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Coming Soon to EA's Origin Store: Third-Party Titles

Posted by timothy on from the merchants-of-other-people's-doom dept.

First time accepted submitter RGDfleet writes with news snipped from Gamer Gaia, based on a report in GameSpot UK: "For around three months now EA's Origin store, previously known as the EA Store, has been providing digital copies of just about any EA title post-2009. In fact, Origin has been exclusively EA ever since its inception and has featured no games from other publishers. On top of this the service has restricted access of EA titles on competitor providers such as Steam, Battlefield 3 perhaps being the leading example. This week however, EA CFO Eric Brown confirmed that they intend to start bringing third party content to Origin."

88 comments

  1. Who cares? by AngryDeuce · · Score: 1

    The EA Store is one of the most broken things on the planet. I refuse to infect my computer with it.

    1. Re:Who cares? by BlackTriangle · · Score: 0

      If I recall, Steam was junk as well when it was first released. Now it's a favourite for nerd shut-ins all over the planet.

    2. Re:Who cares? by mikkelm · · Score: 1

      So what you're saying is that bugs can be fixed, and functionality can be added to software over time?

    3. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, but that was Valve. This is EA.

    4. Re:Who cares? by Elbart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Sure, but Origin is competing with today's Steam, not the Steam of 2004.

    5. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but EA sucks in any case. Plus, too late to the table. I've heard of Origin at the end of 2010 first (to be fair, I ignored gaming mostly), and there's not much to bring people there. No, Steam was first and will be for a long time. Now, Linux support by one of major players, that might be a game changer. Even if it is only wine-optimized at first.

    6. Re:Who cares? by Stalks · · Score: 1

      "good games companies like EA" You spoilt a good post.

    7. Re:Who cares? by cduffy · · Score: 2

      You spoilt a good post.

      Only by a missing comma.

      Read it as "If I want good games, companies like EA..."

    8. Re:Who cares? by Sir_Sri · · Score: 0

      sadly. I also missed a comma after good games*,*.

      Still, Crysis, Dead space, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Battlefield 3, Need For speed, The Old Republic, is a pretty impressive array of stuff.

    9. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Selling a game to GameStop (as EA) that they can turn around and resell 2 or 3 times adds 2 or 3x to my support costs, if not more, since those games may have online features/codes that have already been redeemed, more patching etc.

      How would it be more expensive to support 3 users for, say, 4 months each, compared to 1 user for 12 months? Do you individually walk each person through the install process?

    10. Re:Who cares? by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Gamersgate is better.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    11. Re:Who cares? by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 1

      I'd have to agree to this. I bought Sims 3 for my GF the other day - and it never showed up as install-able. So I contact customer service - 3 hours later (not kidding) we were no further along in solving this problem - I asked for my money back and they refunded it.

      I told him that if I had pirated the game that it would been installed and working by now - he didn't seem to care probably because he was an outsourced drone in India (or whatever the nations favorite 3rd world country to profit on is this year).

      To anyone from EA who reads this - the bar should be this - the game should be easier to install than downloading an ISO from Pirate Bay and applying several shady homemade patches before it is offered for sale online.

    12. Re:Who cares? by johncandale · · Score: 2

      Most steam games don't have DRM. Most you can play even after you cancel a steam account. and even the ones that do have drm (none that I own, I have 20+ steam games) it's not really the shitty kind of drm, relativity. Also steam lets you re-download your entire library to a new computer free of charge.

    13. Re:Who cares? by Sir_Sri · · Score: 2

      Cancelling isn't the same as getting banned, actually, I don't think you can cancel a steam account, since there's no recurring billing, once you've paid, you've paid, and you can't launch a steam bought game without steam (or at least aren't supposed to be able to). If you disagree with steam over billing they'll immediately ban your account and lock you out of all your steam games. It *is* a DRM platform, as are consoles. They wrap that up by providing services or simplicity, but they're still DRM.

