. What? That... that makes no sense at all. Why does putting something on sale on occasion "cheapen" it? I mean, yes, it literally cheapens it in the sense that it is cheaper, but why would it metaphorically cheapen it? I mean, Valve puts the entire Half-Life series on sale on Steam for like twenty bucks every once in a while. (and regular price is still just $40!) Yet people still think it's a really good series.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting his use of the word "cheapen", but it seems to me that price has precious little to do with what people think of a game. If a brand-new AAA title came out for ten bucks, I might be a little surprised and maybe even concerned, but if it's a special sale, I wouldn't go "ugh, horrible game", I'd go "cool, is cheap this weekend! I'd better snap it up!"

The more I think about it, the more I think I'm really, really missing something here. Can somebody else explain this to me? Do you get what they're trying to say, because the only thing I can see is "we want more money and are trying to pretend we're good people for wanting all of your money."

I mean, sheesh. At least be honest about wanting all of our money...

EA came out and said they wouldn't have any of their games on steep discounts on Origin akin to Steam because such a large discount "cheapens" an IP, in that it's cheapens the customers perceived value/view of that product. They said that a 25%/33%/50% sale is fine but the typical Steam sale of 75% was too much, and basically they have done what they said they wouldn't.

Doesn't look like it. Which games exactly did they mark down by 75%?

Our friends across the pond have an even better sale going on, with a whole mess of popular titles available for just £5 across the board. For the formerly £40 Dragon Age: Origins, that's an IP devaluation of 87.5%. Other titles, like Mirror's Edge, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Darksiders aren't quite as devalued from their Origin prices - but let's not forget, said Origin prices are cheaper than their original launch prices.

Oh. You'd think that would've been mentioned in the article. :/

It was
That paragraph was quoted from the article, you silly moo!

Oh. Don't know how I missed that. >_>

 

[Mandalore_15]

Lol, I would HATE to be EA. If they're aggressive with consumers, everyone (rightly) pisses and moans about their business practices, but if they put a sale on, suddenly everyone's pissed about how they've "devalued their IP". Get a grip people. If they put a sale on, the consumer benefits. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[samaugsch]

Lol, I would HATE to be EA. If they're aggressive with consumers, everyone (rightly) pisses and moans about their business practices, but if they put a sale on, suddenly everyone's pissed about how they've "devalued their IP". Get a grip people. If they put a sale on, the consumer benefits. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

I think people are just annoyed that EA already said that they wouldn't have any big sales and less than 2 weeks later, they have one. In other words, don't even bother relying on them for information on updates anymore. Personally, I think they like pissing people off.

 

[Deadyawn]

Wow. That's seriously impressive. Slow clap (I can't be bothered actually clapping so just do it yourselves).

It's funny because on the one hand this is a fairly hypocritical move but on the other hand the original statement (Sales devalue IP) was one of the stupidest things I'd heard in a while at the time. This is, like, multiple levels of failure here.
I mean, I don't hate EA (much) but this is just ridiculous. They can't really be this dumb, can they?

 

[Bigsmith]

Oh hey, moar EA hate.

But for people who are too busy pointing out the Vice president's hypocrisy, read what the article actually says.

Lowered prices, akin to steam.

This was probably someone in sales going "look mr vice president, that may be your stance on steam sales but it makes them money hand over fist."
"enough said, I'll put my foot in my mouth. make it happen."

Even if Origin turns into a carbon copy of steam some day, is that really a bad thing?

This is pretty much what I was going to say.

If Origin really start doing steak like sales that it'll give me even more reason to actually have it running, I don't have it running because it uses up %60 of my processor according to my computers resource manager. :/

(I can even provide pics if people are so inclined)

 

[zombiesinc]

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was going for $49.99 and is now on sale for $39.99? What a rip off, even if it's for the special edition (it is the digital special edition, after all).

Also, I still can't quite get over the fact that sales "cheapen intellectual property" but only when it comes to other companies... amirite?

 

[loa]

Devaluation aside, why does something like a digital copy of a "collectors edition" exist?
Isn't the whole point of those the fancy case or the goodies that come with them?
I have yet to see a "collectors edition" of anything pop up in steam...

 

[Murmillos]

Devaluation aside, why does something like a digital copy of a "collectors edition" exist?
Isn't the whole point of those the fancy case or the goodies that come with them?
I have yet to see a "collectors edition" of anything pop up in steam...

digital copies of collectors editions normally include such things as digital artwork books, sound tracks, sometimes additional skins that may be DLC later on. Nothing fantastic but stuff that is easy whip up, cheap to sell for those who feel like getting some extra (non physical) swag while throwing extra money towards a developer they enjoy. Often its the bonus music that is really popular, doubly if its from a well known game composer, or they showcase their music before the launch of the game.

I'm not sure why any publisher/developer hasn't done any physical related to a digital copy. Give us your mailing address (typical country address restrictions of course) and you'll get some physical bonus in 2-5 weeks.

 

[Murmillos]

"stuff"

*blinks* I don't think you are quite all that sober at the momemt.
Valve has mostly turned from a developer to a publisher, anybody should have seen the writing on the wall since they had issues with the HL2 chapter issues and with Steam taking over as it has back in the day.

