leadbelly said:Didn't they publish Half-Life 2? No?
HL2 was published by Vivendi Games.
leadbelly said:Didn't they publish Half-Life 2? No?
f0rk said:Does Origin have the same 'download whenever, wherever as much as you want' so Steam? If so I'd be willing to give it a try once.
Not thrilled about the BF3 price though. £40, really?
Valru said:No, not really.
I like unified community, logically Steam being the first successful DD service they win on that part. Hot Pursuit PC was a total failure without people to use Autolog with.
I like a unified library that my games are always available on. EA DM basically stole my old copy of BF2 special forces, and I'll never go back.
Me said:The Steam love is one of pure emotional attachment. Logically, if Origin offers the same service as Steam, gamers shouldn't have an issue.
That was Sierra.leadbelly said:Didn't they publish Half-Life 2? No?
Yep but i dont buy PC games from retail and have no interest in buying from another service. My loss? Possibly. I use BNet for Blizz titles and because of their fantastic customer service. I am thinking of getting into GoG due to their prices and specialty with older games. EA no thanks.szaromir said:BF3, ME3 etc. are still coming to PC.
markot said:This is like the record companies trying to fight itunes. Guess what EA? Ya aint gonna win.
szaromir said:That's all cool, but Steam's monopoly has the following drawbacks:
a) what if Valve refuses to release the game on Steam (rarely happens to bigger publishers but all the time to indie devs)? They're screwed and it's not
b) what if Newell&Co. decide to sell Valve to some company with different principles? A lot of consumers and publishers might get screwed in the process.
c) Valve is not afraid to sell their games on Steam only, I don't see why other publishers should not be doing the same if they wish so
Ultimately diversification works for everybody, refusing to buy games outside of Steam seems very shortsighted to me.
ZombieSupaStar said:seems to be 3 installs at once, log in every 2 years or they cancel your account and games and after 5 years (if you buy extended service) you still lose ability to download.
This line is wrong. Even if Origin was an exact carbon copy down to the last line of code it's still another service that needs to be managed. A lot of people like having all of their games organized on one service and Steam does exactly that.WanderingWind said:Logically, if Origin offers the same service as Steam, gamers shouldn't have an issue.
Yes there are but if 90%+ are used to buy on Steam only, the publishers might have an active interest to teach the consumers to look for games in other places so that they're not too reliable on one store in case anything bad happen.Corto said:Steam is far from a monopoly. There are several DD competitor services on PC.
szaromir said:Yes there are but if 90%+ are used to buy on Steam only, the publishers might have an active interest to teach the consumers to look for games in other places so that they're not too reliable on one store in case anything bad happen.
(._.) said:I think you give them too much credit. I think starting up a service to attract a diverse and large customer base that is already content with Steam would take a ton of work. It is all about profit and Steam is making most of what profit can be made through DD.
Qwomo said:Looks like I won't be playing Crysis 2 ever, then.
Nirolak said:Nope.
Amazon isnt a music industry playa. They dont sign artists up etc...Curufinwe said:Isn't it more like Amazon taking on iTunes? And Amazon's music service is now fantastic.
opticalmace said:This is an excellent post and I suggest everyone read this if you haven't already.
why is organizing all the games onto Steam so important? Cant you just put all your shortcuts into a folder called "Games"?Exuro said:This line is wrong. Even if Origin was an exact carbon copy down to the last line of code it's still another service that needs to be managed. A lot of people like having all of their games organized on one service and Steam does exactly that.
Exuro said:This line is wrong. Even if Origin was an exact carbon copy down to the last line of code it's still another service that needs to be managed. A lot of people like having all of their games organized on one service and Steam does exactly that.
Hawk269 said:I am new to PC gaming as of last August and I think Steam is cool and all, but not sure why all the hate about using another service? I mean, for me, buying games I missed for the last 2 years, I will download from whoever has the better deal, if that is Amazon, Steam, DD or the EA store really does not matter to me. So not sure why all the crying and feelings of betrayel.
WanderingWind said:The Steam love is one of pure emotional attachment. Logically, if Origin offers the same service as Steam, gamers shouldn't have an issue. But - and let us not mince words here - Steam saved PC gaming. It wasn't dead, but it sure as hell was a wasteland of shitty ports, exceptionally delayed games and broken customer service. Steam, and it's adoption by so many gamers quickly, revitalized the industry. It's still not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than it used to be.
So, as a PC gamer, anything that looks like it's threatening Steam's access to all of the big name games makes me nervous. Where the hell was EA during the dark days of PC gaming and the early days of Steam? Oh, right. Buying up and shuttering fantastic PC developers and shunting the workers to console development.
It's an emotional response because EA has consistently done everything it could to marginalize PC gaming, outright destroying promising young development houses, ruining great PC-first game companies and generally spending their time being as anti-consumer as possible - if you were a PC consumer.
