EA launching digital download service Origin to rival Steam

Game publishing giant Electronic Arts is set to take on Valve's Steam with the launch of its own digital distribution platform, dubbed Origin. According to a report on the Wall…

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Steam rocks and has served me well for years. Good luck EA you'll need it.

ha ha! yeah, EA i don' think your going to take on Steam some how...

nothing can replace steam imo =0!

Hmm. So I can continue using Steam and be happy, or opt into what will no doubt be a bug-riddled DRM-laden steaming pile of garbage with a miniscule game selection (that covers only EA games, no doubt) and try to juggle the two services side by side. What a difficult decision.

Looks like I'm buying the boxed version of ToR, eh?

Sound like a bead counter at EA came up with a way to make money. Lets copy the other guy's idea.

I have definitely had my fair share of issues with Steam but they pale in comparison to my issues with EA. Although I see EA forcing you to use their service if you want to play their games after awhile so I doubt we will be able to fully avoid it.

Well if the EA store is prepared to offer better deals than Steam does, I'll at least try it out.

Hey, why partner up with a well-positioned and polished digital distribution system, when you can instead throw money and resources into re-inventing the wheel? What could possibly go wrong?

Anyone who has bought games from the EA site in the past can tell ya they suck at support. How many free games has EA given out? Hey steam show EA how to do it and release another free game!

Good luck EA, you'll surely need it.

Even if its "better" then Steam, do you think alot will switch over? Alot of people have games on Steam, communities and tons of friends, I doubt they will change that easily over to Origin.

Sure you can use both platforms but still... I doubt Origins will overtake steam or even be on pair... Just too many people used to Steam. This is similar to Windows and OSX, Windows has been on the market first hence why the higher product share (hope you get what I am trying to say).

Anyway goodluck to EA, they do make some ridiculous statements "we will overtake this and that .. blah blah..." I will deffo try out Origin, see how the UI is and overall user experience...

Haha I am too lazy to make an account on this site, but although Steam is a great distribution platform. However, from what I have seen and experienced Steam customer support is less than stellar. For example, if you were to buy Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter on Steam. You will find that the game comes ridden with bugs that make it unplayable, now before you all start bashing at me saying that it is the game. These bugs are not present in both the retail copies and the copies from D2D. Anyway just saying that we shouldn't blindly follow Steam with our hearts and wallets, if your interested in the GRAW bug or if you do have a problem with that specific game check out the Steam forums for the game the community ended up fixing the game for Steam, by manually editing scripts. I just realized I have written a book, and I apologize.

P.S I don't proof read...

I hope they offer more than just EA games... I like having more stores around the net anyways.

I have over a hundred games on steam. so middle finger EA!

Ea is based in Guildford 20 miles from me.

Steam has done me well through many many years.

EA grrrrreeen eyes looking at STEAMS greener grass!!!

From General E Psychotic

Desperate much, EA?

Well, if it works for Linux as well as other legacy operating systems, they will get a lot of customers.

I don't support EA as a publisher, I do support Valve as both a developer and a publisher. EA, you're a little late in the game and you already have a bad reputation. Steam may not be 100% but they have years of experience with this kind of software. Steam has ironed out most of it's bugs but it still has some. Valve has had years to tweak and develop it's distribution system. It may take EA a year or more to be able to sort out all the possible bugs.

Again, I support Valve as a developer and a publisher, that right there is reason enough for me to not switch. Not to mention Valve's DRM is the only one that works. Imagine the crap that EA will try to shove down our throats. It's BS that I can't install Crysis warhead more than 3 times. I emailed EA about it when I reached the limit and they basically said FU. I emailed Valve and forwarded them the letter I got from EA and they gave me a new CD key.

Good fight, EA, good fight.

Maybe this will foment a much needed price war.

You know, when I bought 'Tie Fighter' many, many years ago, it came in an awesome box, containing a manual, a novel, a keyboard map, and the installation floppy disks.

Nowadays, you will buy a game for the same price and you will get no physical media and no extras whatsoever. Well, except for DRM, of course.

Wasn't the digital distribution model supposed to lower prices? No, I guess it was just a mean to increase profit.

http://activate.ea.com/deauthorize/

RTFM before looking like an *****. The terms and conditions of Crysis: Warhead tells you about the license limit. So EA has the deauthorize tool you can use to wipe clear the licenses used for previous installations. If you don't image your harddrive with the game installed; then DEAUTH the game before uninstalling it.