http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111041-EA-Gets-Ready-to-Throw-Down-With-Steam

I'm very disappointed with this myself. I don't want to use another digital distribution service, especially EA's. There goes whatever chance they had of me buying Crysis 2. I am also probably not going to get BF3 now. Between the release day paid for map pack, exclusive [beneficial] weapons based on retailers, and now this I just can't justify giving them any money, despite how good the game looks. I also think its [censored] that they are only pulling from Steam. They need to either pull from every other distributor or not pull from any, they can't just pull from the biggest like that.

I don't care really if it's Steam or Origin. If they both work fine.
I just want Dead Space 2 to come down in price on Steam.. I want it digitally, but it's freaking 50€ here, while the retail version isn't even 15€ on amazon


Edit: Bah... 45€ on Origin.
What's wrong with Steam either way? So EA can get people to agree to some stupid license that discriminates their rights?

I like having all my games on Steam, but I'll still be getting Battlefield 3 for PC. I just hope they put it on Steam. Maybe they could do a "available on Origin first" type deal.

Well I can help you there. Just buy it on amazon, you can register any retail EA CD key in Origin and get a free digital version

I'll buy my games wherever I can get them cheaper for the most part. I generally add in some leeway depending on any DRM implementations, but for the most part one source is as good as another for me.

I'm not surprised by this news. Origin is competeing against steam, why would you have your games also on Steam when you can have them be exclusively on Origin and make more money that way. Sure it will tick off the gamers who have the product with Steam but from a business POV it's smart. The only problem is it's EA so who knows what they will do about DRM's.

Origin acts the same way as DRM as Steam does

Meh, it's EA.

Except EA is a little bit more shady.

In my opinion, Origin is a good thing for the industry. Steam is great, but some company needs to step up and create a competing digital platform. I'll be getting Battlefield 3 at retail anyways.

Then may I interest you in the future of PC gaming?

http://i.imgur.com/rYstS.png


I'm not arguing that from a business stand point it isn't a good idea but as a consumer I don't like it and will therefore not be supporting it.



http://www.impulsedriven.com/
http://www.direct2drive.com/
http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/

Yeah I love Steam and have 197 games on it, but it's becoming too much of a monopoly.

Anyways I'll just c&p from what I wrote in another thread earlier, why this move is basically a good or atleast noteworthy thing for PC gamers:



There is some rhyme and reason behind this actually. With Battlefield 3 and SWTOR they have two upcoming flagship titles that millions of PC gamers are looking forward to. That gives them a great opportunity to get Origin installed on a large number of systems.

Also this shows that EA is investing into the PC as a core gaming plattform. Of course their overarching goal is to earn money(obviously the goal of pretty much any company), but the kicker is they are trying to earn this on the PC. This is a huge step forward from other publishers that still treat PC as a second rate plattform. EA is going out there and saying "hey the lead plattform for Battlefield 3 is the PC, that's where it's going going to look best!" and investing ridiculous sums into the huge PC only project SWTOR. And now they're also heavily promoting their PC only distribution plattform.

I mean even if you don't care one bit about Mass Effect or Battlefield or any other EA title, it's still a nice change to see a big publisher investing so heavily into one plattform that is often treated as a garbage dump and a way to make a quick buck off of cheap console ports.

So yes of course it's all about money, but what should matter to a gamer is on what plattforms a publisher makes the most or atleast a large potion of their money. Because those are the plattforms that will get the better treatment.

But...but...Battlefield + Steam = Happiness.

I bet the next announcement will be no dedicated servers and Halo/Call of Duty style matchmaking.

^

I wouldn't be surprised if EA is trying out some kind of backdoor service/what not that keeps track of how many games you have on your computer from EA. Ontop of that I wouldn't be surprised if they put in code that actually scans your system for "Software" so they can suspend your account then keep your money in the process.

Do Valve release their products on any other rival digital download services?

No it doesn't.

Origin has an installation limit and once you reach it you can't install any of your games until your old installation tickets expire.

oh, and an interrupted download or a computer crash counts as one installation.

Good point, but Crysis 2 is still available from D2D for example, it seems they only withdrew it from Steam. Which makes sense since it'll be their toughest competitor.

Funnily they just announced they're putting games on GoG too.

Goodoldgames is not competing with steam. Very different library of games, and somewhat of a niche store. Impulse and Direc2drive don't have the first party support or are required for anything. That's what sets EA apart. If you want a digital copy of one of the biggest publisher's games, you'll need their platform. That's how they can compete with Valve, while impulse and direct2drive are not.

well, this will just make it easier to not buy EA games

I don't care, because doesn't EA use heavy-handed DRM and lots of DLC? I'm dead-set against both.

Umm... EA buying every game companies in the industry, port everything to Origin. Sounds like they want to be Apple #2.

That's true, but it counts as a "new computer" installation. You can redownload on the same computer as much as you want, this only becomes an issue once you try installing on 3 or more computers within 10 days. But yes it's still a stupid limitation and Origin still has plenty of flaws that are worse than this.
And I'm not saying it's anywhere as good as Steam, but you have to start somewhere.

http://support.ea.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2085/~/origin-lifetime-download-limit-error-message

And that's just what I said.

ie you start a download on your computer and interrupt it. That counts as a new installation. But if you restart the download on the same computer it will not count as *another* new computer installation.

Don't buy EA games anyways. Nor will I use their "origin" crap. Steam and occasionally Impulse are the only one's I've used, or will use.