@Hunkulese said:

@SeriouslyNow said:

@Hunkulese said:

@Kidavenger I know most replies will be pretty anti-EA but they do have a point.

EA wants to be a semi exclusive department store catering to a small portion of a market which pays generally only pays a premium for physical bundles and exclusive content when the store really offers neither?

They have a brain disease, not a point.

The point is that regular expected 75% of sales do devalue games. There is a large portion of the steam userbase that wont pay full price for anything because they know if they wait a few months they can get the game at a significant discount. Of course sales numbers go up when these sales occur due to the large amount of people waiting for the games at clearance level sales. There is a difference between extending the life of a game with a regular sale and offering the game for next to nothing.

Why does no one rage against retailers that put games on clearance? This happens on a fairly regular basis, too. Steam sales are always temporary and have been known to last hours as opposed to days. Do you really think a significant portion of hardcore fans that really want the game are just going to sit on their hands until they can get it for a dollar? If so, how do you explain the success of COD and Skyrim? Rock bottom Steam sale bring in money from people that (a) are too cheap to pay full price or (b) dont really want it, but "wouldn't mind giving it a shot". In case you're wondering, the alternative to Steam sales for those two groups is piracy, not buying at full price.

It's clear that Steam has always been miles upon miles ahead of Origin, on top of that the approach of not discounting games is just pushing them even further back...but I'm actually kinda glad that origin is still kicking around. If Origin (and GWFL while we're on the subject) don't get it through their heads then it really wont effect us, Steam will remain great and life will go on. In the event that they do get it right or even if a new player enters the field then the deals and stuff that we get are just going to get better.

I guess the only point of worry would be that these companies have the power to make games exclusively tied to their services which wouldn't be helping us at all. There's also always the worry of less informed gamers placing their trust into the lesser services and ultimately getting ripped off.

Oh, EA, you so crazy...

I will continue to not care about Origin. We all know the Steam Summer Sale is just around the corner....