June 15 - Crysis 2 is pulled from Steam. after a day or two, EA clarifies: "It's unfortunate that Steam has removed Crysis 2 from their service," an EA representative clarified. "This was not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA. Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers hoping to sell content on that service - many of which are not imposed by other online game services. Unfortunately, Crytek has an agreement with another download service which violates the new rules from Steam and resulted in its expulsion of Crysis 2 from Steam. Crysis 2 continues to be available on several other download services including GameStop, Amazon, Origin.com and more." source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Origin-Steam-Crysis-2-FPS-digital-distribution,12945.html
July 11 - EA announces digital platforms for Battlefield 3. Origin, Gamestop, Impulse, Direct2Drive, Amazon -- everyone but Steam. after a huge outroar, EA removes the list of digital distributors from its website. it's still a 404 to this day. source: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/07/11/no-steam-release-for-battlefield-3/
actually playing the games however, they still have kinks to work out, especially with routers. and some games are even buggier than before <_<, and actually need some tinkering to fix <_<
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Nice catch BlAcK TuRtLe. But too bad your ass got SAAAAAAAAAAACKED.*tackles*
it would be nice if the competition was actually good. ea is free to do what they want with their games, but i'm certainly not going to cheer on, and hope for, the success of a worse service. the idea should be to beat steam at what it does, find ways to improve on that foundation and offer something more compelling. steam functions as a central platform for games more than it does a store, in my mind.
I actually think EA has good intentions here. they know that nobody is going to use their service if they're available on Steam. Steam has such a monopoly and mindshare that other DD services are kind of laughed at. for EA to make any headway, they need to do this.
they've made a conscious decision to get into digital distribution and from most accounts, the service is pretty good. would it be nice to have everything in one centralized location? obviously. it just sucks that they're cannibalizing their old games and making honest consumers suffer in the process. they should only do this going forward, not taking old games out of circulation.
Agreed, a monopoly isn't a good thing. Sure, for the consumer it's convenient to have everything in one place (steam), but this is a good thing overall I'd say.
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it'll be further interesting to watch people defend Valve here
It actually seems more like the EA representatives are trying to spin it all completely as Valve's fault when in reality they just want exclusives for their own service
not like Valve's blameless for trying to keep their near monopoly, but EA's just having good business sense and trying to direct the flak for their decision towards Valve imo
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From: Psycho_Kenshin | #015 Agreed, a monopoly isn't a good thing. Sure, for the consumer it's convenient to have everything in one place (steam), but this is a good thing overall I'd say.
A monopoly normally isn't a good thing, no.
But from what I've seen Steam always has huge sales, it's like Valve actually cares about consumer's pockets (I'm not saying they do, but it seems like it for some reason)
EA is never, and I repeat, never going to have the amount of sales Steam has.
what accounts are these? i have heard nothing good about origin, as a service, that makes it appealing. i have no problem with what ea does with their games - they'll change their tune if it ends up hurting their sales, or they'll see enough success to keep at it - but ea's prior history is more than enough to make me skeptical of any new service they introduce.
VincentLauw posted... From: Psycho_Kenshin | #015 Agreed, a monopoly isn't a good thing. Sure, for the consumer it's convenient to have everything in one place (steam), but this is a good thing overall I'd say. A monopoly normally isn't a good thing, no.
But from what I've seen Steam always has huge sales, it's like Valve actually cares about consumer's pockets (I'm not saying they do, but it seems like it for some reason)
EA is never, and I repeat, never going to have the amount of sales Steam has.
oh man!
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i've heard the exact opposite, actually, but i can't really say with any kind of certainty since i haven't used it, and have no real intention to use it. i wouldn't mind seeing another great service that takes the steam idea and makes it better, but that is not going to come from ea. they might see enough success for others to try, but it won't be origin. of course, the worst case scenario i see here is every large publisher having their own dd service that you have to use and download in order to play their games. that does nothing for me, personally, as a consumer, but make things more frustrating and obnoxious. hopefully we can avoid that.
From: neonreaper888 | #020 VincentLauw posted... From: Psycho_Kenshin | #015 Agreed, a monopoly isn't a good thing. Sure, for the consumer it's convenient to have everything in one place (steam), but this is a good thing overall I'd say. A monopoly normally isn't a good thing, no.
But from what I've seen Steam always has huge sales, it's like Valve actually cares about consumer's pockets (I'm not saying they do, but it seems like it for some reason)
EA is never, and I repeat, never going to have the amount of sales Steam has.