    14. Re:Who cares? by Sir_Sri · · Score: 1

      That's not really how content is consumed. 1 user for 4 months is really 1 user for 2 or 3 weeks, and then they're done with it, or it's 1 user for a year, and then your product is dead anyway. 3 or 4 users come with all sorts of issues. First, they need patches of course, which costs money to supply, second on average there's a certain support cost per user depending on what goes wrong, 1 guy, who needs your help getting it to work on his computer once, now balloons to 3 or 4. Theoretically they are customers of a future version, assuming you stay in business that long, but usually not, usually they'll buy used again. If they waited on used game sales 3 months they wouldn't be much of a problem, it's when they sell a game for 60 dollars, then later that week resell for 55 used. If walmart did that with movies the studios would have a fit.

      The last major hurdle is if you provide any sort of online account service to go with the game. Say registering a key on a forum or something, now you have multiple keys, which, depending on the service you're offering may mean you have to deactivate one account and activate another, or have both active or the like. In this day and age a lot of companies offer redownload service in some way, so really what you're buying is the CD key, of someone else shows up with the same CD key I'm stuck figuring out if it was legitimately transfered, or not, if it isn't... well after about 15 minutes of my time you've cost me more than the game was worth to me.

    15. Re:Who cares? by Sir_Sri · · Score: 2

      I should expand on what I said. Steam *is* drm. It may offer other features, but it's sole purpose in life is to be DRM. Once you've bought something with them it's tied to your steam account, and whatever they decide can happen to the content of that steam account. You cannot resell it, you can install it as many times or as few times as they allow. To activate a product with steam you have to connect to the steam service, if steam is offline you cannot activate, and, in many cases you won't be able to start your game (depends what api features the developer uses, and if you support offline mode).

      You can add a game to steam that you've bought independently, say world of warcraft (that isn't available on steam), in that case nothing happens if valve blows up and steam is out of business. If you've bought your game through steam on the other hand.... You can back up your game, but you can't reactivate it without the steam service.

      Steam is also there to prevent cheating, which is a form of DRM, though one players tend to be in favour of obviously. Which is what i was getting at about it offering a service as well. By making it harder to pirate you tend to make it harder to cheat and the reverse.

    16. Re:Who cares? by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 1

      At least on my console, if my sibling wants to go play a game I bought 4 years ago he can grab the game, pop it into his console, and he is good to go.

      With Steam, it's tied to your account, forever. Same thing as if the instant you put a game into your console it copied it's contents to its HDD and shredded the disk.

      I can't support Steam anymore because of this. (well, because of a lot of reasons, this just happened to be the last one and the one that caused me to finally call it quits)

      --
      Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
    17. Re:Who cares? by johncandale · · Score: 1

      no, this is wrong. sorry. You Can Launch Most Steam Games Without Steam. but nice try. Go try it

    18. Re:Who cares? by johncandale · · Score: 1

      Steam is Digital distribution, so of course it's up to you to make copies of your hard drive for back up's like any DD system. 'Activate a product' What are you talking about? You have to log in to Purchase and download a product, so of course it's already activated at that point. But once it's on your harddrive you don't need steam to play any non-Valve game that you bought through steam, just launch the *.exe.

    19. Re:Who cares? by KingBenny · · Score: 1

      and what's more, most popular titles cost like 10-15 euros more in steam / EA digital download, plus you get the dvd with it so you can sell it again if you like ... upcoming skyrim costs 35 euro's in pre-order at gamersland (nl , thats including mail to my doorstep) , 49,99 on steam, i guess EA prices will be comparable to steam

      --
      Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
    20. Re:Who cares? by slackbheep · · Score: 1

      I'm not a big fan of steam either, but this is wrong. Most games sold on steam can be easily run from their own executables on disc without loading the client, in my experience it's only specific titles which use steam for DRM like Civ 5, or Valves own titles which require the client to be loaded. If you haven't already, goto: /Steam/Steamapps/common/ and check for yourself.

