Digital distribution seems to be the game purchasing method of the future. As of now, if players want to be able to get new titles without having to worry about stores selling out, they can simply download their title of choice via either Valve‘s Steam service or EA‘s Origin. This is still a relatively new concept, however, so there isn’t a definitive “right” way to do it. As such, there is some disagreement as to how to properly use digital distribution.
One of the major points in Steam’s favor is good deals and discount sales – a good example being the recent Because We May deal. EA, however, doesn’t hold the same viewpoint as most gamers.
In an interview with GamesIndustry International, EA’s Senior Vice-President of Global Ecommerce and head of Origin, David DeMartini, said that Steam’s constant sales and price-cutting have cheapened the intellectual properties, and that Origin would be doing something different.
DeMartini didn’t specify what exactly Origin would be doing different – indicating that they plan to reveal that bit of information at a later date. He continued by talking about a recent announcement they made regarding crowd-funded titles, through properties such as Kickstarter. Any crowd-funded titles that would be distributed through Origin would be waived of any service fees for the first 90 days, which DeMartini said was the “first thing Origin did that no one could complain about.”
He concluded by saying he felt this would be a good way to please the hardcore gamers as well as the independent developers – and would, in turn, encourage more developers to utilize their ideas. He does seem right in that regard, and it does fit with their apparent desire to appease their fanbase, since they did ask them for ideas.
If nothing else, DeMartini and EA aren’t shy about saying what they think of their competition. Then again, Gabe Newell hasn’t been silent on his thoughts on Origin either, so this isn’t that much of a surprise. Still, DeMartini didn’t give much to back up his statements, so whether or not they can be taken seriously is up for debate.
What are your thoughts on DeMartini’s statement? Is he right that Origin’s waving of service fees will be good for indie developers?
Source: GamesIndustry [via Joystiq]
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So wait, EA has the balls to come out and say “Valve is doing it wrong by giving people deals. The right way to do it is gouge people for full price on all games”
There is a reason why Steam is number 1 and Origin is pretty much a ghost town that no one wants to use.
EA is so hilarious sometimes.
Yeah, don’t ever do any sales, Origin. Let’s see how long you stay in service with that attitude. In the mean time, I’ll be having fun playing all the games I bought on Steam.
@Kholdstare
Especially now with the community made maps for Portal 2, there’s pretty much an endless stream of new content for that game, lol.
I laughed my ass of when they said “first thing that Origin did that no one could complain about”. Origin is a POS game distributor and EA is ruining their IP to the ground. Mass Effect, Crysis, Dragon Age, any sports game, Battlefield, Dead Space. They talk plenty of s*** but just trip all over themselves. I am done with EA. Now that ME3 is done for I am abandoning ship.
I think it’s cute how EA think’s that it’s even competition for Steam. I doubt gabe is losing any sleep over Origin. Competition wise, Origin is to Steam as Daiktana is to Call of Duty
Speaking of Kickstarter, here is one I think a lot of you should be interested in: http://kck.st/LUiPhC
It will be a truly realistic first-person shooter. The company was started by John Sonedecker, the lead designer of the original Rainbow Six games back in the Redstorm Entertainment days. They want to make a game where you complete missions in a realistic manner based on tactics and skill. No artificial balancing, unlocks, health regeneration, nothing that’s unrealistic. Visit their kickstarted for more information. I pledged to this project, I hope some of you guys would too, and spread the word if you’re looking forward to having a truly realistic shooter once again… As low as $15 will get you the full game, which is a steal no matter how you look at it…
I’m sure it will be realistic. Sorry but after many developers try to get the whole “realistic” feel into a fame they always fail. Even big time developers with like $30 Million in resources. I won’t hold my breath or even bother. I support small developers but if it’s not an arcade style game, it’ll flop.
Ok, thanks for your input. I’m sure the original Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear, and original Ghost Recon were flops too. And so was the original Operation Flashpoint. Always glad to hear something constructive. Go ahead and keep spending your money on the same COD games that come out every year, then wonder why nobody bothers to try something different. Thanks anyway.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I can’t believe people still use the “hurr go pley da COD you n00b”. Seriously? Did I ever mention the Rainbow Six games sucked? No, they were fun as hell. All I am saying is, if you need your ideas to be funded by random people on the internet, you are a butterfly.
