What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

[Shawn Zipay]

Read this first: http://www.totalgamingnetwork.com/co...c-is-Exclusive

Would you still buy the game digitally if it means you can only purchase it through EA's new "Origin" system? Granted it is available for preorder on D2D but things could, theoretically, change.

[5t3v0]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

Oh.... S**t...

[Scinto]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

Back to buying Games on DVD then.

[Infernalis]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

I always buy on DVD anyways except if the price is much lower in digital so I don't have to redownload x go when my PC have a problem.

[Vreki]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

Would you still buy the game digitally if it means you can only purchase it through EA's new "Origin" system? Granted it is available for preorder on D2D but things could, theoretically, change.

If I cant get it on Steam, I will probably get it on DVD.
I like having all my digital purchase in one place, I wouldn't like it if each publisher started to sell their own games exclusively through their own more or less reliable store.

[5t3v0]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

Oh Good. At least we can still get it retail. I was worried they were going to make it Exclusive or something.

[thekillerjud]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

From: GameSpot

Though Electronic Arts' Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference isn't until Monday at 12:30 p.m. PDT, the Wall Street Journal has pre-empted a major announcement by the megapublisher. The financial daily is reporting that EA is planning to soon unveil Origin, a new PC game-download service along the lines of Valve Software's Steam. The name appears unrelated to Origin Systems, the Ultima and Wing Commander developer EA bought in 1992 and then closed in 2004.

EA plans to greatly expand its digital download retail offerings with its Origin service.

According to the Journal, Origin will function like Steam, insofar that it will let gamers directly purchase, download, and organize PC titles. The service will start out with a catalog over 150 offerings when it launches, and will be the sole online purveyor of Star Wars: The Old Republic when that game goes online (presumably) later this year. The publisher is reportedly hoping the exclusive availability of the eagerly awaited sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing game will boost the nascent service's popularity.

Like Activision's just-announced Call of Duty: Elite service, Origin will also reportedly have a strong social networking element that will allow players to communicate about their game experiences across a variety of devices via a single profile. Also like Elite, Origin will reportedly let players perform actions on mobile or other platforms that affect full-fledged games. David DeMartini, EA's senior vice president of global online, gave the example of a sharp-shooting "Battlefield" minigame on a mobile phone yielding experience points that could be used in the regular version of a Battlefield game. (Curiously, the full-fledged platform mentioned was the Xbox 360, not the PC.)

[eradicator8]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

This is also a way for them to cut Steam out of the distribution i.e. keep all the profit for themself. Also to minimize cracking the hardcopies.

[5t3v0]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

EA never learn. They tried copying with MoH, and now they are copying again with Origin?

[L-iNC]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

If it's not on Steam then I'll pick it up from retail. Although competition is good. If Origin is successful it just might cause Steam prices to go down a bit.

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

If it's not on Steam then I'll pick it up from retail. Although competition is good. If Origin is successful it just might cause Steam prices to go down a bit.

Not meaning to really derail here but there is Good Old Games, Direct2Drive, EA's current downloader, Impulse, and probably couple I'm forgetting about. There's already a healthy dose of competition. The problem with the prices is this: The publishers set the price on these platforms not the company that owns the distribution system.

So with this service from EA, IF they kept releases on Steam they could pull some crap where they say to Valve "Hey, we want you to sell this game for $60." Meanwhile, they use Origin and sell the game for $30 thus undermining Steam and pulling customers to Origin for that particular title while taking a short term hit on revenues, later to be made up by getting more unit sales. It's an extreme example but you should get the idea.

[RangerXML]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

Only game that is exclusive digitally currently is Old Republic, but they have said there will be exclusive content for BF3 on Origin. I've been playing with Origin since yesterday (RangerXML, hit me up) and I'm impressed. I was able to add all my Retail (except older titles) and Steam purchased EA games to it, either through redeeming CD key or contacting them through Live chat (eat that Steam's 5 business day response) for any games it wouldn't take the key for. Only thing that is missing is BF1942 Complete Collection and it is sorely missed (my CDs are dying). I was even able to add my copy of Crysis with the disc broke and I had lost the booklet, I still had my retail box and had my CD key written down in my notebook and they let me redeem it.

[Sike]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

not gonna pay £39.99 on origin if its £29.99 on play.com. id rather pay £10 less and wait a few extra hours

[CptainCrunch]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

For me, and this is just me, I would go buy a hard copy. For simplicity, I only use Steam for downloads. I dont like the idea of having all these different programs on my system. So I stick with one and that is Steam. I tried EA's download system before with 2142 and beta tested the updated one and even though this one may be better, I dont need another one and all the hassle that goes with it.

Crunch

[SgtMattBaker]

Re: What if you can't buy digitally through Steam?

If they're planning to take down COD, they have to get the game to every distribution program available ... or at least that's what I like to think.