Ea to strip it's games off steam?!

[Drunken Monkey]

Rumours are spreading that EA are taking off all their games from steam :O
Some say it's to fuel EA's own digital download store "Origin"

Crysis 2 has already been removed (EA released a statement saying it's because valve and crytek had a disagreement over swiss cheese)

“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.”

But Direct2Drive are advising

• Hunted: the demon forge
• Brink
• Alice: Madness Returns

as not available on steam

But steam still lists a few of them Alice: Madness Returns

I really hope they put battlefield 3 on steam :'(, otherwise i'ma have to put effort into my purchases, i dont really want to start using another download platform, or go back to retail copies ;(

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

I read this the other day.

I wanted to check out Hunted (not great reviews, but I sort of like it)...but it was gone! (Much like the Brink fiasco).

This led me to BF3...it may not be on Steam...which in my opinion will royally screw its success compared to MW3. Like it or not, people will choose not to buy a game because they cant get it on Steam.

And yes, all the speculation I read points to EA trying to bolster Origin in order to compete with Steam et al.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see...although in my opinion, EA should have been fully open as soon as they did this (along with people like Bethesda), because they risk alienating more people than they could ever hope to get to use Origin before its even out!

Good times...or not...

 

[F3AR]

meh, i like DVDs so im ok.
aswell as the fact it would take me 24hours to download a game of steam.

 

[Gorman]

I have Origin due to the 50% off deals i get at the iseries lans, not too opposed to another download client.

I got BF3 for <£20 so i cant really complain

 

[Gishank]

EA has been removing alot of it's titles from other digital download services, and cramping up the prices on their site. I'm all for competition, but forcing people to buy from you for extortionate prices is a step too far.

 

[Gorman]

Im yet to see Valve games on other digital download sites?

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Heh indeed Gorman. As Gishank said though, so far there seems to be a price increase when looking at Origin. Now, the theory behind their move is to cut out the middle man, thus increasing the amount EA get from each sale...but they then put the prices up? Surely they should actually undercut Steam et al a bit?

Ah well, we'll see. Actually not opposed to another client either, but when its been fine up til now, why change it? Oh yeh, greedy EA

 

[Gorman]

Theres also some offers going on

http://store.origin.com/store/eaeme...etailsPage/ThemeID.850300/productID.225985400

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

So is it just a reskinned EA Store/Downloader?

I.e. a webpage store (like any other) rather than summit like the Steam client/programme/thingy?

Just feels...unnecessary somehow...

 

[Gorman]

Nope its a full blown client too

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

I still think its wrong to make ALL games from a publisher exclusive to one client. I agree with you on Valve too, now there are more clients around (there really weren't when Steam started), they should have their stuff on them too. Then us punters can make a choice, rather than being forced into one for a single game in some cases (although I think EAs catalogue would far outstrip Valve's exclusive content )

I still think it will damage BF3 sales as they made this move relatively close to the release (few months). Either do it well before and get people used to it, or crush MW3, then prattle about with your own client aspirations.

Wow, Steam fanboy much?

As I say, just feels like something nobody actually needed apart from EA!

 

[Drunken Monkey]

I still think it's a bit of a nuisance to suddenly limit all their games to their own client/store... Besides steam's client is the most user friendly one of them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

seriously has anyone tried direct2drives? or windows live... absolute shambles...

It's a disgrace when they stop a good thing ;(

 

[Lum]

I reluctantly installed the Origin client as I wanted the Alice madness returns complete collection (comes with a copy of the first game, which is the better of the two games IMO).

It really is awful. Slow, clunky, unstable, it feels like an early beta release of Nokia's horrible Ovi Suite software.

I told it to install all my games to a folder on my D:\ drive and to put the installers in a folder on my K:\ drive (2TB NAS) and of course it completely ignored that and shoved the isntaller on my D:\ drive along with a whole bunch of worthless temporary files.

The reason Stem has so many fanboys is because it works and even though it's basically a DRM platform it actually offers advantages over traditional DRM, namely the ability to run your game on multiple machines* without carting the disks around with you.

Anyone who games from a laptop can appreciate that. You either take the disks with you and risk leaving them in a hotel or something, or you install dodgy cracks which may contain viruses or be illegal.

* Providing it's not from EA and encumbered with an activation limit and/or Securom.

 

[Wozza63]

just too randomly add, i prefer discs anyway, i dont know the prices on Steam as i don't have it on my current computer, but its probably similar to the disc, i prefer to show off my collection by throwing 100 cases at someone not saying 'look at this folder, it has executable files that run games, Yaaaay (sarcasm)' i prefer to put in a disc because i feel like a hero when the game loads xD and hopefully, EA allow for select smaller companies to produce for it, allowing for many mini-games like ones we may have seen on iOS/Android, this could then be the competetor to the Mac App Store which has games such as Angry Birds etc on the big screen, it would be great as well if they did emulated-ish versions of old games, especially some of their old ps1 games etc

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Its always each to their own, but I have lost so many games over the years/broken discs/lost keys, that Steam is quite frankly the best thing since Tangfastics!

 

[Wozza63]

not if you dont like sour sweets, like steam is crap if you prefer a hard copy

funnily enough over the 100s of DVDs and games ive had, ive only had 2 or 3 broken discs, ive still got the original sims and expansion packs and they all work fine, but all my 360 games have never been scratched enough to not work, its mainly my discs that i burnt myslef that dont work

 

[Flucky]

Its always each to their own, but I have lost so many games over the years/broken discs/lost keys, that Steam is quite frankly the best thing since Tangfastics!

I only wish I could get my Doom 3 discs onto steam permanently, as they're slowly dying on me.

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

not if you dont like sour sweets, like steam is crap if you prefer a hard copy

funnily enough over the 100s of DVDs and games ive had, ive only had 2 or 3 broken discs, ive still got the original sims and expansion packs and they all work fine, but all my 360 games have never been scratched enough to not work, its mainly my discs that i burnt myslef that dont work

You just displayed exactly what it is...each to their own...you actually cant argue with it, because you like discs, I like space, simples

 

[philstoke]

Anyone who games from a laptop can appreciate that. You either take the disks with you and risk leaving them in a hotel or something, or you install dodgy cracks which may contain viruses or be illegal.

I use Game Jackal Pro, it works perfectly and I can keep all my disks stored away, just play the game once with the disk in place and then after that no need for the disk again

 

[Lum]

Doesn't that work by taking an image of the disk and then emulating it, same as Daemon Tools only you have to pay for it.

That's quite a waste of disk space, given that game DVDs are typically 6-8 GB these days.