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[Sensei]

An online distribution service? Yuck. Steam only succeeded because Valve can be really nice to their customers at times, not to mention sales and the like. Judging by EA's track record, they won't have that advantage at all.

[Bdthemag]

There can be only one. Once Steam defeats Origin it will then gain its powers, powers which it already had.

[Glowcat]

EA needs to die a writhing, pitiful death so that some good people can get their hands on the copyrights EA holds/ruins.

This resonates deeply with me.

[nenjin]

There can be only one. Once Steam defeats Origin it will then gain its powers, powers which it already had.

And Gabe Newell will eat John Riccitiello heart as a symbolic gesture of this.

[Flare]

Doesn't stuff like this keep happening? Big companies/corporations are waking up to the digital market and how successful it is after something like 4 years. It'll probably plunge.

This case seems to me more of one big company trying to muscle in on another big company trying to challenge the other big company's specialty. But you're right, this will probably plunge, there's just really no underdogs here.

[Tilla]

I will always appreciate what Gabe has done with Valve. He did not sit on his laurels with his money from his time at Microsoft, but spun it into a whole new privately owned enterprise that he will likely rather die than give up control of. Say what you want about some bad things that occasionally happen with Steam, some flaws with their games on occasion. The corporate attitude they set with no producers and nobody getting a special place of honor in the credits is awesome.

[Rose]

Oh the huge manatee!

echem, I think this will either crash and burn, or make steam better while crashing and burning.

[Eagleon]

Yeah, Origin isn't touching my computer. It's annoying enough that some single-player games require Steam to be open while running, they think I'll want another application to slow things down? Please.

The smarter move would have been to go with an all web-based system, without trying to muscle in on what makes Steam good. It seems to me that most people are willing to buy a game from another online distributor, but they go to Steam because it connects people together for games. Unless they make it work with Steam's userbase and chat somehow (I would sooner eat my boots than see EA support a cross-application feature that isn't completely in their control), this isn't going to end well for them.

[scriver]

All I can really say is that I hope this failure-to-be won't end up being paid for by EA's affiliated developer studios. Which it probably will, as if they weren't being fucked over enough as it is.

[RedKing]

To be fair, some of the smaller companies like Stardock have this as well (Impulse). In a sense, the distributors are less in the distribution-to-retail business and more in the digital delivery business now. But having a seperate delivery system for each distributor is an untenable solution long-term. They're trying to build a 'brand presence' but it just doesn't work that way.

Think of it this way: Would you watch movies if you had to install seperate clients for each movie distributor? A 20th Century Fox client, a Paramount client, a Disney client, etc? And more importantly, would you develop "brand loyalty" where you only watched movies from the client you have installed? Hell no.

Instead, we have Netflix and Hulu and that's about it. The delivery mechanism is insulated from the distribution and development channels, and that makes things a hell of a lot simpler and easier for the end-user. And when you make things simple and easy for people, they have a tendency to use it a lot more. It would be an interesting move if Valve were to spin off Steam into its own company, seperate from Valve's work as a developer and producer. And then work on pushing Steam as a universal distribution client. If EA knows that Steam's revenues aren't going back into Valve's coffers, they're far more likely to embrace using it, because otherwise they're subsidizing their own competition.

[nenjin]

Yeah, I think some people here in the hurry to bash EA don't see the real picture.

Retail ain't just dying. It may very well be dead in a financial sense for them.

Stardock just sold Impulse to Gamestop, not 2 months ago. What does that tell you?

This is obligatory on EA's part, as it is on everyone's. They don't have a choice anymore. They all stalled, dealt with Steam rather than pioneering DD when it was clearly on the rise. Microsoft tried and failed (thank god) with GFWL, twice, and even Blizzard/Activision was slow to go "hey, we need some sort of online, digital client that is a source for everything we do."

