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EA To Provide Free Distribution To Kickstarter Games

Posted by Soulskill on from the doing-it-right dept.

New submitter The God of Code writes "EA has announced that they will be waiving all Origin distribution fees for crowd-funded games — like those from Kickstarter — for the first 90 days. 'The public support for crowd-funding creative game ideas coming from small developers today is nothing short of phenomenal,' Origin VP David DeMartini commented. 'It's also incredibly healthy for the gaming industry. Gamers around the world deserve a chance to play every great new game, and by waiving distribution fees on Origin we can help make that a reality for successfully crowd-funded developers.' The recently funded Wasteland 2 developer Brian Fargo applauds EA's move, saying, 'Having Origin waive their distribution fees for 90 days for fan funded games is a major economic bonus for small developers. We look forward to bringing Wasteland 2 to the Origin audience.'"

6 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Origin by bonch · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just your friendly neighborhood reminder that Origin tracks your hardware, installed applications, software usage habits and more with no way to opt-out, unlike Steam. This is the new games industry.

    1. Re:Origin by Applekid · · Score: 5, Informative

      EA offering to lend you a hand is a little like making a deal with the Devil.

      --
      More Twoson than Cupertino
    2. Re:Origin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Except Steam's EULA limits itself to Steam related programs and Origin's EULA is allowed to collect data about any/all programs/etc on your computer.

    3. Re:Origin by vux984 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The gamer/law article calling it a non-story doesn't make it so.

      The terms EA expect you to agree to exceed what any one else is expecting you to agree to.

      The reference to the "privacy policy" is irrlevant. It doesn't matter what the privacy policy says. They've declared they can take stock of everything installed on your computer, what is running, and when you run things. Period.

      It doesn't really matter what they promise to do with that information. They don't need it as a condition of providing me service, they have no business collecting it in the first place, and not providing an opt-in or even an opt-out is bullshit.

      As an addendum, a "privacy policy" is pretty weaksauce in terms of a legally binding document granting you protection. Its a policy -- since when does a company policy count as a legally binding contract with you?

  2. Re:What's the point? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    rent a virtual server with a tiny fraction of your kickstarter funds

    seed a torrent

    post on slashdot

  3. Re:You'd think by LingNoi · · Score: 3, Informative

    > On top of that, it seems like EA actually takes their customer service seriously.

    Bullshit, Origins support is known as the worse. Just google image search "EA Origin support" to see some of the nightmare support people have been getting.