This is laughable.

It's not like Origin could not be a better platform than Steam, but in its current state it is a glorified Battlefield player. What would Origin have to improve upon to get you to kick Steam like a bad habit? Is there anything they can do at this point?

Change its name to Storigin.

It seems unlikely to happen at least for a long time. For most PC players steam is just part of their PC, it holds a vast library of games and provides consistent and deep-cutting sales to build your library more. For Origin to take over then it would have to beat the 100 games I already own on Steam, I have 3 on Origin two of which were free and the other is BF3, provide better and more consistent sales and have more games on it (If its not on Steam a lot of people dont even look or will just wait).

It seems unlikely Origin can win, Steam has an 8 year head-start and an 8-year legacy.

EDIT: It may seem like a small thing but people also like Valve and hate EA. If EA provide the exact same thing as Steam, the exact same games and sales then everyone will go to Steam because they are already using it and its not EA.

Maybe DeMartini has too much money to know what's important to consumers who aren't of the wealthy CEO variety.

It's not like the products are of an exceptionally higher quality than those on Steam so...sell them for less? That would be my answer.

Huge sales and a good interface.

Steam has a better interface, doesn't only sell EA games (which of late have been pretty shitty *cough* Bioware *cough*) and has massive sales. EA can't compete.

I think the only way EA could get me to start using Origin is if they put out all the old Need For Speed games up there (2 - High Stakes) and fixed them to work on newer versions of Windows.

I'm parahrasing because I'm on my cell, but that guy basically said, "Innovation is taking your competitor's product and making it better." Really? EA's chasing of the CoD dollars, trying to mimic WoW with TOR, and making a super-corporate version of Steam are its idea of innovationl? Someone needs to buy them a dictionary.

Steam has two things going for it: People trust Valve, and people already have a lot of games on Steam. That last part is another reason why the Steam sales are so brilliant. The more games you have with a service, the more likely you are to stick with it. In their desire for 'innovation,' EA is wisely choosing not to do sales, and to keep their users from building a large library of games.

As for trust, well... no need to beat a dead horse.

Copy and paste my steam list over there their service free of charge. Then have big sales. Then make better sorting functions and introduce the "10-foot interface" before Valve does. I suppose if they somehow found a way to take all of my old PC games and add them to my account that might do it as well. All 500 of them or whatever it is.

There is literally nothing that anybody could realistically do (except Valve themselves I suppose) that would make me use a second digital download service. I own 2 games on GfwL and I've never reinstalled them. I don't even know how to access them off the top of my head.

Once someone gets a stranglehold on the market it is really difficult to wrest control from them. Look at WoW for MMOs, Apple for mp3 players, China for cheap knockoffs of everything, Steam for digital distribution and so on.

Origin is late to the party, is a major underdog, has a comparatively limited library, is far less liked than Valve, and seemingly is run by people that are wildly out of touch.

Become Steam.

Seriously though, even if Origin were to somehow completely change overnight and add tons of new features, stop being spyware, have crazier-than-Steam sales-sales, and whatever else, I still wouldn't switch. I have had zero issue with Valve from day 1. EA, on the other hand, at least in my case, seems to take any goodwill they build up and completely shit on it later on and somehow do it in the most extreme way possible.

Uh, have almost every PC game I'd want. Not just EA games. That would be a start. Crazy sales? Better interface? Even then you're just adding parity, they'd need something new and better to make me switch. And I could never completely go over because of all the stuff I have on Steam already.

Pay me.

I wonder if anyone working at EA has the balls to tell the head guys there that:

A; not a single pc gamer in the world wants Origin to exist and is completely happy with steam.

B: their sales on PC would improve 100% if they just dropped Origin and fully supported steam properly instead.

I mean for fuck sake in 2 weeks I am looking forward to spending money on Steam.

Predatory pricing.

Be separated from EA. As in complete sale of that property to a 3rd party who I didn't see as working against the interests of the industry (focussed DLC/F2P position where the original game isn't the bulk of the monetisation of the products while retaining $60 boxed price; aggressive anti-consumer practices like removal of matchmaking and other connected services and previously removing the right to redownload). That would get them onto my radar as a company worth considering their sales as a value proposition.

