View Full Version : EA Dropping Steam?
MaydaX
06-14-2011, 10:16 PM
You may have missed your chance to purchase shooter Crysis 2 on anything but EA's new Origin service (http://kotaku.com/5808095/ea-is-launching-its-own-steam-competitor), the re-branded EA Store that aims to go head-to-head with the likes of Valve's Steam platform. Crysis 2 has been yanked from Steam, with EA saying it's now available "only on Origin (http://www.ea.com/crysis-2/pc-download)."
http://kotaku.com/5811996/crysis-2-pulled-from-steam-now-only-on-eas-origin
"Buy Now • Only on Origin"
http://www.ea.com/crysis-2/pc-download
http://www.ea.com/alice/pc-download
soulz2003
06-14-2011, 10:45 PM
That's a mistake, in my opinion. EA is loosing a lot of sales by doing this.
Pendragon
06-15-2011, 03:59 AM
Origin is OK for what it is but it don't do enough. Think back to the early days of Steam, long before they sold games from other people. (I preferred it that way)
I would like to see Origin do more before it pushes sales so hard. It has to be seen by the public as more than just a sales platform or they will only run it when they need something. Valve did so well at making a sales platform that we want to have running all the time.
zeroy
06-15-2011, 06:46 AM
"Buy Now • Only on Origin"
http://www.ea.com/crysis-2/pc-download
http://www.ea.com/alice/pc-download
Just on the above, note that BF3 still is listed and avail for pre-order on Direct2Drive.com (http://www.direct2drive.co.uk/10560/product/Buy-Battlefield-3-Download)
MaydaX
06-15-2011, 07:42 AM
Just on the above, note that BF3 still is listed and avail for pre-order on Direct2Drive.com (http://www.direct2drive.co.uk/10560/product/Buy-Battlefield-3-Download)
D2D gives players a zipped copy of what is essentially the retail DVD and a key to activate. I registered the Crysis 2 key that D2D gave me on Origin so the same can be true for BF3 and other future EA games.
The two "Only on Origin" Links I posted above (Crysis 2 and Alice Returns) are still on D2D:
http://www.direct2drive.com/10262/product/Buy-Crysis-2-Download
http://www.direct2drive.com/10805/product/Buy-Alice:-Madness-Returns-Download
zeroy
06-15-2011, 07:51 AM
D2D gives players a zipped copy of what is essentially the retail DVD and a key to activate. I registered the Crysis 2 key that D2D gave me on Origin so the same can be true for BF3 and other future EA games.
The two "Only on Origin" Links I posted above (Crysis 2 and Alice Returns) are still on D2D:
http://www.direct2drive.com/10262/product/Buy-Crysis-2-Download
http://www.direct2drive.com/10805/product/Buy-Alice:-Madness-Returns-Download
I see, thanks for clarifying this. I have Crysis2 on D2D also, ill try on Origin then!
For those who haven't tried the Beta it is EA Store redesigned with friends slapped on top of it.
MaydaX
06-15-2011, 08:11 AM
I see, thanks for clarifying this. I have Crysis2 on D2D also, ill try on Origin then!
Also works for BC2 and MoH. Least worked for the keys I was given.
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/6139/origingames.png
zeroy
06-15-2011, 08:26 AM
Also works for BC2 and MoH. Least worked for the keys I was given.
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/6139/origingames.png
Excellent, worked for Crisys 2! Always nice to have a digital copy online somewhere :p
MaydaX
06-15-2011, 04:05 PM
UPDATE: We’ve just received a response from EA. Apparently they did NOT pull Crysis 2 from Steam. Rather, it was a result of Steam’s policies. Here’s their response:It’s unfortunate that Steam has removed Crysis 2 from their service. 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.
Very interesting, even though we didn’t get an answer as to whether future titles would be Origin exclusive. I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that one.
http://www.gamefront.com/ea-pulls-crysis-2-from-steam-say-its-origin-only/
Misnomer
06-15-2011, 08:09 PM
I find this whole thing to be generally moronic.
