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EA unveils Origin, a new digital distribution service/platform for PC/Mobile

Just downloaded it, pretty cool that it seems to work with all EA games that you have a serial to, if not a real rival to steam it at least is better than what they had before.
 
Liquid Helium said:
Just downloaded it, pretty cool that it seems to work with all EA games that you have a serial to, if not a real rival to steam it at least is better than what they had before.
Click to expand...

It's actually just (relatively) recent games. They've talked about adding in legacy titles though, so hopefully that will come along sooner rather than later.
 
Liquid Helium said:
pretty cool that it seems to work with all EA games that you have a serial to
Click to expand...
It doesn't. Even with stuff in the store. BC2 and Burnout Paradise worked for me, but Mass Effect and BF2 didn't. (For the latter, neither my old disc version or my Steam CD key.)

Then there's things like Mirror's Edge and SimCity 4 I don't even have keys for.

EA's slowly improving at this though.
 
benjipwns said:
It doesn't. Even with stuff in the store. BC2 and Burnout Paradise worked for me, but Mass Effect and BF2 didn't. (For the latter, neither my old disc version or my Steam CD key.)

Then there's things like Mirror's Edge and SimCity 4 I don't even have keys for.

EA's slowly improving at this though.
Click to expand...

I was actually able to register Mass Effect at this website.

https://activate.ea.com/gameactivation.do

After entering the code I created a new persona rather than using an already existing one based on advice I found on the EA website. It took my Crysis Warhead key but that didn't show up in Origin, but Mass Effect did.
 
benjipwns said:
Hey thanks, that worked.
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Yah, at one point it appears that was supposed to be how EA was going to add older games that didn't work via the in-client registration feature. Unfortunately it seems like it's pretty broken (i.e. taking Crysis Warhead but not actually adding it, not accepting my Crysis key, etc.) and they stopped supporting it, but it still works for some games.
 
I think this is confirmation that BF3 Limited Edition + Karkand, and a couple of other Limited Editions and Digital Deluxe versions are "Only on Origin" for the digital versions.
originonly.jpg

http://www.origin.com
 
You've got to fucking kidding me with the price:

cXCBf.png


That's the most expensive Digital Deluxe version I've seen. :|

I'm surprised they are keeping Battlefield 3 at $59.99.
 
crimsonheadGCN said:
You've got to fucking kidding me with the price:

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

That's the most expensive Digital Deluxe version I've seen. :|

I'm surprised they are keeping Battlefield 3 at $59.99.
Click to expand...
Yeah I looked at that on the UK site too and was like what....
BF3 is £39.99 here and ME3 is £54.99, I think I'll wait for retail.
 
Gram Negative Cocci said:
Has this roadmap been posted yet?

http://www.abload.de/img/originj8hd.png[IMG]

It's funny how most of us were afraid EA would release their own console... well they did but in digital form and on PC only.[/QUOTE]
[url=http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=433150]Yes, it has been posted.[/url]
Click to expand...
 
Wolves Evolve said:
Horrendous. Force people to use the service for a year before it has the basic stuff set up.
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Uh, it has basic stuff set up, you can register retail CD codes, download registered games, buy games etc. Atm it's just a EADM reskin.
 
So this stupid thing updated, and went back to it's default settings. I had started downloading Dead Space last night, and after the update, it started downloading from the beginning.

I had to go in settings and change the download folder back to what I had already set it as in order for the download to resume properly.
 
The app seems, I like having my games represented by box arts. I don't have any reason to switch to it, but it's better than the GFWL app. Then again, what isn't.
 
Pretty awesome that the NWN forum server that got hacked had full access to the EA account system which includes your Origin information.

Good start to your new service, have it completely compromised like a week after you launch.
 
Sinatar said:
Pretty awesome that the NWN forum server that got hacked had full access to the EA account system which includes your Origin information.

Good start to your new service, have it completely compromised like a week after you launch.
Click to expand...
Good thing I never had the urge to buy something on there. Once I have to thank EA for providing hilarious prices on their DD system (EuroGAFer here).
 
So are the only compromised accounts the ones associated with Bioware's old Never Winter Nights forum or have ALL EA accounts been compromised? Did they use the old NWN forums servers as a backdoor into EA's entire network? Or did they simply poach shit from that old server?

