EA's Origin DD service (not that Origin)

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000... (google redirect for the full article)

Electronic Arts Inc. is starting an online service to sell downloadable games directly to consumers, as one of the world's biggest makers of videogames steps up a push to offer more of its wares over the Internet, rather than through discs at stores.

The Redwood City, Calif., software maker plans to unveil the service, called Origin, on Friday.

It seems they're stepping up EA DM, which has already seen gradual improvements and recently added a friends list, and they've actually decided to go all-in for it. Hopefully this develops well.

It looks like SWTOR is going to be exclusive to the service.

Scratched wrote:

It looks like SWTOR is going to be exclusive to the service.

I'm already hooked into too many download services; I don't need another one.

How is this any different from the last two iterations, other than fabricated restrictions?

LobsterMobster wrote:

How is this any different from the last two iterations, other than fabricated restrictions?

I don't think it is, I think this is just a rebranding. That said, EADM has come along a bit recently, they want to make it more than just a download manager.

I continue to wish that all the companies find a way to get the community features to talk between themselves. Maintaining 6 friends lists isn't a great future for gaming.

I'm sure EADM has come along a bit recently. EA also used to want to charge you $5 for the privilege of them remembering that time you gave them money, and it's still nothing compared to Steam.

I remember that it used to be cool to hate EA, then EA cleaned up their act and became a respectable company. Seems like they might be slipping, or maybe they figure they've rebuilt enough of a reputation to risk it again.

As long as they don't start buying up and then killing great studios, I'm not too terribly offended.

If TOR is exclusive to the EA store, I'll eat a cup of Johnson grass. There is no way in Hell's half acre EA is going to risk leaving ANY money on the table with that title.

Early access? Sure. Limiting sales channels? Pull the other one, it has got bells on.

How about if they were using EADM to patch it? There's a distinction between being the only online way to acquire the game (D2D sell steam keys for example) and the infrastructure it uses.

Even if they were to go as far as to make all their games exclusive to their own online store I don't think I'd use it. I don't buy from that many different online retailers as it is and I have even less interest in buying from one run by a publisher with a bad history.

I'll agree EADM isn't nearly as bad as it used to be. It's even got a great service of allowing you to register recent game CD keys so that you can download in the future.

The history of my purchases is still screwed up, and I have somehow accumulated about 5 or 6 separate EA accounts with all their different properties over the years that makes things very confusing, but if the price is right, I'll buy from them.

Improvement's always welcome. I don't have to always buy from Steam, so if EA, GFW, D2D, or whoever step up their game (!), I'll definitely buy from them if the deal is right.

kyrieee wrote:

Even if they were to go as far as to make all their games exclusive to their own online store I don't think I'd use it.

That's interesting, as it's the reverse of many "if it's not out on steam I'm not buying it", and Valve games keys aren't available online anywhere else.

I didn't think EA's reputation was that bad. Is it?

Is Origin going to be attached to games like games with Steamworks/GFWL? Does this mean EA is going to stop asking me to make a new username for every single game I buy from them? Is EA slowly going to remove their games from other DD services and make them exclusive to Origin? Are they going to get rid of the ridiculous Bioware Bux with this or am I going to have to keep track of different currency? Ahhhhh I need a Q&A on this thing.

BNice wrote:

Does this mean EA is going to stop asking me to make a new username for every single game I buy from them? Is EA slowly going to remove their games from other DD services and make them exclusive to Origin? Are they going to get rid of the ridiculous Bioware Bux with this or am I going to have to keep track of different currency?

All things they need to do. I hope this is more than just branding and they are serious about it.

From Joystiq:

Origin will also host "exclusive limited edition copies" of EA titles like Battlefield 3, FIFA 12, Alice: Madness Returns, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The biggest attraction for Origin, however, is likely to be Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is being offered in downloadable format exclusively on Origin.

The Battlefield thing has me wondering if that will be something like exclusive weapons that they've put in pre-order bonuses for Europe.

One thing that might be good for, if they have a good patching mechanism it should apply to all Origin games, rather than whatever effort an individual studio might come up with. BC2 patching was poor as they only ever downloaded whole new copies of (often large) files rather than small delta patches.

It's a grim future indeed if I need six different "launcher" programs running on my PC to play games.

My one and only experience with EADM so far has been this: A couple months ago I received a code for Mass Effect 2, I downloaded it and played it, it was all awesome and wonderful. Finished it for the first time with my original Mass Effect crew Paragon/maleshep (kudos on the game retrieving the savefiles from my steam-installed ME) went on to finish ME again with renegadish/femshep and after doing so, went back to ME2 (about one, two weeks tops after having finished the game) Well, Game wouldn't run this time, I did not save the download file and the only possible solution I was offered was to redownload the whole 15 gigs or so. Seriously? You mad!

Not too pleased about this. Agreed that I don't want to have to juggle many different digital distribution clients.

I'm was still hoping that EA would get around to letting the serial keys for The Sims 3 series be usable in Steam.

http://store.origin.com is up, and it looks remarkably similar to the old EA store.

Certis wrote:

It's a grim future indeed if I need six different "launcher" programs running on my PC to play games.