[Edited for profanity]
Man, I’ve met my intellectual equal… /sarcasm
…thanks for the info….imma see how much i can give them, & i seriously hope they rech their goal….itd be a shame for this to not be funded….
*reach
@Luno
They still have a month, but they definitely need the word to be spread. I post the link on my facebook pretty much daily and I mention it in any gaming site where Kickstarter or realistic shooters are the topic. Spread the word if you can and ask others to spread the word. I desperately want some options in terms of realistic shooters. Because right now ARMA III looks to be the only option in terms of modern warfare. For WWII era things we have Red Orchestra. Which this company actually had a hand in its development.
….will do ken j…..
I thought the whole point of sales was to “cheapen the intellectual property” to encourage people to buy more games. There’s a few games I bought from Steam because of sales, money that would not have been spent if the sale did not occur. If EA wants to be anti-sale then they can go without making a little extra cash…sounds fair to me.
@Argamow
I agree, I think most of the games I’ve bought in the last year have been because of them going on sale.
Same here, had it not been for Steam, I’d have never played Deus Ex, Just Cause, Dead Space and many others. Now there are franchises I’ll buy day one.
Deus Ex I got on OnLive for $1 and Dead Space I got on GameFly (formerly Direct 2 Drive) for $2, lol. I’ve gotten a bunch of games through Steam though for a much reduced price as well.
How can EA even think of competing with Steam? Steam offers free games and has hundreds of times more games… Origin has a couple but i think EA still could’ve made more money if they used Steam for their digital distribution
Origin is terrible, I think I had to use it to get my SW:TOR and man did I frickin hate using it!!!!
folding all physical production costs directly into the profit margin without even a reach around… cheapens integrity
Perhaps EA is thinking of inverse sales. They randomly raise the prices and expect people to buy more at higher price. What could possibly go wrong?
HAHAHAHA
LMFAO
EA, good one!
competing with steam? **tch, please
I know a lot of people hate EA and Origin, but am I the only one that doesn’t care? I don’t HATE it, I just DON’T CARE for it. I use it, I play the games I want regardless, its not breaking my wallet. Sure, compared to Steam its trash, it doesn’t hold a candle. But to boycott it or rage about it? Really?
How much do you really do on these services anyway? Me personally: Steam: I browse the specials and demos almost daily, occasionally use Workshop (which is a great service!), then open my games and play. Never msg anyone or tinker with a profile. On Origin: browse demos like once a week MAYBE, open Battlefield or SW:TOR and play lol
Origin doesn’t effect me in any way, negative or positive. And having 2 programs (Steam and Origin) doesn’t bother me either because my most played games are on my desktop. I see people hating the service and it just seems like nitpicking or bickering from spoiled brats. Sure it’s useless compared to Steam but why get your panties in a bunch over it? And from what I hear, people hated Steam when it debuted.
I don’t see complaints about games exclusive to Mac or PC (though I’m sure there are). Idk, just babbling now.
Wow. Someone with some intelligence that isnt just throwing out EA hate. Steam is much better than Origin but he has a point when he is saying it cheapens IP. I don’t think people understand what kind of budgets go into making these games. If they don’t put so much money into the games, gamers will bit*h and complain about the quality. If the do have the big budgets gamers will b*tch about the prices they have to pay. Companies continue to support a game after launch which costs them money so they charge for DLC and gamers will bi*ch that they are money grabbers and greedy when the purchase is completely optional. Gamers will inevitably kill the gaming industry. This is why you see so many layoffs and studios going bankrupt.