I have 2 reasons for buying games on Steam. (reminder, I am American so pricing is reasonable for me).
1. I can use the overlay and talk to my GAMING friends while playing a game.
2. The auto-patching, news, forums support is unequalled. Even autopatchers built into games cannot be paused, restarted, used to replace corrupted files, backup games for reformats.
So Steam offers me social management and game file management like nothing else out there. Obviously to me, buying a game on another client means it should provide the same level or better of those two.
Origin's patching is tolerable, but it is really just downloading the disk image and running it. Updating is done via each game itself. Backing up is a pain because it requires saving the installers for each game. While you sit through install checks for Steam when you restore backups, it is so easy that is takes seconds and requires very few button presses. There is no "verify client" data type function or pausing of updating. So Origin file management is tolerable, but hardly competitive to Steam's.
As far as social support, Origin lets me add my Facebook friends to my list. :rolleyes:. I turned that down when Steam offered it recently too. My Facebook life and my gaming life are completely separate things. All the guys in my clan I have asked agree, while they might add one or two people from the clan to their Facebook buddy list, they would never want to add their Facebook buddy list en masse to their Steam or Xfire.
Even if they get a massive user base from BF3 and people manually build up new lists of friends. I now can't chat with my Buddy playing Brink, my buddy playing Homefront, my buddy playing BC2, my buddy playing COD:Blops... in the same client. Those are all games supported by my clan and currently they can contact me regardless of what I am playing because I keep 1 singular client open all the time.
So this is likely to support their Pogo games or expand to console gamers (Xbox Live ID and PSN ID are usable in Origin as well). Not compete with Steam in any realistic way. Otherwise they think that by making these exclusives they will creat a base community of EA players. That may have worked for Valve with HL2, but Steam exists now and people don't give up networks of friends for an inferior platform....even if the game is good. Ask Microsoft about GFWL. Better yet, ask Epic Games why they decided to bail on GFWL and go to Steamworks for DOW2's expansions after DOW2 was built on GFWL.
If Impulse, GFWL, and EA Downloader never could compete with Steam...slapping a friends list on EA Downloader won't do it. GFWL thought that the massively successful Xbox Live would work on PC....and it failed. Valve seems to get what matters to PC gamers on their platform. Either learn from them or just give gamers the option to use that platform.
EA's marketing folk are just full of blunders this week as far as customer support. First they screw over people who pre-ordered BF3 on Origin and now they screw over people who primarily use Steam. So they push us towards retail and then force us to use their client.... Obviously not really caring about the PC crowd since they figure Origin will only matter to console players once it is integrated on those platforms. The meaningless PC gamers who pre-ordered the game on Origin never crossed their minds when creating pre-order content deals with primarily console sellers like GAME and Gamestop.
Someone at EA marketing needs to get fired. This reeks of to many ideas not being coordinated and absolute ignorance of the needs of consumers. As a result we get contradicting messages and confusion about how to even purchase your products. You took the sheer excitement from E3 about BF3 and turned it into apprehension about how EA's marketing department will keep us from playing the game with either the Origin confusion or the pre-order through retail partners confusion. That is a massive failure to properly capitalize on excitement.
Someone should be fired and EA should find someone who actually understands the PC platform to replace them.
zeroy
06-16-2011, 05:21 AM
Agreed with Misnomer (yes, it does happen ;)) on this one, to me its just ANOTHER software to use, on top of Steam and D2D stuff too.
Steam is unequalled, no doubt on this one, if it wasnt for their mad EU pricing i would buy everything on it (or most anyway). Origin so far has crashed on me several times, i wont use the friend thing - already have Xfire, Steam, MSN.... i mean, how many software do we need to install these day to play??
Someone at EA marketing needs to get fired. This reeks of to many ideas not being coordinated and absolute ignorance of the needs of consumers. As a result we get contradicting messages and confusion about how to even purchase your products. You took the sheer excitement from E3 about BF3 and turned it into apprehension about how EA's marketing department will keep us from playing the game with either the Origin confusion or the pre-order through retail partners confusion. That is a massive failure to properly capitalize on excitement.