Like i've mentioned before. Especially with MMOs the future is already here. Some consolidation is being done with Battle.net and Sony's Station Launcher. So 1 more launcher isnt that big of a deal regardless who's behind it.

ranalin wrote:
Certis wrote:

It's a grim future indeed if I need six different "launcher" programs running on my PC to play games.

Like i've mentioned before. Especially with MMOs the future is already here. Some consolidation is being done with Battle.net and Sony's Station Launcher. So 1 more launcher isnt that big of a deal regardless who's behind it.

[Insert comment here about how the refrain over DRM a few years ago (and to some extent today) was "if you don't unconditionally accept what the industry wants to do you must be against it.... and a pirate".]

Duoae wrote:
ranalin wrote:
Certis wrote:

It's a grim future indeed if I need six different "launcher" programs running on my PC to play games.

Like i've mentioned before. Especially with MMOs the future is already here. Some consolidation is being done with Battle.net and Sony's Station Launcher. So 1 more launcher isnt that big of a deal regardless who's behind it.

[Insert comment here about how the refrain over DRM a few years ago (and to some extent today) was "if you don't unconditionally accept what the industry wants to do you must be against it.... and a pirate".]

;)

At least with MMOs it has absolutely nothing to do with DRM. Even at this point in time i doubt that DRM is that much of an issue. Just another launcher.

MannishBoy wrote:

From Joystiq:

The biggest attraction for Origin, however, is likely to be Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is being offered in downloadable format exclusively on Origin.

I read that as saying that the only place from which you can download it will be Origin. It will still be available as physical media from the usual places.

Grumpicus wrote:

I read that as saying that the only place from which you can download it will be Origin. It will still be available as physical media from the usual places.

Kind of like you can buy some Steam Powered games in boxes.

Hopefully this doesn't mean EA is going to stop offering their games through Steam.

MannishBoy wrote:
Grumpicus wrote:

I read that as saying that the only place from which you can download it will be Origin. It will still be available as physical media from the usual places.

Kind of like you can buy some Steam Powered games in boxes.

I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic or not but I was thinking more along the lines of kind of like you can download WoW from Blizzard or buy it at your retailer of choice... though Civ V is an example of a Steam Powered game that you can buy in a box.

Grumpicus wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:
Grumpicus wrote:

I read that as saying that the only place from which you can download it will be Origin. It will still be available as physical media from the usual places.

Kind of like you can buy some Steam Powered games in boxes.

I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic or not but I was thinking more along the lines of kind of like you can download WoW from Blizzard or buy it at your retailer of choice... though Civ V is an example of a Steam Powered game that you can buy in a box.

Not being sarcastic.

You can also buy Valve PC games in boxes.

ranalin wrote:
Duoae wrote:
ranalin wrote:
Certis wrote:

It's a grim future indeed if I need six different "launcher" programs running on my PC to play games.

Like i've mentioned before. Especially with MMOs the future is already here. Some consolidation is being done with Battle.net and Sony's Station Launcher. So 1 more launcher isnt that big of a deal regardless who's behind it.

[Insert comment here about how the refrain over DRM a few years ago (and to some extent today) was "if you don't unconditionally accept what the industry wants to do you must be against it.... and a pirate".]

;)

At least with MMOs it has absolutely nothing to do with DRM. Even at this point in time i doubt that DRM is that much of an issue. Just another launcher.

I'm pretty sure i was drawing an analogy between those people saying DRM wasn't a problem those years ago because the "opposition" said it wasn't a problem or shouldn't be and people who don't want a load of individual programmes and passwords to play their individual games today being told it's not a problem or they shouldn't find that it's a problem....

Swarfigo wrote:

Hopefully this doesn't mean EA is going to stop offering their games through Steam.

I'm not sure if this even matters. I can't buy Valve games through EA, Impulse, D2D or any other way online. Valve were first movers with their service for their own games, then brought other publishers onboard, and no one really complained. I doubt they're going to invalidate EA games bought through a service that wasn't EA's own, or if they even can do that as they were just distributing the setup files or delivering the game in an installed state.

In the future if EA wants to take it's ball and play only in it's own yard, then let them, if that means less EA deals then they're going to suffer. Owing to the way EA isn't one homogeneous entity, but lots of smaller different ones, I can't see them cutting off all external online ways to acquire their games.

The logo made me do a double take. It certainly looks like an evolution of the last Origin Systems logo.

IMAGE(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1e/Origin_Systems_logo.png)

Becomes...

IMAGE(http://www.origin.com/us/img/what-is-origin/Origin.jpg)

Grumpicus wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

From Joystiq:

The biggest attraction for Origin, however, is likely to be Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is being offered in downloadable format exclusively on Origin.

I read that as saying that the only place from which you can download it will be Origin. It will still be available as physical media from the usual places.

That is how I read it as well.

Pex-Corrh wrote:

The logo made me do a double take. It certainly looks like an evolution of the last Origin Systems logo.

IMAGE(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1e/Origin_Systems_logo.png)

Becomes...

IMAGE(http://www.origin.com/us/img/what-is-origin/Origin.jpg)

Man, I miss Origin. The Wing Commander games were a lot of fun.

More to the topic, I don't think I'll be buying anything that comes out exclusively on this new DD service. I hated EADM because it was another random program running on my machine that I never needed to use.

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