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Sounds like EA's pretty serious about this whole “having its own digital platform” thing. How serious? Well, that's a silly question; didn't you read the headline? Oh, fine: it wants to take the crown for “worldwide leader in digital publishing.” Care to hazard a guess who's wearing that particular piece of royal bling right now? Let's just put it this way: it rhymes with... xalve?
"For us it's really about, we're the worldwide leader in packaged goods publishing, we'd like to be the worldwide leader in digital publishing,” EA Games president Frank Gibeau told GamesIndustry.biz.
"And we think that EA has unique strengths there related to what we can do with our content, because we're a content creator as well as a retailer in this business.”
He added, however, that EA games aren't going to simply up and disappear from competing services (unless, you know, Valve has anything to say about it). That said, he added that “at the same time you talk about platform exclusives like Halo or Uncharted, EA's going to have some of our own platform exclusives." The key word, of course, being some.
On the upside, the first potentially Death Star-sized Origin exclusive – Star Wars: The Old Republic – won't actually require the standalone Origin client. Instead, if you're hoping to have the game served up to you on the Internet's silver platter, you'll need to drop some coin in Origin's cup. So nothing particularly intrusive – at least, so far. The second coming of GFWL this most certainly is not. Thank your lucky stars/heavens/infi-tentacled trans-dimensional demon beasts as needed.
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someuid
June 17, 2011 at 2:45pm
Frank says:
"For us it's really about, we're the worldwide leader in packaged goods publishing, we'd like to be the worldwide leader in digital publishing,”
"And we think that EA has unique strengths there related to what we can do with our content, because we're a content creator as well as a retailer in this business."
What I heard:
"For us it's really about, we're so big we don't care what consumers want, and we want to shaft not only physical media but also digital media consumers because that's how we make loads of cash."
"Adn we think that EA has unique strengths like hyped up video games that we can use as leverage to get people to buy directly from us so we don't have to compete with anyone else and leave you stuck with fewer services and options. Because we're a content creator, it is only natural to be the only content distributor so we can control your every move, demand more of money, and leave you stuck with fewer options. Hopefully you fall under the spell of my amazing marketting terms so you won't bother to list our sad lineup of features and comapre them to the other services."
Frank, if you have even a hair's chance of being successful with this, you better do three things:
-List every positive thing you've heard about Steam and match them bullet point for bullet point.
-Have something extra special that Steam doesn't have, and offer it for free.
-Be paranoid and continue to innovate with new, free features rather than become lazy once you reach monopoly status.
Until then, I'm sticking with Steam. They've done me good and I'm going to reward them for it.
I don't think Frank has it in him. He's a spreadsheet monkey, not an innovator or creator.
Ghok
June 17, 2011 at 1:33pm
If the thing is a good service, I welcome it. If it's anything like itunes or Games For Windows Live, I have no interest in using it. EA doesn't have a great record with me, but I'll certainly give it a try if I have reason to.
Steam has always worked really well for me the entire time I've used them, so I think I'll be sticking to them.
ShockerX
June 17, 2011 at 1:30pm
First of all ... Remember that the old EA "steam" thing? There was (or is maybe?) one biggest problem, which is that when you buy a product from them, there is a time frame, like a year from what you bought, you'll have to buy a new copy again in order to download.
Very much unlike steam where you buy games, it is permanent and anytime.
So question is, does Origin have this limited time frame thing to download like its predecessor? If so, EA never learns, along with its additional bad record/reputation.
I like some of their games (Mass Effect, Battlefield BC 2), but I still hate EA with passion, especially when handling their gaming franchise (C&C or MoH anyone? :( ). In Eve-Online standing terms, EA is -9.5 with me right now (EA was actually -9.0, due of actual good games I mentioned).
I am still very excited for BF 3 and would be day 1 pre-purchase on steam ASAP, but if its origin exclusive, good bye EA, 100% for sure.
I'll even ditch ME 3, even though I have 6 save games with different scenario, 3 male and 3 female sheppards.
So EA needs to trend very carefully. I mean seriously. Any good gamer will know EA's record is pretty bad (So bad IMO). My wallet is doing the voting and one wrong move, say hello to perfect -10 standings
So yeah, guys, vote with your wallet, don't do piracy. Even if you pirate, it still tells the company how the game is doing, and can be a word of mouth to encourage others to buy the game, no matter how "bad" or "good" the game is.
someuid
June 17, 2011 at 2:49pm
"In Eve-Online standing terms, EA is -9.5 with me right now (EA was actually -9.0, due of actual good games I mentioned)."
