EA acknowledges gamer distaste for Origin "We get it." – EVP Andrew Wilson

[MissChief]

I'm all for Steam getting some competition. However EA isn't the company I want competing and judging by the negativity surrounding it I'm assuming plenty of others feel the same way.

We could have Activision? <shudder>

Who else is big enough to try and pull people away from Steam? Ubisoft? TRhey've tried. There isn't really anyone else and, lets be honest, Activision's primary focus is and always will be consoles so as long as Playstation and Xbox online stores keep selling the CoD games at full RRP even when they're 2-3 years old Activision couldn't care less about the odd copy of CoD4 being sold at £30 on Steam as they've probably sold 5-10 copies on Console.

There isn't anyone else really, Origin is the competitor, just just need to open it up to indy games, increase the friends limit and make it MUCH easier to buy older titles at genuine discounts.

 

[almoststew1990]

Steam is a whole platform now really, with the social, workshop, community trading cards, inventory etc, and as a result You don't have to buy your steam games from steam. Origin is trying to be a platform too which is why I have a problem. If origin was just a website then I wouldn't have an issue.

I don't see all the hate for origin as an application. It isn't any slower than steam, doesn't have any tehnical issues. The gui and store layout is a bit pants. But really I think there are far more worthwhile parts of ea to hate than origin.

 

[Raumarik]

^^ What he said, it's a community app as well as a game selling platform, what would make it complete for me would be if they bought Mumble or Teamspeak and incorporated it right into the Steam application, current one isn't quite good enough.

 

[Diplexbullet19]

I think Greenmangaming could give them a run for the money if GmG got more staff and better servers.

 

[Raumarik]

Big fan of GMG so fingers crossed

 

[m4rk84]

We could have Activision? <shudder>

Who else is big enough to try and pull people away from Steam? Ubisoft?

Why does it have to be a publisher? I think it would be far better if perhaps a retailer took a pop at the digital download games market and gave Steam some competition.

I could totally see a scenario where Amazon or even a smaller establishment like GMG took a pop at steam with their own client type thing. The result would be far better for us the consumer then Origin.

 

[Raumarik]

Whoever does it needs to put two factor authentication in as a minimum, GMG or someone out of the blue should/could go for it. I'm all for competition to steam!

 

[ZombieFan]

Why does it have to be a publisher? I think it would be far better if perhaps a retailer took a pop at the digital download games market and gave Steam some competition.

I could totally see a scenario where Amazon or even a smaller establishment like GMG took a pop at steam with their own client type thing. The result would be far better for us the consumer then Origin.

Amazon already kind of do this with their US store but I think it's just 'buy and download'. None of the bells and whistles you get in Steam. I don't know if they have any plans to roll it out to the UK.

 

[m4rk84]

Amazon already kind of do this with their US store but I think it's just 'buy and download'. None of the bells and whistles you get in Steam. I don't know if they have any plans to roll it out to the UK.

Yeh I'm aware of this, but I don't think that's really some competition. If they are serious about taking some of Steams market dominance they need to commit to a full featured platform like Steam with all the bells and whistles.

I'm a little surprised Amazon have never attempted it tbh, they have all the infrastructure ready to go. Seems like a perfect fit.

Perhaps they feel Steam already sells at such reasonable prices they have no way to compete?

 

[GIBURROWS]

My beloved Westwood Studios

Maxis - Sim City

 

[Kainz]

Origin is just the easiest part of the EA empire to dislike, but what EA don't seem to understand is the perception that they take over companies or development of games and then ruin them or turn them into cash cows.

DAOC and Ultima Online being two beautifully stupid examples.

You mentioned UO! *bursts into tears*

 

[Tummy]

Has Omaeka posted yet saying Origin is not that bad and Steam is the enemy? .

 

[Trig]

I dont mind Origin, it'd be nice if the autoupdate feature worked properly but other than that its no worse than Steam imho..

I'd rather EA spent time and money fixing bugs in games rather than pretending bugs dont exist or trying to distract people from the bugs with "Oooh look new maps, vehicles, DLC" etc sheeeet that they normally do...

 

[Raumarik]

You mentioned UO! *bursts into tears*

*hands out tissues*

Hope you lot enjoyed Eurogamer!

 

[Gerard]

Nope, as in boot up time, steam takes about 1 minute and origin takes about 10 seconds. If steam had that it'd be more awesome.

A minute to load up steam? Takes about the same time as origin for me, about 10-15 seconds at most.

 

[Raumarik]

Probably has a lot of junk in the Steam folder needing cleared out, Origin/Steam load at similar rates for me, but Steam loads on startup where as I tend to only load origin when I want it.

 

[Random Guy]

Why do so many on here think steam have right to the monopoly, that is just laughable, oh i wont buy Mass effect three because it's not on steam is just lol

No one has the right to a monopoly. Its just that EA are opportunistic swindlers responsible for some of Gaming's most heinous crimes, whereas Valve are masters at giving gamers what they want - because being gamers and not suits, Valve just understands.

And I think that no matter what EA does, their rep will always live with them. As a PC gamer the facts are clear - everyone knows who drove this platform forward while every major Publisher was singing from the PS3/XBox 360 Hymn Sheet.

In fact, just talking about EA is tempting me to cancel my BF4 Pre-order and just buy Arma 3

 

[MeMeMeMe]

You're missing the fact that EA used to use Steam until they had a disagreement about how much money Valve skims off the top. Valve wouldn't negotiate and therefore lost EA's business.

You're missing the fact that EA gave press releases worded to give that impression, but Valve has never commented on why EA wanted to pull their games off the platform.

It's patently obvious that EA wanted to make its latest, biggest games exclusive to Origin, so they could crow about how many people are using Origin. When in fact, the majority of those people wouldn't be using it, if they play those games without it.

Because Steam has its big fat Gabe-sized hands all over the pie. They take a fair chunk of the revenues if you publish on their platform. And also you depend on third parties for your distribution, and surrender some control. Publishers don't like that.

So basically, EA is trying to cut the middle-man. Ironic, isn't it?

I quibble with your suggestion that Valve take a large chunk. We know from previous interviews with indie developers that the Valve cut is low, and way more advantageous to developers than other distribution systems.
And don't forget, Steam is a distributor, so of course its not free. No publisher ever has said its costs are high.

 

[Final8y]

You're missing the fact that EA used to use Steam until they had a disagreement about how much money Valve skims off the top. Valve wouldn't negotiate and therefore lost EA's business.

No it was not about how much was skimmed off the top, it was about DLC.

It was about that you could buy a game on steam but the DLC could be bought elsewhere, through the game directly to EA and may not be available to buy through steam at all.

 

[Final8y]

Origin badly need to increase the friends limit. 100 isn't enough, especially as EA/Dice made the utterly and completely retarded decision to base the BF3 Battlelog friends list on your Origin Friends list which means you're also limited to a hundred BF3 friends. Stupid, stupid thing to do.

100! i cant get more than 36, it says friends list is full.