Thats a load of b******* around 100 million max is spent on making a top class game, and any game that is going to have that much money poured into it on average will sell around 4-5 million (the more well known titles can sell much more). Even at 4 million at 60 dollars a pop thats 240 million dollars giving them 140 million dollars of profit. And its not like steam is cutting into those at all, they dont take brand new games and sell them for a dollar, when games come out they charge full price. And what they do doesnt realy matter anyway steam has to pay the devs the full price that the devs feel like charging anyway. So its not like the devs make less money. And dont give me this gamers will be the end of gaming as we know it s***. If anything money hungry sceaming companies like EA. They have no respect for their consumers and consistently attempt to undermine them in the name of profits and profits alone. Good job defending the newly voted “worst company in the world”
Dude, when Steam has a sale, its usually when said license has gotten a great bit of sales. And usually, a lot of the sales are on older, or not well known games by indie developers, like Mount And Blade, and that has 3 games and recently, it got DLC.
@ATG
Yah, I was a bit confused too why people hate it so much. It’s not like it affects the gameplay at all… I don’t even notice Origin or Steam once I’m in the game… I think a lot of people are just quick to talk smack about anything EA lately…
EA is so full of crap!
i enjoyed ME.. bought ME1 and ME2 on steam for something like $20 a few years back on Steam (love steam!).. no way was i or would I pay full price for them.. same for ME3.. once EA left steam, figured i would never buy ME3 via Origin.. unless, wait for it.. it went on sale.. which it did a few weeks back, i bought it on Origin for half price..
the very few EA games i would even consider buying, if they arent on sale, then i wont buy them.. no way will ever pay full price for a EA game..
as usual EA is pissed because Steam is doing a better job than what they are doing. Not totally sure so don’t hold me to it, but isn’t the disc and packaging of a physical copy like 5%-10% of the games price? So why pay the (again just ball parking the percentage)5%-10% if it’s nonexistent?
Really EA maybe if your company made decent games anymore you wouldnt have to worry about the competition.
The list of ruined titles/studios that EA has bought out and ruined in the name off corporate profits is disgusting.
The only title I buy from EA any more is the Madden series and that is just because its the only NFL football game and the battlefield series because they havent completely ruined it yet but it is a mere shadow of what it used to be.
*looks at the state of Bioware and their games “Dragon Age II”, “Mass Effect II”, “Mass Effect III”, and “Star Wars: The Old Republic”*
(Paraphrasing BioWare’s Attitude and Quotes)
“OMG! We are allowing our ego to destroy our company! Quick! Quick! Let us put the blame on both players and another company entirely!”
“Push a button and something awesome happens. Button. Awesome. Did someone just blow up “Dragon Age II”?” ~ BioWare
“Don’t worry about us losing 25% of our MMO subscriptions within the first three months of release. We didn’t need them anyway. As long as we got the game addicts hooked, we have no problem with how our company is burning through money.” ~ BioWare
“We never thought about making player choices matter. “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” and “Jade Empire’s” influence system never existed. We don’t know what you are talking about…” ~ BioWare
“Pffft… What “Dragon Age III” presentation? Even though we showed a PowerPoint presentation, based upon the key elements of fan feedback, we are going to stop production to get more fan feedback. Keep stalling Bob! I think we are winning.” ~ BioWare
“Can someone start banning our customers from the forums, so we can get the negative statements out of the public’s eye? We want people to think “Dragon Age II” is awesome.” ~ BioWare
“Pfft… Its only a small group of disgruntled gamers who think “Mass Effect III” stinks. Even though they make up the majority, they are still only a small group of players.” ~ BioWare
Heh, cheapen intelectual property, when everything on steam is in euros. And euros are worth quite alot more than dollars
I’m pretty sure all those deals either go from Valve’s pocket or the developers actualy ask for them, to advertise their product.
To be honest, I wouldn’t have most of the games I have on Steam if it weren’t for bundles and sales.
Alan Wake? Bought for $15.00 instead of $30.
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2? Bought for $7.50 instead of $40.
Bastion/Super Meat Boy/Psychonauts/Amnesia/Limbo/Lone Survivor/Braid/Superbrothers: Swords and Sorcery EP? Bought ALL of those for $7.50 instead of $155.
None of these purchases would likely have been made if there weren’t sales, or the Humble Indie Bundle. If anything, it’s a great marketing ploy to get people into games that wouldn’t ordinarily buy games. I know I don’t regret a penny spent on anything I bought.