  2. Third party or third rate? by jaymz666 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The application is crappy and has to remind you EVERY SINGLE TIME you minimise it that it's still running.
    It's a cash grab and as such is developed by morons.
    I have to relogin every few boots due to it forgetting it was logged in. Steam has it beat, I don't even realise steam is running until I go to use it.
    Origin has a splash screen that doesn't minimise on boot, and then when I close that it throws a popup that it's still running. NO SHIT SHERLOCK

    1. Re:Third party or third rate? by Baloroth · · Score: 2

      EA is run and owned by businessmen. Therefore, everything they do is strictly regulated by how some MBA thinks it should work. The result is that many of their games, and it looks like their store as well (I haven't and won't use it, unless something changes) aren't properly designed. The rule for that kind of software is to remind you about it as often as possible and shove as many products to sell in your face as possible (just like most real stores.) In fact, many of their games are becoming digital store fronts made to sell you DLC (as this comic points out).

      Steam on the other hand is made and run by gamers. People who love video games, and who make them because that is what they want to do. Gabe Newell himself plays on Steam. I'd be willing to bet most of the people running EA rarely, if ever, actually play video games. The result is that Steam tries to stay out of your way, and works how gamers expect it to work (for the most part). That is why so many gamers love it, even though it has DRM, and why praising it while ridiculing activation-based DRM is not as hypocritical as many people like to say it is.

      On the other hand, it is also why Episode 3 has been delayed so much. They have no businessmen pushing them to release on a deadline. This is both good and bad. Mostly good, but gamers will still bitch about the delay.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    2. Re:Third party or third rate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      EA's CEO was interviewed by a German company recently and asked which upcoming EA game was his favorite. He actually said he will probably play Mass Effect 3 more than any other EA game (BF3, TOR, ...).

      Steam is either loved or hated by gamers. It sure beats the old days of manual game installations, but the Steam application itself is hardly perfect. It's notoriously slow and very buggy. It embraces Adobe Flash. It fucks up and reinstalls DirectX over and over. The startup & launching time is horrendous. It doesn't halt the application when games are running. Etc etc. Origin could be worse off than Steam. I wouldn't know... I haven't installed it yet.

      I'm still surprised that Steam works at all. The Source leak showcased some of the early code behind Steam, and it was written so poorly you'd want to cry.

    3. Re:Third party or third rate? by Arivia · · Score: 2

      I can't find it now, but there's a good post from one of Steam's engineers about the Direct X issue on the Steam forums. Essentially the issues with Direct X all stem from Microsoft not providing ways for different games to use similar or separate libraries, and as such they must be reinstalled for every game to work properly.

      --
      The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
    4. Re:Third party or third rate? by mikkelm · · Score: 1

      To be fair to the Steam platform, the launch time for me is down to just about five seconds, and the application has been consistently and perfectly responsive since they pushed out the latest round of updates. It's a massive improvement from the minute-long time from execution to a somewhat functional state that it featured just a year ago.

    5. Re:Third party or third rate? by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 1

      EA is run and owned by businessmen.

      Isn't that true for every single company on Earth? Well, I suppose there are some that aren't/weren't run by businessmen, but I think that falls under the classification, 'out of business'.

      --
      Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
    6. Re:Third party or third rate? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's interesting. It's still well over a minute for me (unless the latest update that you mentioned happened over the weekend and I haven't experienced it yet).

    7. Re:Third party or third rate? by dkf · · Score: 1

      EA is run and owned by businessmen.

      Isn't that true for every single company on Earth?

      No. The successful ones tend to be run by businessmen (and businesswomen) since either they get taken over by people who specialize in the running of businesses, or the founder/owner becomes more adept at running the business and becomes a business(wo)man. Businesses that aren't run as businesses at least somewhat tend to run out of money and fold, since controlling the assets — and especially the cash supply — is a core requirement of being a solvent business. There are a lot of "businesses" in that category, though most are small (and likely to vanish virtually without trace).