Edit: Re-reading Sinatar's post it seems like EA's entire network was accessed? wtf.
 
I just got Bad Company 2 off D2D, registered on Origin just fine.

I kinda wish there was an OT to ask this in...I'm wondering if anyone wants to friend me on Origin, play a few games to see how the friends lists work? My id's mattiewheelz.
 
Most of the people affected don't have Neverwinter Nights.

The Bioware hack included Bioware Social, meaning anyone with Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age that registered to get the free DLC. Bioware Social and EA Account got merged at some point, and the combined data was stored on the old servers.

The fact that they keep calling it the Neverwinter Nights server hack is just PR speak. The content of the message says that linked EA Accounts were compromised too.
 
jaundicejuice said:
So are the only compromised accounts the ones associated with Bioware's old Never Winter Nights forum or have ALL EA accounts been compromised? Did they use the old NWN forums servers as a backdoor into EA's entire network? Or did they simply poach shit from that old server?

Edit: Re-reading Sinatar's post it seems like EA's entire network was accessed? wtf.
Click to expand...

Any account linked to a Bioware game.
 
I tried to register my Bad Company 2 key from Steam on this and it asked me if I had either the Deluxe edition or normal, I choose Deluxe and it asked me for the code again, I entered and It says it's already being used but nothing shows up on my games list. I keep getting the same error now.
 
Metalmurphy said:
I tried to register my Bad Company 2 key from Steam on this and it asked me if I had either the Deluxe edition or normal, I choose Deluxe and it asked me for the code again, I entered and It says it's already being used but nothing shows up on my games list. I keep getting the same error now.
Click to expand...
You did it right, it just doesn't say 'game registered' or anything. Just refresh your list again.
 
mattiewheels said:
I just got Bad Company 2 off D2D, registered on Origin just fine.

I kinda wish there was an OT to ask this in...I'm wondering if anyone wants to friend me on Origin, play a few games to see how the friends lists work? My id's mattiewheelz.
Click to expand...

Not at work but add me: Steamking

oh, and Salsa or others, SHAD UP.
 
I've been adding adding my keys from other DD and retail, I like having a backup :)
LovingSteam said:
Not at work but add me: Steamking

oh, and Salsa or others, SHAD UP.
Click to expand...
Sorry but is cracking me up lol Steamking on Origin roflol
 
Vinci said:
Origin isn't competing with Steam back then though, is it?
Click to expand...

Obviously not. But people have rose colored goggles when it comes to Steam. I remember buying Half Life 2 and being unable to play it for the first couple of days because the authentication servers were being hammered. Oh, and it was a constant and excessive drain on ones CPU at that time.

Is Steam good now? Yeah, for the most part it is. But I fail to see why people are bitching and moaning about EA wanting to make their own service. Do people honestly want zero competition? I'm a huge advocate of having lots of people in any given industry as it breeds innovation. So while EA's new system may be subpar compared to what we mostly use now, its their right to do it. If people truly advocate a single distributor then by all means, vote with your money and boycott their games.
 
GrandHarrier said:
Obviously not. But people have rose colored goggles when it comes to Steam. I remember buying Half Life 2 and being unable to play it for the first couple of days because the authentication servers were being hammered. Oh, and it was a constant and excessive drain on ones CPU at that time.

Is Steam good now? Yeah, for the most part it is. But I fail to see why people are bitching and moaning about EA wanting to make their own service. Do people honestly want zero competition? I'm a huge advocate of having lots of people in any given industry as it breeds innovation. So while EA's new system may be subpar compared to what we mostly use now, its their right to do it. If people truly advocate a single distributor then by all means, vote with your money and boycott their games.
Click to expand...
I don't think he ever mentioned Steam in his post. That's you reading into it.

His point is that if you can't match the basic features people expect nowadays, that's bad. Believe it or not DD services have evolved since Steam first came out.

Competition is good of course, but I don't see him denying that anywhere in his post.

Also ditch the "it's their right to do it" bs please.
 