Someone should be fired and EA should find someone who actually understands the PC platform to replace them.
I don't like the idea of people losing their job but this has been a big **** up (excuse the language). After a really positive response to what was shown at E3 they now have the exact opposite this week. Complete negativity. This PWP has been known about before E3 but I think it is just dawning on people that these items will not be unlock-able and that the only way to get them is through Game or Game Station (not peoples preferred choice to buy form).
A boycott will probably not happen and if it did then its funny (from a PC perspective) how people boycott a game for a few unlocks compared to losing dedicated servers (MW2).
MaydaX
06-16-2011, 07:49 AM
After a really positive response to what was shown at E3 they now have the exact opposite this week. Complete negativity.
From BF3 PWP, to Origin and the latest Crysis 2 DLC, it's been a bad week for EA PR. Even John Riccitiello's comment about charging a $1 for ammo while playing Battlefield is getting some heat.
http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-3/1405701-ea-ceo-talks-about-pay-play-bf.html
I said before that BF3 may be DICE's CoD4 game that really puts them on the map but EA marketing will end up hurting it from all the nickel and diming.
From BF3 PWP, to Origin and the latest Crysis 2 DLC, it's been a bad week for EA PR. Even John Riccitiello's comment about charging a $1 for ammo while playing Battlefield is getting some heat.
http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-3/1405701-ea-ceo-talks-about-pay-play-bf.html
I said before that BF3 may be DICE's CoD4 game that really puts them on the map but EA marketing will end up hurting it from all the nickel and diming.
Listening to that and from what he is saying that charging people for ammo is not "price sensitive". So is he saying this is a bad idea. Probably not the best example either to use.
zeroy
06-16-2011, 09:43 AM
Listening to that and from what he is saying that charging people for ammo is not "price sensitive". So is he saying this is a bad idea. Probably not the best example either to use.
I think the reference was 1) for Battlefield Play4Free and 2) An example (bad one) to illustrate micro-transaction and how a player can be enticed to buy them.
I think the reference was 1) for Battlefield Play4Free and 2) An example (bad one) to illustrate micro-transaction and how a player can be enticed to buy them.
After a few listens I thought that as well. I think people are getting carried away now.
MaydaX
06-16-2011, 10:07 AM
After a few listens I thought that as well. I think people are getting carried away now.
Problem is both EA and Activison are too vague with information. If he pointed out that the ammo comment was referring to the P4F model then many would not have assumed it was for other BF games.
BF3 PWP is another fine example
May 23, 2011
http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2011/05/23/pwp.aspx
It's the middle of June and still no info for the rest of the world and boycott campaigns have started. Oddly enough a PWP FAQ (http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2011/06/13/physical-warfare-pack-and-back-to-karkand-questions-answered.aspx) was posted when the boycott news started spreading. Same happened with CoD Elite.
Anyway if steam removed Crysis 2 because of Origin then other Origin titles will likely follow. Just another case of vague information causing many to draw the wrong conclusions.
Problem is both EA and Activison are too vague with information. If he pointed out that the ammo comment was referring to the P4F model then many would not have assumed it was for other BF games.
BF3 PWP is another fine example
May 23, 2011
http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2011/05/23/pwp.aspx
It's the middle of June and still no info for the rest of the world and boycott campaigns have started. Oddly enough a PWP FAQ (http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2011/06/13/physical-warfare-pack-and-back-to-karkand-questions-answered.aspx) was posted when the boycott news started spreading. Same happened with CoD Elite.
Anyway if steam removed Crysis 2 because of Origin then other Origin titles will likely follow. Just another case of vague information causing many to draw the wrong conclusions.
Well there is supposed to be some "clarification" today which is why I think they are in a meeting today about. They can clarify it all they want but people are still going to be pissed if these items are not made available.