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
  3. I'm glad we're running this slashvertisement... by damn_registrars · · Score: 2

    Because I was worried that EA wasn't making enough money. This should help that!

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  4. What isn't coming to origin's store by Vektuz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    me

    1. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      Yeah it's not like we have a shortage of digital distribution systems either. What 8 or 9 of them. If I have to be with one, I'll take steam. Mostly because they've been pretty good on ensuring that things like OBSE/FOSE/FVSE and all that work on their encrypted exe's. Ensuring that you know, games have extended modability. Sadly EA is already a known, fuck everyone over, everywhere, and tell them the like it. While killing off their 'consumed' studios. Origin, Bullfrog, Maxis, etc, and the most recent? Bioware.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    2. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This for me too.

      Their actions over software on competing networks was pretty dickish. (just like Microsoft going all waaah wwaaah over devs going PSN first and refusing games if they do)
      And not just that, just that EA in general are dicks as it is. They destroy everything they touch. (I'll still never forgive what they done to Spore with their meddling, the casual market and them being money-whores absolutely killed Spore. If it wasn't for mods, I'd have never played continued playing that game)

      While Valve would have probably done the same if they were in the same position, I trust them far more than I do EA.
      I don't particularly like Valve or EA, but Valve provide a great service for countless developers, and indies especially.
      They created a decent enough DRM scheme that isn't as awful as most of them are. (well... there is that whole terrible Offline Mode thing)
      Don't really care much for their software though. (mainly due to EVERYTHING EVER USING SOURCE, seriously, make a new engine already, the engine is terrible, bloated and just plain broken!)
      Plus they done an EA with TF2 and made it so casual it hurts. And all those actual hackers, so much for VAC, thing doesn't even work.

    3. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by Antisyzygy · · Score: 1

      To be fair the source engine was pretty good when it first came out.

      --
      That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
    4. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh huh. Steam works with a very small number of existing memory mods because Valve hard-coded the .dll mod-launcher paths in the Steam binary. If Valve didn't encrypt the executable's code section then this wouldn't be an issue at all. Dumping the unencrypted PE at the original entry point is trivial enough for most crackers, so this protection is pointless. Origin does it too though, so... meh.

    5. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by Lord_Jeremy · · Score: 1

      Couple things... 1) Have you played Portal 2? Any other recent Valve game? Source is doing pretty damn well for them, Portal 2 is absolutely beautiful. I still play my favorite parts of the Half Life 2 games from time to time and they look pretty sweet too. 2) In the four years that I have been playing Team Fortress 2, I can count on one hand the number of actual hackers that I have encountered. In all cases they were banned pretty quickly by an admin on the server I was playing on.

    6. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by zennyboy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Me neither; I cannot read it:

      Chat Transcript
      19/08/2011 08.59 AM
      Hi, my name is Ackley. How may I help you?
      Zennyboy: Hiya - this is not about whatever game I selected
      Zennyboy: it's about Origin
      Zennyboy: The Store?
      Zennyboy: Hello?
      Ackley:ok
      Ackley:Please specify your issue
      Zennyboy: I am English but live in Spain. I do not speak Spanish however. I am unable to make Origin web page 'go' into English whatever localization (in my profile, on the site) I select
      Zennyboy: It's apparently reading off my geolocation and selecting Spanish
      Zennyboy: And I cannot read a word of it
      Ackley:I would like to inform you that our store is region specific and it opens according to region
      Zennyboy: I know
      Ackley:You won't be able to change it to English
      Zennyboy: How can I change its ..
      Zennyboy: Oh
      Zennyboy: Useful
      Zennyboy: Really?
      Ackley:Yes
      Zennyboy: Will this change in the future? We move around a lot here...?
      Zennyboy: I cannot speak the language of every country I live in
      Ackley:As of now, we don't have any information regarding this.
      Zennyboy: Can this be put to someone else then? As if I go to France I cannot learn French for this site...
      Zennyboy: Hello?
      Ackley:Yes
      Ackley:There is no way to change the website to other language
      Ackley:None of the agent will be able to help you with this.
      Zennyboy: As long as EA realise ex-pat British / Germans / etc cannot use the site
      Zennyboy: Well. That's all, thanks
      Ackley:If you wish you can purchase English version game by contacting local retailers.
      Zennyboy: In Spain?
      Zennyboy: Ha
      Zennyboy: ;-)
      Ackley:Yes
      Zennyboy: Well, thanks for your time. I think EA is making a mistake though...
      Zennyboy: Bye
      Ackley:Is there anything else I can help you with today?
      Zennyboy: Nope
      Ackley:It was my pleasure assisting you.
      Zennyboy: That's all
      Ackley:Thank you for your participation in the EA Games Chat Support. Take care, Bye!
      Zennyboy: Bye

