Origin Adds Capcom Warner and THQ

Komedy · 27 Oct 2011 at 20:24

Beginning in November, EA's Origin service will offer PC downloads from Capcom, Warner Bros. Interactive and THQ. This third-party support means the service will be able to offer Batman: Arkham City, Saints Row: The Third and more.

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/121/1210840p1.html

gropingmantis · 27 Oct 2011 at 20:32

As I said before:

This is a silly move by EA unless they undercut Steam massively (a very good thing). As if they are the same price (more likely) then what are you going to buy it on: the proven platform that offers so much and you have all your games on OR the beta platform that you were forced to use for one game?

They should have waited till the platform was more mature as now they HAVE to lower prices significantly in-order to get anyone to buy from them and if they don't and the games flop on Origin then no other third-party devs will want to use it.

KNiVES · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:01

People moan about Origin a lot, but do you really want Steam to monopolize the market? We all know what happens when a monopoly is formed. Steam has some great deals nearly all the time, but now with Origin around, the pressure is on to provide even more value for you, me and everyone else.

Purdy · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:07

KNiVES said:
People moan about Origin a lot, but do you really want Steam to monopolize the market? We all know what happens when a monopoly is formed. Steam has some great deals nearly all the time, but now with Origin around, the pressure is on to provide even more value for you, me and everyone else.

Aslong as games continually move towards steamworks like the THQ ones i don't really care if they are on both, as long as they are on steam. I'd rather steam have a monopoly than lack many games in the future i want though.

orderoftheflame · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:10

KNiVES said:
People moan about Origin a lot, but do you really want Steam to monopolize the market? We all know what happens when a monopoly is formed. Steam has some great deals nearly all the time, but now with Origin around, the pressure is on to provide even more value for you, me and everyone else.

This. I don't intend to use Origin to buy anything that I can't get on Steam, but I'm more than happy to have something to get them to rethink their pricing model.

I love Steam, and want it to be a clear market leader (which it already is), but not a monopoly, especially with the release pricing that it currently has.

gropingmantis · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:14

orderoftheflame said:
This. I don't intend to use Origin to buy anything that I can't get on Steam, but I'm more than happy to have something to get them to rethink their pricing model.

I love Steam, and want it to be a clear market leader (which it already is), but not a monopoly, especially with the release pricing that it currently has.

This is what I was trying to say. If EA have any sense they will drop their prices to try to encourage people to buy through Origin (rather than forcing them like jerks as the have been doing) and so Steam will have to reduce prices to compete....however I am not sure I trust EA to have any sense and so they will kill off Origin and we will be back to square one.

orderoftheflame · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:18

gropingmantis said:
This is what I was trying to say. If EA have any sense they will drop their prices to try to encourage people to buy through Origin (rather than forcing them like jerks as the have been doing) and so Steam will have to reduce prices to compete....however I am not sure I trust EA to have any sense and so they will kill off Origin and we will be back to square one.

The problem is, Steam's pricing is generally set by Publishers, which I think has always been a bad model (and usually results in RRP prices). Valve need to move away from this without scaring publishers off, even if it means reducing their own profits.

I don't know if EA will go with the same model resulting in identical prices, or will take it into their own hands and undercut Steam.

The real thing I don't want to happen is half the publishers start going "Hmm we make more profit on Origin, lets go exclusive with it", and the other half doing the same for Steam. Rather than having a two horse race for which place is cheaper, we'd end up with two one horse races and no price drops.

gropingmantis · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:21

orderoftheflame said:
The problem is, Steam's pricing is generally set by Publishers, which I think has always been a bad model (and usually results in RRP prices). They need to move away from this without scaring publishers off, even if it means reducing their profits.

I don't know if EA will go with the same model resulting in identical prices, or will take it into their own hands and undercut Steam.

The real thing I don't want to happen is half the publishers start going "Hmm we make more profit on Origin, lets go exclusive with it", and the other half doing the same for Steam. Rather than having a two horse race for which place is cheaper, we'd end up with two one horse races and no price drops.

Thats what I was trying to tell people when EA started pulling games from Steam. You wont get competitive pricing if you have exclusive titles.

I don't think that it would be unreasonable for Valve to reduce the amount they take from publishers. I do not know how EA will be pricing but judging from the way that they are pricing their own games I feel it will be RRP like Steam.
Which basically means that nobody will buy the Origin version and third parties will be scared off.