GrandHarrier said:
Obviously not. But people have rose colored goggles when it comes to Steam. I remember buying Half Life 2 and being unable to play it for the first couple of days because the authentication servers were being hammered. Oh, and it was a constant and excessive drain on ones CPU at that time.

Is Steam good now? Yeah, for the most part it is. But I fail to see why people are bitching and moaning about EA wanting to make their own service. Do people honestly want zero competition? I'm a huge advocate of having lots of people in any given industry as it breeds innovation. So while EA's new system may be subpar compared to what we mostly use now, its their right to do it. If people truly advocate a single distributor then by all means, vote with your money and boycott their games.
Click to expand...

1. Take a gander through previous pages of this thread, your points have been voiced and responded to.
2. We're not talking about friends list, achievements, cloud saves here. We're talking about something simple like not having to pay with euro's when your currency is dollars. Or when looking for a friend to add not have it be by region. Or to have an account history of your purchases. Real basic stuff that Origin doesn't have.
3. There is already competition in Gamersgate, D2D, Impulse. This isn't about competition with Steam since EA's Origin will only have EA games, at least for the foreseeable future.
 
This was mentioned on other forums and the responses really caught my eye

http://www.thegx.co/news/1524/ea-will-delete-origin-games-after-24-months-of-inactivity/

Here's what it says in the TOS:

5. Content and Entitlement Availability

Entitlements may only be held in Accounts belonging to legal residents of countries where access to and use of Content and Entitlements is permitted. Entitlements may be purchased or acquired only from EA or an authorized retailer. EA reserves the right to refuse your request(s) to acquire Entitlements, and EA reserves the right to limit or block any request to acquire Entitlements for any reason.

We do not guarantee that any Content or Entitlement will be available at all times or at any given time or that we will continue to offer particular Content or Entitlements for any particular length of time. We reserve the right to change and update Content and Entitlements without notice to you. If you have not used your Entitlements or Account for twenty four (24) months or more and your Account has associated Entitlements, your Entitlements will expire and your Account may be cancelled for non-use. Once you have redeemed your Entitlements, that content is not returnable, exchangeable, or refundable for other Entitlements or for cash, or other goods or services.
Click to expand...

Now I'm not a PC gamer (playing one game on Steam hardly counts to identify me as PC gamer IMO), but it seems from other forums that people are really pissed about this. I really don't see what the big deal is. It's 2yrs of inactivity. It sounds like EA is being generous with allowing an account to be inactive for that long.
 
lazybones18 said:
This was mentioned on other forums and the responses really caught my eye

http://www.thegx.co/news/1524/ea-will-delete-origin-games-after-24-months-of-inactivity/

Here's what it says in the TOS:



Now I'm not a PC gamer (playing one game on Steam hardly counts to identify me as PC gamer IMO), but it seems from other forums that people are really pissed about this. I really don't see what the big deal is. It's 2yrs of inactivity. It sounds like EA is being generous with allowing an account to be inactive for that long.
Click to expand...

I think its a huge fucking deal. No one comes and takes my boxed PC games from me if I don't play them for two years. I recently re-played Diablo II again by downloading it from my Blizzard account which I hadn't touched in at least 4 years. If it had been an EA game I would have come back to find all my games gone.

Will Steam be around forever? Who knows. However, I know that if they are still in business I still have my games.

Two years is a laughably short time to say "Fuck it, we're deleting your account, we can't store these two megabytes of data that correspond to your account forever, you know."
 
lazybones18 said:
Now I'm not a PC gamer (playing one game on Steam hardly counts to identify me as PC gamer IMO), but it seems from other forums that people are really pissed about this. I really don't see what the big deal is. It's 2yrs of inactivity. It sounds like EA is being generous with allowing an account to be inactive for that long.
Click to expand...
I still revisit games that are 20+ years old regularly. Not allowing more than 24 months of inactivity is unacceptable. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
 
i don't see the problem either... if i leave my dvds on a bookshelf for more than two years they also disappear into thin air, so it's just about the same
 
lazybones18 said:
This was mentioned on other forums and the responses really caught my eye

http://www.thegx.co/news/1524/ea-will-delete-origin-games-after-24-months-of-inactivity/

Here's what it says in the TOS:



Now I'm not a PC gamer (playing one game on Steam hardly counts to identify me as PC gamer IMO), but it seems from other forums that people are really pissed about this. I really don't see what the big deal is. It's 2yrs of inactivity. It sounds like EA is being generous with allowing an account to be inactive for that long.
Click to expand...