    7. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 1

      Dude, Origin isn't dead! It even has a store now! RTFA & HAND :)

    8. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by Serpents · · Score: 1

      Yeah it's not like we have a shortage of digital distribution systems either. What 8 or 9 of them.

      And given EA's inane experiments with DRM you're probably better off with a pirated ISO and a crack - no limited number of installs or crap like that. In their case it actually makes sense to pirate their games even if you bought them.

    9. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've never purchased anything from Origin but I have activated retail US CD Keys and it always gives me an international versions of the games that allow a English GB, English US, French, Spanish, and normally German. If you can't buy on the website, you could always buy a retail version of the game and change the language or activate it online to get it in English.

    10. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by iroll · · Score: 1

      And why on God's Green Earth should he have to do that?

      Successful e-commerce makes purchasing so brain-dead simple, and so convenient, that you'll buy things you wouldn't normally buy--it doesn't make it so complicated and/or annoying that you're forced to find a brick & mortar retailer to complete your purchase.

      This is why people rave about Steam and rant about Origin. Thank goodness for competition; at least one of the parties recognizes that their *business* depends on treating their customers like customers in a marketplace, instead of sheep to fleece.

      --
      Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
    11. Re:What isn't coming to origin's store by zennyboy · · Score: 1

      Nail, meet head...

      I have a Steam account. I can run it in English, German, whatever. The games it downloads can be in any available language. I do not want to get games in Real Shops as I'll lose the disc, the key or whatever, and unless they're tied to an online shop, they could be missing English on the disc anyway. Steam allows me to use a UK CC when sitting in Spain.

      It just bugs the hell out of me when some website assumes in Europe France=French, Spain=Spanish, Italy=Italian. It is so much not like that. We have Polish in UK, Germans in Italy and British in Spain and many other combinations. Even if others (and myself) CAN speak the country's language, we're >always going to feel more comfortable using out native language. When playing a game (or trying to buy one) I don't want it to be a struggle... Usually the sites making these mistakes are American (which makes me feel for the Spanish speakers in America)...

      If you want to be fancy, sure, pick a language based on IP address, but ffs allow me to change it!

      Origin has lost already, from what I've seen...

      Zennyboy

  5. EA games... Half-baked and buggy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "they intend to start bringing third part content to Origin."

    That's one way for EA to start selling games that aren't half-baked and buggy!

  6. Great by GuldKalle · · Score: 1

    Now all it needs is third-party costumers.

    --
    What?
    1. Re:Great by Bieeanda · · Score: 1

      Now there's a chilling thought. People selling IMVU and Second Life skins through the storefront. Forget intellectual property, see how fast your virtual property values drop when multifunction genitals are in the DLC section with CoD maps.

  7. And you will know by mjwx · · Score: 0

    the power of Origin.

    Wait.. Anyone else here?

    Who am I supposed to tell about the power of Origin?

    Oh bugger.

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    1. Re:And you will know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who am I supposed to tell about the power of Origin?

