Head of E.A Origin says "Steam sales are bad" & wants Origin to be the hub for gamers

[Gimpymoo]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-06-06-david-demartini-origin-wants-to-be-the-hub

Could not find a previous thread for this.

 

[Gimpymoo]

I think its funny that people picture valve as a big fluffy teddy bear.

If you were drowning in a well they wouldn't rush to save you.

They are a game developer/reseller.

I would not expect them to save me.

I would call 999.

I do laugh at the thought of ringing E.A and saying:

Me:"Help, I am on fire"
E.A Rep: "We can sell you a fire blanket for £9.99"

 

[Gimpymoo]

and the guy is right "deep discount" sales on steam do cheapen intelectual property because loads of people will wait for a game to be on one of those sales before buying it when otherwise they would have bought it full price.

But does this mean E.A are against such sales? Mmm, now I see where they are going...

No retail sector.

Full RRP + NO SALES.

I think you have to factor that these are not "lost sales".

The heavy discounts do not come MOSTLY until after the "golden time" of a games release.

Those who want it, already have it.

Sure, keep it on the "shelf" by all means at £35 but do not expect to sell that many.

Me buying "Game X" for £4 does not cheapen it for me. It means I get to play a game I would not otherwise have purchased anyway.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Sure, when the original price set by publishers is never even close to being competitive.

That is the key to all this.

Some people think Valve have a monopoly, they only publish their own stuff which we all know, they do not do that often

NOW.

Lets take E.A/Origin.

They want to develop/publish/distribute all through themselves.... THAT ladies and gentleman is a monopoly and looking at the amount of content E.A publish on a yearly basis, that is a HUGE monopoly.

This is going to be even more of a battleground when the next gen consoles hit.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Dont think he likes it.

LOL

 

[Gimpymoo]

LOL.

Anyone object if I compiled this thread in letter form and sent it recorded delivery to that man?

 

[Gimpymoo]

He is an idiot.

He talks as though Valve waterboard developers/publishers into offering their games on sale.

They do it because they KNOW it makes them money AND generates a buzz about a product which would otherwise be dead.

He is pretty much saying "We do not like giving our customers good sales". Same old E.A, bunch of greedy ****** *******.

Well E.A, I do not like you so **** ***.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Would they be contradicting themselves if any E.A games are posted in the Steam summer sale?

I will LOL VERY loudly if E.A are the only games not on sale.

I am certain they will be the first ones to offer their old **** which is not selling too well at a reduced price to garner sales from an otherwise dead game.

I really hope #***EA starts trending on Twitter

I am expecting the "BF3 - Super Dooper, all **** included edition" to appear on Steam in the near future. They can get on their knees and kiss my butt cheeks if they think I am going anywhere near it.

"Hey, I know we got the developer to lie about the PC build and then want to charge you the same price AGAIN to play the expansion packs but hey, Origin is Groovy".

The same company who pretty much gave the finger to the PC as a gaming platform and gave nothing but idiotic reasons.

**** E.A, **** David DeMartini.

Then, he starts mentioning Indie developers as though E.A are some shining beacon for the independent gaming community. Yes, E.A - lol. Does he REALLY believe we are going to sit there and let him spoon feed us this complete **** ****? He goes on about his phone being off the hook with developers ringing him, really?

He mentions E.A are now open armed and will give hugs to everyone.... What a difference 2 years makes Mr DeMartini.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/247910/interviews/eas-david-demartini/

It all starts with the selection process because - and I don't want to use the term garbage-in-garbage-out - but if we don't pick the right partner, we could run into problems.

We probably screen 100 to 200 partners to find just one. The selection process is extensive and it's worldwide in nature. It's an exclusive club.

What a total bunch of idiots.

Yes, I dislike E.A and apologise for going off on a "keyboard warrior" like rant but this is what that company does to people - lol.

Right now, would I miss E.A and their shareholders if they closed tomorrow? No, I would not.

DIE E.A

 

[Gimpymoo]

EA can go and fully submerge a flagpole up their rear end, thank you.

LOL

Another to add to the list

Nice work.

Mind if I upload it to my site and share on Twitter?

 

[Gimpymoo]

i guess its justified to bash E.A though when they make statements such as this

Fixed

Were it not for Steam, then I think Origin would not have sales going by the statements in the article.

They only have them now to help gain a userbase.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Go to the dayZ thread and theres people wanting the game but do not wanna pay £20 for it which to be honest aint that much for a game. But people saying they want to till the sales in return the developer is bow losing out.

So someone who has yet to purchase the game nearly three years after release is saying "Too expensive", where is the lost sale?

Truth be told, they have no intention of buying the game at anything less than 10p anyway.

 

[Gimpymoo]

and valve would kill to have the revenue of EA
Looking forward to fiscal 2013, EA expects an approximate net revenue of $4.07 billion
in 2010 valve were estimated to be in the hundreds of millions, maybe tops now they are 1-2bil.

What is relevant is that E.A have many shareholders to feed, unlike Valve.

 

[Gimpymoo]

free 90 day hosting of indie crowd-funded titles

Would be interesting to know their commission after the 90 days. Their shareholders need feeding somehow, anyone who thinks otherwise is being very gullibal if they are taking E.A statement at face value.

Nearly all devs who have spoken out also say that Steam has the fairest terms. I cannot imagine E.A being the same.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Did find it a bit cheeky to start talking about Origin only being around for a year though, as it is basically a reskinned version of EA Downloader which is well old, I've got purchases from 2009 and it seems it was around for a few years prior to that.

Good point.

They talk about it as their "first crack of the whip" and it soo was not.

E.A Downloader was terrible.

 

[Gimpymoo]

We [Origin] won’t be doing that [deep-discounting in sales]. Obviously they think it’s the right thing to do after a certain amount of time. I just think it cheapens your intellectual property. I know both sides of it, I understand it. If you want to sell a whole bunch of units, that is certainly a way to do that, to sell a whole bunch of stuff at a low price. The gamemakers work incredibly hard to make this intellectual property, and we’re not trying to be Target.

http://blogs.battlefield.com/2012/09/10th-anniversary-intro/

Today only: Battlefield Anniversary Sale
To kick off the celebrations, Origin are discounting every PC Battlefield game currently on sale on Origin to just $10 or equivalent in your territory. Head to Origin now to stock up on the Battlefield games missing in your collection, but make sure to do it today. The offer only lasts until midnight today on September 20th (incidentally the date when Battlefield 1942 originally launched in Europe).

Saw this on another forum, EA are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Battlefield series discount all games to £9.99 each on Origin for today only...

http://store.origin.com/store/eaeme.../categoryID.60028300/childCategoryID.60028300

I call that deep discounting.