As I see it, as long as TF2 keeps the money flowing in, the urge to finish HL2:C3 won't happen any time soon.

captcha: don't sweat it.

 

[Alternative]

As I see it, as long as TF2 keeps the money flowing in, the urge to finish HL2:C3 won't happen any time soon.

You are most probably right, they are far too busy working on Hats for people to buy in Tf2 to worry about finishing the story of a much loved game series.

 

[NiPah]

snip

snip

At no point did I say to ignore the hypocrisy. yes it's pretty blatant in this case. You and every other person in the thread has pointed it out. What you fail to point out is that in this case this is a good thing for the consumer. But of course, continue overlooking that fact so as to not weaken your arguement, which may I remind you consists of a half assed "GOTCHA!" that a 4 year old could spot.

If EA being a hyprocrite results in lower prices for buying games, I'm all for it. Bring on the hypocrisy.

Just pointing out I mentioned cheaper prices are good, but due to EA?s history of perma banning seemingly innocent people (IE people who were quote glitched on forums, people who use the same computer, or people who mouth off on a forum) such deals were a double edged sword. I actually don?t hate EA, I hate some of their policies, I hate that some of my favorite developers were disbanded in EA, but overall they have some amazingly great games. All that said EA?s internet distribution team scares the shit out of me, enough so that I?ve only bought their counsel games and have stayed with other PC online distribution services.

 

[RipRoaringWaterfowl]

But wait... wasn't Origin at war with Eurasia just yesterday afternoon? I remember because I was doing my laundry and-*HMPTHHMPTHMPTHMMMMMMMM*!

"This is the MiniLuv. Lear'sFool does not exist. He never existed. His wife was impregnated by a telepathic alien from Zeta Reticulii. There is nothing to see here."

 

[Signa]

I have to wonder if the reason we saw this sale followed so closely by the comments from the VP is that the VP knew about the upcoming sale, and wanted to drum up a few full-price purchases because he was hoping we'd all go "well that game on Origin won't be going on sale soon, let's buy it now."

Too bad his head is so far up his ass that he doesn't realize that we want to buy from other places than Origin, regardless of sales. It reminds me of all the "yay company, rah rah rah!" bullshit that gets thrown around corporations. Even the employees will forget what it means to be a consumer.

 

[Vigormortis]

*blinks* I don't think you are quite all that sober at the momemt.
Valve has mostly turned from a developer to a publisher, anybody should have seen the writing on the wall since they had issues with the HL2 chapter issues and with Steam taking over as it has back in the day.

As I see it, as long as TF2 keeps the money flowing in, the urge to finish HL2:C3 won't happen any time soon.

You are most probably right, they are far too busy working on Hats for people to buy in Tf2 to worry about finishing the story of a much loved game series.

Except that they actually are working on Half-Life 3, and have been since the Orange Box released.

Take a peak here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/23/gabe-on-ricochet-2-delay-but-he-doesnt-mean-ricochet/

And just in case you don't pick up on the sarcasm and innuendo in the article, Newell means "Half-Life 3".

Also, I wouldn't get your hopes up for Episode 3. There's virtually no chance the next Half-Life game will bare that moniker. It'll likely just be Half-Life 3.

http://train2game-news.co.uk/2011/05/10/valve-finished-with-episodic-gaming/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/02/04/have-patience-with-valve-the-next-half-life-will-be-amazing/

 

[Grygor]

I have to wonder if the reason we saw this sale followed so closely by the comments from the VP is that the VP knew about the upcoming sale, and wanted to drum up a few full-price purchases because he was hoping we'd all go "well that game on Origin won't be going on sale soon, let's buy it now."

Too bad his head is so far up his ass that he doesn't realize that we want to buy from other places than Origin, regardless of sales. It reminds me of all the "yay company, rah rah rah!" bullshit that gets thrown around corporations. Even the employees will forget what it means to be a consumer.

I figured it was just a case of a corporate exec talking out his ass, considering that I bought Mass Effect 1 and 2 on sale for $30 total ($10 for 1, $20 for 2) back when Origin was still called the EA Store.

Which, incidentally, was also significantly cheaper than they were on Steam at the time.

 

[Sofus]

"EA says NO to competition"

Does anyone else remember how EA once used to talk about pricing products properly? things like how it was illogical to use the same prices for digital and retail version of a game... well aparently EA doesn't.



No offense mr. random EA suit... but you should know better than to mention Steam or VALVe if you're going to announce that you like money more than fans.

What I read was:
1) "Steam is a danger to our over prized model and we will do everything we can to force people to pay full price for terrible games."
2) "I don't want people to EVER be capable of buying our products at anything than full price."

I would mention how Dead Space (1) still has camera problems if you have a saitek joystick installed... or how EA attempts to force their developers to push out a new game every single year... or how EA haven't done anything for the gaming community in the last 7 years.


Letting games go on sale 1 or 2 years after their release is not bad buisness... it's what happens with EVERYTHING that ages.

 

[runtheplacered]

Valve has mostly turned from a developer to a publisher

Except for the fact that they release content monthly and develop a game at least once a year.

 

[heavyblues]

I'm not seeing a sale.
I go to Origin and I see the same shitty full prices, but I keep seeing a bunch of people in the UK and Europe talking about things being, like, half off.