      No-one.

      That plot arc was terrible and pretty much the show's death rattle.

  8. How much worse can this service get? by HardSide · · Score: 0

    Between paying extra if you wanna pre-order a game, no discounts, not accepting any sort of currency but American, the application reminds you none stop when Origin is minimized, its buggy as all hell. I'm amazed Origin is still around.

  9. ridiculousness by nomadic · · Score: 2

    The name of the store is CALLED Origin. Why on earth have they not put up any actual Origin GAMES? Post-2009? Give me a break, let me buy Ultima 7-X.

    1. Re:ridiculousness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      EA: Hi there, just rubbing salt in the ol' wound! Fuck ya later!

      Please EA, concentrate on Mirror's Edge 2, Dead Space 3, and more great original games. You were beginning to build a good rep for a minute there.

    2. Re:ridiculousness by jaselibertas · · Score: 1

      I want my REAL Origin games! Serpent's Isle anyone?!?

    3. Re:ridiculousness by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      exactly - origin "we create worlds" was doing something that companies since have not managed to do as much, actually creating worlds.

      which can be hardly said about DA2.. compared to ultima 6 anyhow. despite apparently the money poured to it being much greater, but hey, I guess flaky facial expression generator is better than a sandbox world that takes some effort to script.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    4. Re:ridiculousness by mgiuca · · Score: 1

      Well if you didn't see it yet, GOG.com released Ultima 1-4 last week and Ultima 5-6 this week. If you can sit patiently for about another week, I expect you'll be satisfied.

    5. Re:ridiculousness by nomadic · · Score: 1

      Haha yep, already bought...which is why I said I wanted to buy Ultima VII-X.

    6. Re:ridiculousness by mgiuca · · Score: 1

      Ah, I thought you might have (since you were awfully specific about which ones). Well, I'd personally much rather buy them from GOG than from the EA store, so I'm pretty happy EA went with that channel.

    7. Re:ridiculousness by MemoryDragon · · Score: 1

      EA wouldnt have a clue on what to do with Ultima anyway, the last thing I hear about Ultima was that they were planning a browser game ala sims.
      I guess nowadays if they brought out another Ultima it would be a sports game (Avatar Soccer) or a WW2 Shooter (Ultima 11 the adventures of the Avatar in Desden)

  10. lol by ADRA · · Score: 1

    Just got a battlefield ad when I came to the page =)

    Anyways, if EA wants to open their own store ala Steam I wish them all the luck in the world, but I would seriously hope that EA and Valve would allow their games to be inter-sold on the other platforms. I for one don't give a rats butt about Origin, I'd miss EA games from steam. Vice versa, if I was an Origin fan, I'd hate not seeing Steam / SteamPowered games being sold through the service. Ditto for Games for windows.

    Maybe what this really needs in the end is a great big cross industry standard for this sort of inter-operability. The worst thing that happened to the PC markets (besides the console resurgence of course) was the fact that every developer went off and wrote everything new and incompatible, etc.. because they refuse to work together. Hate MS I do, but at least they tried to have a standard for gaming systems development on PC's. Of course it was their standard for their OS only, but at least it was something.

    --
    Bye!
    1. Re:lol by monkyyy · · Score: 0

      agreed the only downside to steam is its lack of linux suppport, but no one has that yet

      --
      warning pointless sig
    2. Re:lol by Issarlk · · Score: 1

      I'd love to see EA games still sold on Steam too, as it's the only way I'll buy them.

    3. Re:lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have been for a while, actually. In fact, there's a sale on Need for Speed games right now

    4. Re:lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but the Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 DLC was all disconnected, non-integrated installer packages made available on the EA store for fake money in denominations that didn't exactly match the cost of each module. It was bad.

      If Origin means a better way to do this for ME3, I suppose that's OK. But honestly? I just want the DLC available through Steam. If not, I'll probably pirate it like I did with ME2.