I have a few games on my EA client that I haven't touched for half of year, does this mean if I don't open it and keep it active in a year and a half, they will delete my games?
I don't think I would like it if I forgot about it and come back with all my games gone. It's not like I'm always in windows or gaming, let alone keeping my steam client or EA client or all of them opened.

I didn't know you have to keep them "active", I haven't played my 360 for over a year either since it's dead, I would hope whatever I had on the account would still be there if I decide to buy a new one, same goes to psn, etc. If everyone are using the same policy, well, it will probably be a pain in the butt for me if all of them are going to delete my stuff if I don't have time to keep all my accounts active.

Edit: My friends played Half life 2 when it first came out and we played a little counter strike together, they have never touched steam since, it would definitely suck if steam had the same policy, as their games will probably already be gone =P So I think this is a problem.
 
That is absolutely fucking ridiculous. Someone with posting privileges should make a new thread about that, we need to get some internet rage stirred up so EA can go "lol oops!" and change that shit.
 
coopolon said:
I was actually able to register Mass Effect at this website.

https://activate.ea.com/gameactivation.do

After entering the code I created a new persona rather than using an already existing one based on advice I found on the EA website. It took my Crysis Warhead key but that didn't show up in Origin, but Mass Effect did.
Click to expand...

Did this, had to create a new EA classic id (wtf is this shit?) then I acticated ME1 for my account but apparently I don't have it and its not in Origin either, even after restarting it a dozen times and refreshing my games list. Then I wanted to check my account history but oh well I only get an error page there. Also it won't let me activate BC2 (steam or retail copy ...), awesome! Origin just feels cumbersome and not even beta (for me).
 
if only we had had some clue in ea's past behavior in and out of the digital space that their storefront might offer an unreasonably stingy and consumer-unfriendly policy regarding long-term content ownership
 
Anteater said:
I have a few games on my EA client that I haven't touched for half of year, does this mean if I don't open it and keep it active in a year and a half, they will delete my games?
I don't think I would like it if I forgot about it and come back with all my games gone. It's not like I'm always in windows or gaming, let alone keeping my steam client or EA client or all of them opened.

I didn't know you have to keep them "active", I haven't played my 360 for over a year either since it's dead, I would hope whatever I had on the account would still be there if I decide to buy a new one, same goes to psn, etc. If everyone are using the same policy, well, it will probably be a pain in the butt for me if all of them are going to delete my stuff if I don't have time to keep all my accounts active.

Edit: My friends played Half life 2 when it first came out and we played a little counter strike together, they have never touched steam since, it would definitely suck if steam had the same policy, as their games will probably already be gone =P So I think this is a problem.
Click to expand...

Just because it is in the TOS doesn't mean they'll actually do it. I have games I bought ~4 years ago, haven't touched in over three years, and they are still in my Origin account and I can download them if I wanted too.

I do hope this point in the TOS gets more exposure though on the major blogs so that EA will address it/delete it.
 
Sorry for the bump;

I'm now in the middle of trying to get games to show up in my origin client.

Pros: I activated my standard BC2 and I got the digital deluxe edition instead :D

cons: No Mirror's Edge key and the livechat while a good system matched me up with this annoying broad who doesn't believe you can register steam games on origin at all.
 
EA just started advertising for a big "Summer Sale" via origin.

40% off boatloads of console games listed at http://store.origin.com/store/ea/html/pbpage.hotdeals, and $4.99 for some pretty decent PC games on origin like:

Mirror's Edge reg. 19.99 75% off (current steam price: 19.99)
Command & Conquer 4 Tiberium Twilight reg. 19.99 75% off (current steam price: 19.99)
Need for Speed Undercover reg. 9.99 50% off (current steam price: 9.99)

http://store.origin.com/store/ea/html/pbpage.summersale

NOTE: These deal's haven't been adjusted to buy at these prices yet, but supposedly it is happening soon(ish?). Valid starting midnight July 29th-31st (no timezone listed)
 
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