Misnomer
06-16-2011, 10:41 AM
Listening to that and from what he is saying that charging people for ammo is not "price sensitive". So is he saying this is a bad idea. Probably not the best example either to use.
Well I think he is pointing out that people would really be bothered by something like that whereas $50 upfront is fine for the content you get afterwards. Only after that do you go ahead and start charging higher prices for DLC because the customer is "invested" in the product. Which is when he tries to point out that doing it that way is not gouging.
Personally, I would rather see it that way than a microtransaction way. The store in TF2 has proven that to me. I am still old school like many here and would much rather pay just once for all the content, but if BC2 was considered a good way to do it for them I am okay with that. More DLC like the SPECACT would be fine with me, though if you get too many separate Vietnam packs...it would start to split the community far too many times.
Anyway, the PWP thing is massively poorly handled. Why would you announce something for a minority market like the UK without any announcement in the next couple days of something similar at least in the rest of the world. PWP may be a bad idea, but not as bad an idea as limiting the bonus to just one country in Europe. That is why I think someone in management needs to be fired for this, not the person with the idea. You hurt sales and the launch of Origin by saying these bonuses for pre-order will only be available in retail and you alienate most of you consumer base around the world by only putting it in one country...all immediately after crazy excitement from E3 that was likely driving pre-orders through the roof. Then this Crysis 2 thing makes everyone wonder where they will even be allowed to buy EA games. Someone high up did a bad job of seeing the big picture. That is their job that supposedly justifies their salary. Managment gets off too easy while developers get blamed.
zeroy
06-16-2011, 11:05 AM
Well there is supposed to be some "clarification" today which is why I think they are in a meeting today about. They can clarify it all they want but people are still going to be pissed if these items are not made available.
To be honest im not sure anymore "clarification" is required... the subject has been talked and talked some more for the past 2 - 3 weeks now. I think the only real clarification they can make is on the Weapon themselves and the fact that they will not un-balance the game, even then it will for sure trigger another wave of rage on the internets :undecided
To be honest im not sure anymore "clarification" is required... the subject has been talked and talked some more for the past 2 - 3 weeks now. I think the only real clarification they can make is on the Weapon themselves and the fact that they will not un-balance the game, even then it will for sure trigger another wave of rage on the internets :undecided
The thing is if this comes to pass that the weapons etc in this package are not un-balanced people will still say they are :undecided
Misnomer
06-16-2011, 11:17 AM
To be honest im not sure anymore "clarification" is required... the subject has been talked and talked some more for the past 2 - 3 weeks now. I think the only real clarification they can make is on the Weapon themselves and the fact that they will not un-balance the game, even then it will for sure trigger another wave of rage on the internets :undecided
The best thing they could do for internet rage would be to show that the weapons are all just skins. It would also be the worst thing for pre-orders at those stores because they would have proven they are not anything special. Retail relationships are more important than internet rage, so they won't do that. Which would be why they couldn't fix it the other way that would seem obvious....making the PWP available to Origin pre-orders. That would take away exclusivity from retail.
zeroy
06-16-2011, 12:27 PM
Well there you go....
just in:
We will unlock the Physical Warfare Pack to all BF3 players later – for free. Full details on the blog. http://t.co/sVKFiZB #BF3 (http://twitter.com/#%21/search?q=%23BF3)
Sources (http://twitter.com/#%21/Battlefield/status/81395538259476480)
Im off to rant since my pre-order isnt exclusive anymore!!!!
Misnomer
06-16-2011, 01:26 PM
Well there you go....
just in:
Sources (http://twitter.com/#%21/Battlefield/status/81395538259476480)
Im off to rant since my pre-order isnt exclusive anymore!!!!
Well put about the ranting. I am sure GAME will seeing a flood of canceled pre-orders if BF3 becomes available for better prices on Steam or Amazon or whatever now.
Thought I would like the post in the Submit news section where people are discussing this latest development. Well played by DICE. You can have some respect back from me now.
http://www.fpsadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=101443#post101443
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