      You know what? I actually tried to buy it once. I did the math to determine which packages of EA points I'd need to make things add up, put the first one in my shopping cart and stopped. The whole process was just so ridiculous I couldn't bring myself to actually give them money that way.

    5. Re:lol by ikkonoishi · · Score: 1

      Personally I would like to see EA games that were actually worth the money they charge for them.

    6. Re:lol by Serpents · · Score: 1

      Ditto for Games for windows.

      GFWL is evil and should be killed with fire. The sooner developers realize that the better. I've used it as well as steam and origin and out of the three I find that only GFWL is truly unusable...

  11. Simple strategy - works every time by poofmeisterp · · Score: 1

    ....when you have a working business model and your profit margin is excellent, you must follow the "Gaming Code":

    1. Get scared that something isn't right because you're doing so well.
    2. Add something that is counter-intuitive, defined as such by the very name of the product.
    3. Profit more.
    4. GOTO 1.

    *giggle*

  12. Maybe indie games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Providing content on Origin requires you let EA take a cut of the sale, just like steam does for valve. The difference is valve is a developer where EA is a publisher. No sane publisher would let another publisher take a cut out of their increasingly shrinking profits. This might work fine for indie games that would otherwise be self published, but I don't see UBI or Activision going for it.
    The captcha for this post was torrent, which I find oddly fitting.

  13. The summary is inaccurate regarding Steam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The service has not restricted digital downloads on other stores. EA games are available on the other digital stores. The specific problem is between EA and Steam. Valve does not allow Steam games to sell and make available DLC through their own stores; everything must go through Steam. EA doesn't want to rewrite their games to work with Steam's store (which would cost EA time/money to do and to maintain the separate Steam version, and then on top of that Valve would take a cut on every DLC), so they're at an impasse. Battlefield 3 is available on Direct2Drive, for instance.

    1. Re:The summary is inaccurate regarding Steam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is this not the same situation Apple was imposing on developers who wanted to sell their own DLC... I mean, "In-app purchases", for their programs?

    2. Re:The summary is inaccurate regarding Steam by artor3 · · Score: 1

      No, that's just EA's propaganda to hide their real reason. Steam absolutely allows companies to sell their own DLC separate from Steam. Just look at the DLC for Mass Effect or Dragon Age or Oblivion.

      EA's real reason is obvious. They want their platform, Origin, to be the market leader. To do that, they need to dethrone Steam. So they pull all of their games from Steam, hoping to weaken the platform. They allow their games to stay on Direct2Drive and Impulse and the like, because they don't perceive those platforms as threats.

    3. Re:The summary is inaccurate regarding Steam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Uh, Dragon Age 2 was pulled from Steam right after EA released the first DLC for it, as were a couple other recent EA games. This has only apparently started to happen recently.

      Has Valve come out to contradict EA's claims? Why not?

    4. Re:The summary is inaccurate regarding Steam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry, but that's not true.

      I can point to Fallout 3 as a specific example; The DLC was available through GFWL as well as Steam.

    5. Re:The summary is inaccurate regarding Steam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The DLC was available through Steam. EA wants to sell their DLC through their own stores and only through their own stores. Ergo, Valve says they can't be on Steam.

  14. NHL by fermious · · Score: 1

    Bring back NHL to the PC and I "might" consider installing Origin, otherwise, Steam ftw!! Screw you EA

  15. id mark it as so so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    its nothing new, copying the same model as steam. but the thing is i already own 30 games on steam, and hate being tied to origin for bad company 2. its safe to say the only titles i will be using this for is the battlefield series, as thats the only thing im interested in. i hate having 2 content systems installed just for a game giant to feel like they have to bust into the market with there own, its ugly, but works fine for me in the instances i use it for bad company. but 2 content systems meh. is this going to be every game giant deciding they need to do this? because if so, im just going to stop gaming.

    1. Re:id mark it as so so by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      because if so, im just going to stop gaming.

