The Old Republic Downloads to be Exclusive to EA's "Origin" Service

[PrinceofPersia]

OH NOZ! Either sign up for Origin, or go out and buy a physical copy!
Just like I do with all my games!
Seriously when did leaving the house to get a game become too much work?

Apparently when Steam told you in a whisper that you could do that at home for a simple one-time fee. Anyway I agree with HankMan I'll buy the physical copy while I write a nasty letter to EA on why I will never join their Steam ripoff. Next blip on the gaming radar plz!

 

[jonyboy13]

So there aren't enough reasons for people not to buy SWTOR so they're making more?
I be confusion.
The game only has one feature that attracts people (besides the obvious being about Star Wars) which is the good story which includes choices and different stories for each class.
Well, this is not a place to talk about it in detail so I'll conclude in:
Bad move EA, bad move.

 

[GeorgW]

Aw man, and here I hoped this game would actually survive. With WoW as a competitor this is really not the way to go. Now it's doomed to die after 6 months. EA, stop acting like morons. Seriously, you know better than this!
That said, this new service does seem quite nice. Now that Steam has partnered with Sony, an EA/M$ partnership could prove interesting. I think Origins will flourish, but SW:TOR will crash and burn long before.

A note here, this has to be the most expensive project that EA has ever started, and will be backing it up like all hell. TOR cost them a few hundreds of millions, this service will probably run them around double that amount if they're gonna add non-EA games to it. So even though we all know that TOR will die because of this, and only this, it's sure as hell not gonna go quiet.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I put down $20 on Origin failing miserably

I mean buying your games on Steam is really dodgy business even tho Valve is quite the respectable establishment, but to entrust our games to EA... are you people insane.

Would you rather EA or Activison?

Oooh god! Activision...Do NOT get idea's for the love of god no!

Too late mate, Activision is doing their own thing aswell, I can't really choose which of the devil spawn I prefer

 

[Neonit]

well, thats one way to lose possible customers... at least they wont be able to blame pirates.

 

[InevitableFate]

I don't care if you have to install Origin too. Fallout 3 practically did that with Games for Windows Live, but fail to release it there and you'll seriously damage your subscriber base.

And yet The Sims 3 was incredibly successful without a Steam release. In fact, it's only been released on Steam in the past six or so months, and no Sims game is in the Top 20 on Steam. Not having it on Steam won't do that much.

There is a large difference between an MMOG like TOR and a single player game like the Sims. And I'm not just talking about genre.

MMOGs are intensely social, community driven experiences. It's why MMOGs all establish communities and forums well in advance of the release date. One of the principle reasons APB failed was because they didn't do this well enough.

Steam has a large, established community. Origin doesn't. MMOGs need to get as many subscribers as possible to survive. TOR should be aiming for a minumum of 500,000 continuous subscribers and that's incredibly hard to do (according to MMOdata.net there are only 6 games above 500k: Aion, Lineage and Lineage 2, who get boosts from the Asian market; Runescape, which is free; WoW, which is WoW; and at about half of Runescape's number, Dofus). If I were EA I'd be releasing this game on every digital platform I could find.

 

[Reapercometh]

To the people stating they will just buy a hardcopy. What if EA trys to take the valve route and force you to install their service when you install the game. I'm a huge steam fan so i buy everything off of steam but the fact is you buy a valve game steam gets installed because thats how they update their games.

So odds are since this is an mmo that will need constant updates and patching EA will more then likely force you to install this Origin service.

Edited to say: I don't think Origin will thrive and i think it's a bad move by EA but competition for steam can't be a bad thing although i do like one service having 90% of the games i want.

 

[Gather]

If you don't want to download it...buy it off the shelf? Really people get worked up over THIS?

EA: Change in plans, to activate your account for SW:ToR you must have an origin account and the origin program installed as well. We decided to streamline the log-in procedure using your origin account for authorization to start SW:ToR instead of the clunky "username" and "Password" interface you see in every other MMO. Never to worry about security; we'll do something about that.

I can see this happening, can you?

 

[Zenode]

Why is everyone carrying on like this is a bad thing, I thought you could only DL WoW from the Blizz store and physical disc?

Or is everyone just jumping on the EA hate wagon?

 

[NickCaligo42]

Wow, I've been twisting about whether or not to bother checking out this game and now it seems like EA are actively trying to give me reasons not to play it.

Thanks, EA.

My sentiments exactly. Doesn't EA already have an EA store? Is it necessary to launch a new service for this? It's not going to help generate goodwill in customers; I hated having Steam and Games for Windows Live both on my computer and actually went out of my way to re-purchase any games that came loaded with Live on Steam instead just so that I didn't have to put up with running another service in the background. This is all I need--a service whose only purpose is going to be running this one game, because you know this concept doesn't have any legs past The Old Republic.

Why is everyone carrying on like this is a bad thing, I thought you could only DL WoW from the Blizz store and physical disc?