Gimpymoo · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:30

KNiVES said:
People moan about Origin a lot, but do you really want Steam to monopolize the market? We all know what happens when a monopoly is formed. Steam has some great deals nearly all the time, but now with Origin around, the pressure is on to provide even more value for you, me and everyone else.

That would be great if Valve actually set the prices in the first place which they do not.

Gimpymoo · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:31

Saints Row: The Third is Steamworks no?

Maybe "Origin Works" too?

Confused.

gropingmantis · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:34

Gimpymoo said:
Saints Row: The Third is Steamworks no?

Maybe "Origin Works" too?

Confused.

Good point. If you buy on Origin and then activate on Steam then

Gimpymoo · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:38

Maybe incorrect journalism by IGN?

if true though... raises more questions...

orderoftheflame · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:41

Gimpymoo said:
Saints Row: The Third is Steamworks no?

Maybe "Origin Works" too?

Confused.

Steamworks is confirmed, I've no idea how long ago all these deals with EA have been going on though.

I presume that none of the games in question are using the Steam API for multiplayer, unless Origin is going to do some kind of key only sales for certain titles (seems unlikely).

If we end up with retail titles that can be activated on both clients, I've no complaints with that.

Gimpymoo · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:47

orderoftheflame said:
Steamworks is confirmed, I've no idea how long ago all these deals with EA have been going on though.

I presume that none of the games in question are using the Steam API for multiplayer, unless Origin is going to do some kind of key only sales for certain titles (seems unlikely).

If we end up with retail titles that can be activated on both clients, I've no complaints with that.

An interesting thought.

I cannot think of a single Multiplayer Steamworks game though which has not used the Multiplayer API, that is part of the reason they have it in the first place so matchmaking is easy.

Otherwise, the Origin version will need a seperate multiplayer front end/back end to be developed.

Komedy · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:48

Competition is certainly hotting up on the Digital Distribution front. The timing of this perhaps has more to do with potentially the biggest player entering the UK market in the next weeks - Amazon.

For us a consumers it can only be good times ahead

Tute · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:49

I'm all for competition, but i'm really rooting for Origin to flop spectacularly. I could count on one hand the number of good things EA have done for their consumers, and I think Origin will just be another way to screw money out of people.

gropingmantis · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:50

Komedy said:
Competition is certainly hotting up on the Digital Distribution front. The timing of this perhaps has more to do with potentially the biggest player entering the UK market in the next weeks - Amazon.

For us a consumers it can only be good times ahead

Wait Amazon are releasing a client?

Gimpymoo · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:53

Erm, is this not the same path we went down which led to "Neil-gate" - lol

Gimpymoo · 27 Oct 2011 at 21:57

Tute said:
I'm all for competition, but i'm really rooting for Origin to flop spectacularly. I could count on one hand the number of good things EA have done for their consumers, and I think Origin will just be another way to screw money out of people.

THIS.

Agree with you completely.

E.A are bunch of faceless corporates. Valve are gamers and it shows in what the company's do and how they interact with their community.

I really want Valve to man-up in this one and tell E.A to shove it up their *** although they do have the E.A Partners contract with them for their physical media publishing.

If I have to place a flag anwhere, I will personally take my flag and stick it in Gabes backside. Valve for the win. Origin ultimately WILL BE NO GOOD.

orderoftheflame · 27 Oct 2011 at 22:00

gropingmantis said:
Wait Amazon are releasing a client?

Yep, the thread discussing it here got slightly overshadowed by... Other events...

Gimpymoo said:
An interesting thought.

I cannot think of a single Multiplayer Steamworks game though which has not used the Multiplayer API, that is part of the reason they have it in the first place so matchmaking is easy.

Otherwise, the Origin version will need a seperate multiplayer front end/back end to be developed.

There's a few. Off the top of my head DoW2 was a Steamworks title that used GFWL for MP. In the majority though, you're right. If you're putting the effort in to make a game Steam only, it makes little sense to not use all of the Steamworks game features.

Making two separate matchmaking back ends makes even less sense though, I don't know why you'd double your work and divide your player base (And asks the question, will EA develop their own Multiplayer API rather than just distributing).