I'll be interested to hear what they do with Mass Effect 3. I would definitely want that consistency for the entire trilogy. I hope you can import your save if you switch services. you probably can.
From: transcience | #024 I'll be interested to hear what they do with Mass Effect 3. I would definitely want that consistency for the entire trilogy. I hope you can import your save if you switch services. you probably can.
Pretty sure the Steam version doesn't use any sort of special encryption on its save file. And the save file is stored on your computer. So yeah, should work.
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EA's service does seem to have better customer support- whether that's just for the short term to have an edge over steam I dunno!
then again it's not like it requires any effort to have better technical support on steam.
"Game A shows a black screen when I try and run it." "According to our servers you have bought Game A!" "...Yes, I have, and I want to know why it won't run." "But you have it. Do you want Game B?" "No I... look, is this technical support or not?" "Oh it isn't working? It won't run on a mac without doing this!" "I don't use a mac!" "I'M GLAD I COULD HELP."
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VincentLauw posted... A monopoly normally isn't a good thing, no.
But from what I've seen Steam always has huge sales, it's like Valve actually cares about consumer's pockets (I'm not saying they do, but it seems like it for some reason)
EA is never, and I repeat, never going to have the amount of sales Steam has.
So it's okay for Steam to reign over DD, as long as they're charitable every now and then? That's a ridiculous notion.
-- I like how each new topic you make reveals such varied facets of your idiocy. - foolmo Now this is entertainment!
Biolizard28 posted... VincentLauw posted... A monopoly normally isn't a good thing, no.
But from what I've seen Steam always has huge sales, it's like Valve actually cares about consumer's pockets (I'm not saying they do, but it seems like it for some reason)
EA is never, and I repeat, never going to have the amount of sales Steam has.
So it's okay for Steam to reign over DD, as long as they're charitable every now and then? That's a ridiculous notion.
They only reign over DD because they're the best at what they do.
If someone else starts doing it well, you might have an argument.
-- Joyrock Fresh from my first justified ban. Ever!
OctilIery posted... You can't complain about someone having a monopoly
Let me stop you right there, because that's not at all what I said.
Valve shouldn't have a monopoly, no, and it's good to see a major developer trying to give them some competition. I know exactly why Valve has an iron grip on DD right now and I don't need you of all people to explain it to me. My original post was in response to his idea that Valve can keep their monopoly as long as they have sales every now and then to boost waning sales of older games and keep developers fat and happy.
-- I like how each new topic you make reveals such varied facets of your idiocy. - foolmo Now this is entertainment!
I think it's a pretty enjoyable feud as well, but the only thing is that it means BF3 won't be on steam, which is annoying since I NEED that game.
Still, it's strange why EA is trying to pull this Origin thing... I haven't tried it, but apparently it's not actually a service like Steam, it's just an updated EA Download Manager, you just download the game and play it. You can even add the game to Steam and play it with the overlay just fine. I don't understand why EA is fighting with Steam for just a simple download client.
EA is probably rolling this out in phases. we'll see where it comes come Old Republic and Battlefield 3.
EA has been very interested in online play and digital distribution so I expect them to crank this up once they have a portfolio and a true online game.
Correct me if I'm wrong but one of you is saying Valve shouldn't have a monopoly and the other is saying Value doesn't have a monopoly. Are you guys even disagreeing with each other?
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Saying Steam has a monopoly on DD is like saying a kid has a monopoly on drink sales in his neighborhood when he sells ice cold lemonade (albeit with a few seeds in it), and the others sell warm turnip juice. Maybe if there was better competition it wouldn't be a "monopoly"!
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a lot of Steam's dominance is being first to market. the other half is them being good, of course, but with that proven install base it doesn't really matter what another service does. it needs to offer something unique in order to actually stand out. that's why GOG is so notable whereas Impulse is pretty whatever.
Steam is a pretty solid system as is; it's about as effective as XBL or PSN.
I've yet to see anyone provide even a slight bit of competition to Steam, and really, EA isn't going to do that; from the looks of it, Steam will remain to be the better service.
-- Joyrock Fresh from my first justified ban. Ever!
In a perfect world there wouldn't be DRM at all and stuff like Steam would just be a convenient place to buy stuff. but it's not like EA is pushing for that either, so whatever.
The only reason I have any games on Origin at all is EA gave them to me - Mass Effect 2 with the "Everyone who owns Dragon Age II gets ME2 free" thing, and Mass Effect 1 when they gave me $20 in Origin money after being unable to help with a ME2 360 problem I was having.