Valve was the opposite. They brought the supremely fragmented PC market together under one banner, with fairly benign regulation and easy patch distribution. Even with millions of users, consumer complaints against the service are relatively rare, and usually shown to taken care of. They worked with smaller developers to get exposure for their games, bringing excellent gems like Recettar and Terraria to a wider audience. Their customer-friendly sales are the stuff of legend.
So yeah, it's an emotional response.
Could EA's service become somewhat like Steam? Possibly. But the fact that they won't allow Steam to carry their games now means they're less interested in the customer and in competing via superior customer satisfaction. They clearly have no faith in the service, which means they're out of the gate not trying as hard to support the platform as they could. It's worrisome, to me.
Nirolak said:Nope.
szaromir said:Yes there are but if 90%+ are used to buy on Steam only, the publishers might have an active interest to teach the consumers to look for games in other places so that they're not too reliable on one store in case anything bad happen.
markot said:Amazon isnt a music industry playa. They dont sign artists up etc...
EA has EA games and only EA games. No other company will sell thier stuff on origin.
1-D_FTW said:#1.) Fuck EA. You wanna fuck them, but not yourself? Hurt them where it counts. The wallet. Retail gives them the smallest cut. They'll see less of your money than any other method.
#2.) Amazon and release day delivery. Thanks to Kmart's aggressive ways, they're constantly running big sales that Amazon price matches. This means you're 99% guaranteed to be seeing a 20 gift card on pre-orders. Think of it as a reward for being spiteful. Save money and get it on release day.
#3.) The pre-order bonus maps are included in all the release window boxes. You'll get those pre-order maps even if you don't pre-order.
#4.) You can tie that retail purchase to your Origins account and go DVD free. You can even just install it directly from DD and cost EA a couple more pennies in bandwidth expenses.
The PS3 Version of The Orange Box was actually ported by EA's UK studio.beast786 said:Intresting. I thought they were http://pc.ign.com/articles/634/634535p1.html
But I also remember the PS3 version of Orange BOx
f0rk said:Does Origin have the same 'download whenever, wherever as much as you want' so Steam? If so I'd be willing to give it a try once.
Not thrilled about the BF3 price though. £40, really?
Ashes1396 said:Actually, he makes a good point. Monopoly is good for setting industry standards or something, but competition is better for the consumer.
The competition in question is the distribution platforms, not the games.Acosta said:Again, there is no competition here.
Competition is: I have my product, I sell it every DD service under the sun but I make sure people want to buy it from my own service because I have the best deal. That's competition, and is good.
This is not competition at all.
ARXIN said:You know for as much a PC gamers say they love how open and free PC is compared to consoles way too many praise steams monopolization of DD content. I agree steam is fantastic and by far the best store PC has to offer but I always felt it was a slippery slope that they get so much power over the marketplace.
Sinatar said:No it doesn't, you buy "download insurance" as an extra fee.
Pulling C2 from Steam (it it's indeed the case) is a bit extreme, but ultimately not much different from Valve nut publishing their on other DD services.Corto said:I'm all for that, but it would be preferable to the consumer to have the option to buy wherever he wants and try to lure him with extra features/freebies/aggressive pricing and not by taking your products from a competitor service.
No you don't, that was years ago.Sinatar said:No it doesn't, you buy "download insurance" as an extra fee.
Acosta said:Again, there is no competition here.
Competition is: I have my product, I sell it every DD service under the sun but I make sure people want to buy it from my own service because I have the best deal. That's competition, and is good.
This is not competition at all.
f0rk said:Does Origin have the same 'download whenever, wherever as much as you want' so Steam? If so I'd be willing to give it a try once.
Not thrilled about the BF3 price though. £40, really?
You'll notice the key word in the article though.beast786 said:Intresting. I thought they were http://pc.ign.com/articles/634/634535p1.html
IGN said:Electronic Arts will now distribute Valve's Half-Life 2, among other titles, according to an announcement by both companies today. The agreement covers Half-Life 2: Game of the Year Edition and Counter-Strike: Source for the PC this fall, as well as the Xbox edition of Half-Life 2 in October.
ARXIN said:You know for as much a PC gamers say they love how open and free PC is compared to consoles way too many praise steams monopolization of DD content. I agree steam is fantastic and by far the best store PC has to offer but I always felt it was a slippery slope that they get so much power over the marketplace.
szaromir said:Pulling C2 from Steam (it it's indeed the case) is a bit extreme, but ultimately not much different from Valve nut publishing their on other DD services.
Nirolak said:You'll notice the key word in the article though.
Ashes1396 said:Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo anti-competitive confirmed!
venne said:I have most of my PC games from Steam, but I am by no means willing to accept it as my only source of games.
Acosta said:In this example, Sony wouldn't allow Gamestop to sell their stuff because they want people to go to the Sony Store. So yes, that would be pretty anti-competitive. But it doesn't happen.