Haha! -9.5 - yeah, that is about right.
EA also sound like those low sec pirates with their millions of excuses why someone should force those high-sec sheep into their waiting jaws in lowsec.
immersive
June 17, 2011 at 9:58am
I must say I have grown to love Steam. I remember when Steam was first born and I hated it just as much as the next guy. The resorses it took were beyond its time and my computer had a hard time running both Steam and a game.
Well now that I'm rockin an i7-2600k with 8GB of ram Steam dosn't seem so bad. I do still have a problem with having to have an internet connection to play my games I understand the reasoning behind it.
Now let me get onto my other complaints.
One of my largest complaints about Steam now is that they don't offer everything in the digital world. Where is any of the Adobe or AutoDesk products? Second is this exclusive content. Why can we not all get along. Why dose Steam have to remove EA games? It seems to me that us the consumers are going to be hurt by all this.
EA, Blizzard, Steam, Adobe, AutoDesk, etc. really need to allow there software on Steam, D2D, Origin, and any other services that pop up. They could work there deals behind closed doors and let the consumer decide where to spend there hard earned cash. Even if that ment spending $10 more at your prefered service for the software you want.
I for one would probably have multipule accounts so that I could find the best deal on the game I want. Why? Well to me $60 is way over priced no matter what game it is. The max I feel any game should cost in this day and age is $40 tops.
This may be off subject but I just had to let this out. Even though I have been drooling over Battelfield 3 ever since I seen the first trailer it saddens me EA had to pull what they did with the DLC stunt. Also if EA makes it Origin exclusive that will put another nail in its coffen for me. As a responsible consumer I will not be purchasing Battelfield 3 unless the DLC offered is revoked and I don't see that happening since I am sure the papers are already signed.
D00dlavy
June 17, 2011 at 8:26am
People are fucking in love with Steam! I'm actually offended by this new service and what this douche is talking about. There's nothing wrong with Steam or consumers' relationship with Valve, so this really only serves EA's greedy intentions and not a market demand.
The market is recoiling from this news. Say it ain't so, EA!
It is becoming harder and harder to be a discerning gamer.
haboh
June 17, 2011 at 9:45am
It's understandable that EA would rather keep all the money, instead of giving 30% or whatever it is to Valve, but then they should just sell it for less at Origin instead and I could make a choice!
D00dlavy
June 18, 2011 at 12:33pm
It would have to be 50% cheaper for me to download a new client and maintain two accounts. Like, the whole catalog.
haboh
June 17, 2011 at 6:41am
So how does this origin thing work? Is it like steam where you need it running to play the game, or more like Impulse & D2D where you can just download, install it and run the exe from anywhere?
I am also worried Battlefied 3 will be Origin excusive. If nothing else I'd like to see how many hours I've wasted on that game..
aFineWayToDie
June 17, 2011 at 6:51am
It's more like Impulse or D2D where you can download and run it from anywhere. Hell, I have all my games I bought using Origin linked to my Steam account via shortcuts. So I can play games I bought with Origin, in Steam, with the overlay and everything. Honestly, Origin isn't a bad service. I think people just need to give it a chance. I already pre-ordered BF3, but if I hadn't I wouldn't mind buying it on Origin. Like I said, it's a good service, people just need to give it a chance.
freak0823
June 17, 2011 at 1:37pm
That's flat out wrong. It's just like Steam. You have to have Origin running to play a game. It's not like the old EADM that they had. This is a crappier version of Steam. I know it's new and should get better and smoother, but so far it's just pissed me off because I know if I was using Steam, it would've been easier and quicker.
I only have one game on there so far (Alice: Madness Returns) and it hasn't been the greatest experience. It probably isn't typical, but I've quit the game but Origin still says I'm playing it. I couldn't relaunch the game or exit Origin because it thought I was playing. I had to kill the process in the task manager. Stuff like that. Let's just hope it gets better. Even if it does though, more than likely I won't buy anything else through there, even if it means I miss a game or miss all of EA's offerings. I don't like having more than one Steam-like service on my computer.
bubbachuck
June 17, 2011 at 4:19am
except EA has the worst rep of any gaming company for PC gamers. Valve is like the newegg of PC gaming. EA is like the Best Buy of PC gaming.
Marthian
June 16, 2011 at 11:51pm
pfft, I haven't heard anything about EA letting not so big developers coming onboard, thinking Indie games. Thats one reason Steam is so popular. Another is ... well too much features we all know right?