(As an aside, can you imagine the MS version of Steam, where every single game you buy digitally for Windows would come from them? *guh*)

So people are looking at this as a competition with Steam.....I don't see it this way. This is basic survival for control of distribution on the part of publishers. They cannot continue to ignore DD sales and rely on retail stores to make up the difference; I don't have stats but it's pretty much accepted that the revenue they're getting from DD crushes their retail sales several times over. And since conservative estimates put Steam's share of DD sales at 50%+....execs must be freaking out that they're effectively relying on one partner to guarantee a large part of their revenue. That makes them nervous because they have no bargaining power with someone like that.

So people ask "why does it seem like this keeps happening" and it's not just a fad. It's the long over due growth of the game publishing industry. Which is why I say I think Steam will continue to do very well, even with all these different "competing" services. But I don't think these services are just going to evaporate like GFWL did. There is no past for game publishers to return to, no old way of doing business that will get them the profits they seek. I believe that, whether or not these systems are horrible, they are here to stay.

But put it this way. The choice in the future is going to be between:

-Installing and using 5 different services to play 30 games.

Or

-Installing and using 1-2 services to play 25 games.

I stress using because it's almost a given that you'll need to be logged into all these services to play MP and SP games, pretty much as a guarantee. We won't get a choice about that. So to them, you using their chat services, deals, and perks is what really makes them successful, because being engaged in their network leads to sales. For us it will come down to whether we just create joke accounts and never use the services, or if we decide to actually engage their network, partake of their services, give them traffic and ultimately buy our games from them.

As a neutral place for people to get their games, where big publishers have done and will continue to do business because their bottom line is vested there right now (not to mention the indies), Steam will be around for a while and has its niche firmly in check. What will define how stupid the future of gaming gets is how much the publishers demand you access their networks to play their game. If they don't do the smart thing like Valve did and instead create some laggy, resource-heavy, DRM-choked up piece of shit the future is going to be pretty rocky I think. Ubisoft could be considered a pioneer in showing us exactly how flawed these things can be.

If publishers actually do the sane thing and only require their service to a limited extent, and make them very much background affairs for people who want to get more perks by using the network....I think we won't notice that much of a change.

[Lightning4]

I doubt it'll affect Steam, but I also doubt it will immediately die. If they play smart they can probably keep a growing userbase. This can be accomplished through EA titles and selling stuff that can't be obtained anywhere else yet. Special offers or sales will give things a good kickstart. Exclusive content will further help. Eventually companies will want to sell their games on Origin in addition to Steam and (probably) Impulse.
EA is too big for this to die immediately, they have the resources to throw behind this and keep it functioning. But I doubt it will ever get anywhere close to Steam and the market stranglehold it commands.


Though if EA does something stupid like forcing companies to only sell exclusively on Origin if they want to sell on Origin at all, then they'll have problems.

[Duuvian]

Ahahaha, you just have to know that EA is going to screw whatever they MIGHT have made from this by maximizing short term profits. My guess is it doesn't fold, it only evolves as a way to install things on your computer and advertise to you but only from EA or subsidiaries and it will probably have to be marketed towards the group of people that like certain EA games. Instead, at first they'll spend way too much money on it, and then eventually minimize what they spend on it and turn it into a 'feature' of their games, sort of like those bundled anti-viruses that can't be uninstalled can be considered a 'feature' of buying computers from retailers.

Meanwhile the games that stay with Steam will probably do much better, as there is a distinct advantage to being in the 'main' marketplace and being able to offer the deals that Steam does.

Steam would probably do best by not retaliating via not pulling EA games from their store, unless EA undercuts their price substantially, in which case they lose the Steam market and it's the short term profits again.

That's my guess anyways.

EDIT: Also there is a second advantage to selling multiplayer games in the largest market. Since it's the largest market, you'll end up with a larger playerbase if the deal is good; which not only equals more money, but a happier multiplayer playerbase. If you think about it, it goes to show the amount of respect EA continues to demonstrate towards it's consumers and the power they have over their business.

[Aklyon]

I guess I'm not getting The Old Republic then.

Oh Well.

[eerr]

There can be only one. Once Steam defeats Origin it will then gain its powers, powers which it already had.

* But better