      Just like the crack user - yeah yeah you'll be back. But I'll put your prices up.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  16. Re:Competition Is Good! by artor3 · · Score: 2

    Here's some other examples, equally cherry-picked, this time showing Amazon to be 50-100% more expensive than Steam:

    Oblivion GOTY Edition
    Steam $19.99
    Amazon $29.99

    Heroes of Might and Magic V
    Steam: $9.99
    Amazon $14.99

    Civilization V
    Steam $12.50
    Amazon $27.45

    Steam prices are fine. And there's already price competition from Direct2Drive and Impulse. Origin is anti-competitive, because EA has pulled their games from Steam.

  17. piratebay.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ... will always be my favorite game distribution plataform...

  18. EA GAMES by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We fuckup everything

  19. Also has worse DRM than steam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    According to the EULA for Origin, it can scan your *entire* computer and see what is on it (not just games that you bought from them) and also track your use patterns of your non-Origin-purchased apps.

    Sorry, that is too much. Get that crap out of the EULA, and then I might consider it (but from what others have said about its quality, probably still "no").

    1. Re:Also has worse DRM than steam by Lord_Jeremy · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that shit is why Origin will only be running on my machine while I'm playing Battlefield 3. I hate exclusivity with a passion, but my desire to play BF3 outweighs my issues with EA and Origin.

  20. NO THANK YOU by Mistakill · · Score: 2
    No way in hell will I use the Origin service, or any games that use it... DO NOT WANT...

    I don't care if its the best game ever and is free, I will refuse to use it

  21. NOT coming soon... by Midnight+Voyager · · Score: 1

    NOT coming soon: Reasons to buy them from Origin store.

  22. Re:Competition Is Good! by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 1

    Origin is anti-competitive, because EA has pulled their games from Steam.

    And nothing of value was lost.

    --
    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  23. We don't need another friend list. by Whillowhim · · Score: 1

    Even if the store isn't broken and works flawlessly (and from what I've heard, that is a big if), I'm still opposed to exclusive Origin titles just on general principles. Withdrawing titles from other services is a huge pain in the ass for the consumer, and does a huge disservice to PC gaming as a whole. It fragments the PC community even more, creating yet another friends list you need to keep track of, and yet another program that needs to be running. Ultimately, PC games can only benefit from a single unified service that tracks friends, achievements and such, just like there is only one Xbox system, or one PS3 system, but there is no point to trying to force people to adopt your system as the primary one. While EA may think it sucks that Valve got there first, the solution is not to keep fracturing the marketplace and forcing people to use a special system just for your games. The only responsible policy is to provide your games to any existing systems, so that people have a choice of which one they want to use. Then you make yours good enough that people want to use it.

    From a business standpoint, I can see why they pulled their titles from Steam, because if they didn't, no one would ever use Origin. But if that is the case, you have to ask yourself why you're forcing people to use a service that they would never normally use. You want people to use your service because they like its features, not resent your service because its their only choice. It seems like they only reason they want to push Origin is that they want some of the money Steam is making, not because they actually feel like they can offer a new and/or superior product.

    Like a lot of EA's decisions, this seems to be very short term and focused tightly on pure monetary numbers. Cash grabs can work, but you build up enough ill will among your customers and eventually they'll stop buying your stuff. It takes a long time to get to that point, but EA has been working at it for years. More and more of my friends seem to be aware of the crap they're pulling. That is not a good sign for them. I'm already fairly careful on which games I buy, and tend to skip ones that aren't available on Steam. Refusing to put your games where I do most of my shopping can only hurt you more.

    1. Re:We don't need another friend list. by MemoryDragon · · Score: 1

      No worries about EA, as long as customers literally plunge billions into rehashed sports titles every year and plunge about the same amount into lame shooters EA wont go belly up or will see a need to change their ways.
      I would say it is the fault of the Madden etc... customers that EA is well - EA.