Or is everyone just jumping on the EA hate wagon?

It'd be one thing if you just downloaded the game and it ran, or if you bought the physical disc and it just worked. It'd be one thing if it were like WoW where they have an updater just for that game that flips on at startup, but then goes away as you play. They're talking about launching and integrating a new service for it, like with Steam or Games for Windows Live.

 

[ForsakenUK]

I want my games on steam...... I have over 100 of em on there, including BF2 & BF:BC2


Really cant be doing with another service... I've been in two minds over TOR but this has made me not want to get it

And anyways my experience with EA download services tells me EA Origins (the gritty remake of the EA DL service, directed by Christopher Nolan) will be just the same: shit

 

[Scars Unseen]

OH NOZ! Either sign up for Origin, or go out and buy a physical copy!
Just like I do with all my games!
Seriously when did leaving the house to get a game become too much work?

Well, to get to the nearest place that reliably carries the games I want, in the language I speak, Google Maps says I need to kayak across the Pacific ocean.

Seriously, my options are usually limited to digital or Amazon.

 

[Quesa]

Spoiler

Not alot of skin off my back. I already plan not to buy The Old Republic. The lame space/rail-shooter from the 80's was about as creative as copying Steam outright.

You are main problem is a part of the game that makes up less that 1% of the whole thing? Good job.

Part of the reason I was turned off as well; not the only reason, but it certainly left a poor taste in my mouth. Certainly some left over angst from SOE's failings on my part.

It seems a bit like sending back the steak because there was a sprig of parsley on it.

In your analogy, I presume this steak is a perfectly cooked and seasoned rib-eye; instead imagine a watered down and bloated WoW clone with a sprig of parsley rather than a legitimate space-based combat element.

 

[Frylock72]

Well, that made my choice for me. To the game store!

 

[pwned123456]

This is an incredibly bad idea by EA.

All new MMOGs should try everything possible to get as many subscribers, what with the black hole that is WoW draining them all. Making the game exclusive to an untried online distribution platform, which itself will struggle against Valve's own black hole, is insane. It might make your platform more popular for a bit, but it would do so at the cost of the game's sales. A game which, I might add, is costing a very large amount of money.

If there is anyone with an ounce of sense at EA please, please, please, for the sake of TOR's success, release it on Steam.

I don't care if you have to install Origin too. Fallout 3 practically did that with Games for Windows Live, but fail to release it there and you'll seriously damage your subscriber base.

that is right and should happen i just wonder if they are going to take all the other ea games off steam

 

[brunothepig]

OH NOZ! Either sign up for Origin, or go out and buy a physical copy!
Just like I do with all my games!
Seriously when did leaving the house to get a game become too much work?

When the store is literally hours away. Thankfully not for me anymore, but friends back home still face this problem. Not to mention that once they get there, there's really not a great range of PC games. Hell, my mates cousin is a days trip from any kind of large town or city. Game stores are nowhere to be seen.

There's also the fact that I've grown accustomed to the conveniences of online stores, no switching out discs, being able to buy at my convenience etc. But I see your point. What I don't want is three or four clients to run, so if this needs Oasis to run, and this exclusivity trend keeps up I'm going to be very annoyed. That's my complaint, it's the precedent set more than anything. It did also turn me off trying out this game, so not a smart business move really. I may get it on disc, as long as I don't need to go through their client every time to play it.

 

[theultimateend]

Not alot of skin off my back. I already plan not to buy The Old Republic. The lame space/rail-shooter from the 80's was about as creative as copying Steam outright.

Yeah I have no plans to get it, they just made it not something I'd even get on a whim .

Why is everyone carrying on like this is a bad thing, I thought you could only DL WoW from the Blizz store and physical disc?

Or is everyone just jumping on the EA hate wagon?

I think the difference is that everyone by this point in the conversation (maybe minus you) already owns wow and had it installed ages ago.

If I had to choose between Blizzard's Servers and Steams to download a game I'd go Blizzard.

MUCH faster.

But between Steam and EA? Yeah Steam.

 

[Delusibeta]

Basically, I expect this "Origin" store is really EA is opening up the EA (digital distribution) Store and the EADM to other companies. Fair play to 'em. Expect ActiBlizz to do something similar with Battle.net at some point.

[Edit] I'm right: it's up right now. [http://store.origin.com/store/eaemea/en_GB/home/ThemeID.850300/ccRef.en_US]

 

[Asehujiko]

well, thats one way to lose possible customers... at least they wont be able to blame pirates.

Haven't you heard? Pirates drain money directly from the developer's life savings/pension funds by merely existing! That is why we must fight them by calling them names and threatening violence against them on forums that none of them reads anyway at every available opportunity.

Sarcasm btw, I'm not into that hate cult thing going on here .

 

[suitepee7]

providing i can still purchase a hard copy, and then that hard copy doesn't HAVE to run through origin, i will be happy. don't want to have to sign up to another crappy steam-like thing