I don't buy games on Steam or GOG.com so I can play them that second, I buy them to help reward developers/funders (well, GOG is rather debatable if anyone involved with working on or financing the title actually have any reward, often the rights have moved so much in the intervening years) and also so that one day I will be able to play that game at my leisure. That's mainly a trust judgement. I need to trust your company to not be actively looking to screw me over in the deal when I agree to give them money but don't actually buy anything (buying things means you own something, means you can resell what you purchased and so on). PC games purchasing hasn't been about buying things for years (cd keys was the start of the end). I'm handing over some money and would like to be able to play the game. EA don't inspire any confidence in me that I will necessarily get anything in return for my money. Valve seem far more trustworthy and Steam is too big to fail at this point (if it falls then we all work together to collect archives of the content Steam provided for all games and hack any DRM involved to release those content bundles so people can still access what they purchased - totally illegal but the internet still isn't locked down so we can work for an ethical goal even if the various local laws are very clear that consumers can get screwed over without any recourse).

It need to have crazy sales and sell old games at more reasonable prices.

@c0l0nelp0c0rn1 said:

This is laughable.

It's not like Origin could not be a better platform than Steam, but in its current state it is a glorified Battlefield player. What would Origin have to improve upon to get you to kick Steam like a bad habit? Is there anything they can do at this point?

Permanently shut down.

If it came with a 24hours 7days a week podcast hosted by Jeff Green that I could listen to while playing non EA games, than sure I would acknowledge its pitiful existence.

@Irvandus said:

It need to have crazy sales and sell old games at more reasonable prices.

Hey Origin doesn't believe in that crazy practice

People will go wherever the games they want are, despite their claims to the contrary. If EA could actually compete on price with third parties when selling EA games (which, bizarrely, they seem unable to do) then I'd buy all EA games from Origin. I have no problem with Origin and no particular loyalty to Steam. I'm glad Steam has some weighty competition finally.

• Nothing

That is all.

3 things:

1. Change their privacy policy. Stop reserving the right to use all of my personal data I use for purchases for advertising and marketing, or make it an opt in/out option. Yes, Steam's privacy policy allows them to collect data, but it is specifically hardware data they use for their hardware surveys. That's not the same. You can also opt out
2. Work on optimizing the client. While it's not slow, it is slower than Steam to get around. Also it uses more resources.
3. Game sales. Lots of them.

I honestly don't know...
 
I don't even have a GamersGate account - and I would be much more inclined to sign up to GamersGate than Origin...

Aside from being having competitive prices with Steam, EA would have to restore servers for every non-sports game it ever shut down across all platforms.

I know that will never happen, which is fine since I don't buy EA games anymore, so not using EA services on top of that isn't too hard to fit in as well.

"You have to be more convenient than free" - Jeff Gerstmann.

Origin would need to have the same catalog of games and them some, have the same amount of crazy sales as steam does, and be shady and get digital exclusivity on loads of games(which may or may not happen since you can always in most case's get them on disc anyway) to make steam less and less appealing to make me switch for me to kick steam.

Like someone said before, people will go where the games are if that's the only way to get them as much as we wouldn't like it. Origin has such a giant gap between Steam in terms of what they offer even if they did once become a better steam it's gunna be several years.

Kick Steam? Basically nothing. Use it alongside Steam? They would have to have a sale immediately in which most of the back catalog was 99 cents in order for me to build up a library of stuff that either isn't on Steam or hasn't been discounted that highly on Steam.

It could have started by not exploiting the name of a once loved developer in order to try and play to the rosy memories of the PC gaming community. They could also compete on price, they're even worse with their regional gouging than some publishers are on Steam. How about introducing even half the social/community features of steam. Or how about just not be run by one of the most consumer exploiting publishers in the industry?

Nothing. I don't even like using Steam.

Now that I think about it, there's really nothing that Origin could do to get me buying games from it over buying games from Steam. Maybe if Steam collapsed...

Way too many things. They'd have to let me have every game on my Steam account be accessible through origin. Smaller memory footprint than Steam. More sales and discounts than Steam. And they'd have to sell evey game on Steam and then some. In other words. It'll never happen.

I'll start having some respect for it as soon as EA stops telling everyone its (gonna be) better and they start being better.

You know how people like XBoxLive more than the Playstation Network even though you have to pay for the former for basically the same thing? Yeah it's like that, people are already invested into the ecosystem.

Two things that Origin has going for it now:

-They give you copies of EA games you already own

-They have EA exclusives

Origin would have to expand both of these initiatives: say they get THQ to be exclusive on Origin and also offer free copies of all your steam account THQ games; that may be compelling to some consumers, and the more of that they could do the greater effect it would have.

That is just getting people through the door though, if they want to keep people they will have to pretty much copy steam in all regards: titles available, sales, events, community, achievements.

It would really be pretty easy for them to do but they never will because they are EA and they are very focused on short-term goals of their investors and have zero regard for the long-term health of the company.

Sorry Steam, but so far I have had more luck with Origin - so Origin is already the leader for me personally.

Granted I only have one game on each service, but from my experience so far, Origin have been a much smoother ride.

Sim City.

I really don't like launching games outside of steam. I love having all of my games in one list and having one friends list. I guess I'll never play Mass Effect 3.

@Doctorchimp said:

@Irvandus said:

It need to have crazy sales and sell old games at more reasonable prices.

Hey Origin doesn't believe in that crazy practice

Yeah, I read the full piece over on Gamesindustry.biz. I really don't understand some of his reasoning.

"...we're not trying to be Target. We're trying to be Nordstrom. When I say that, I mean good value - we're trying to give you a fair price point, and occasionally there will be things that are on sale you could look for a discount, just don't look for 75 percent off going-out-of-business sales."

For those not in the know "Target" is like Wal-Mart only a bit more classier while "Nordstrom" is a high end department store found in many American malls. Anyway, what I don't understand is the comparison because the items for sale in Target are not the same items sold in Nordstrom. Now they both sell bed sheets and glassware and such, but it's not the same exact product. Steam and Origin will be selling the same exact product so I'm not sure how you can justify not selling your wares to compete.

"...one way to deal with aging inventory is you do deep discounts like that [Steam Sales]. There are other ways, which I can't really talk about, of dealing with product as it ages over a period of time, where you present a value to the customer and you engage them in your service on a going-forward basis."

I have no idea what that "engage them" proposal means. Perhaps free-bees? I mean would you buy a PC game from Origin if they offered you planned DLC for free? I sincerely doubt they'll do that and are more likely to just offer DLC for sale earlier to Origin customers than actually do anything to balance the difference in pricing between Origin and Steam. However, I am curious to see what they do. I don't believe I have anything Origin linked on my PC at the moment even though I do have some EA games on it from Steam. I've gotten over my blind fear of the distribution platform but I see no reason to actively join it yet.

One idea over on Neogaf seems reasonable. If EA Origin was to offer a subscription service that for an annual or quarterly fee gave me full access to a list of older or under-performing games of a significant quality, then I'd be more receptive to the platform. Similar to Playstation Plus, if for $60 a year or $20 every 3 months, EA opened up 15 to 20 notable games for download that would make me reconsider. Of course the downside to that for EA is that with all those "free" games, why buy anything new?

It's hard to say, because I honestly don't think I will ever trust EA.

This is so sad: "the only way you get to the innovation is to have other people try and do a better version of what someone has previously done,"

To answer your question I would start using Origin if it was the only reasonable option to get what I want to play.

Steam got me back into PC gaming. I have a huge library there, it's easy, unobtrusive and I have never had a single problem with them.

I'm not saying i wouldn't buy something from origin but man, ea has got their work cut out for them if they even hope to take a fraction of the market from steam.

I have no problem with Origin, but I already have a games service.  I like being able to access all of my games from one location, and I don't need another application running on my PC.  Eventually EA will release a game that I absolutely have to have on PC.  That's probably when I'll jump in.

Steam would have to die. Even then I wouldn't really want to touch Origin.

Free hookers and blow.

I buy games on Origin if a) I was going to buy it full price anyway (Syndicate, Most Wanted) and b) if they're the right value (content / price). The latter hasn't been true so it's mostly for new games, or Origin exclusives.

It's no different than how I treat the consoles. Either they have to be the right value, or the game has to be exclusive. If Sony opened up their own PC version of PSN, where I could buy Uncharted, I would use that.

Oh, another thing I use Origin for is to get games from Amazon. I'd say Origin has about two features on Steam; crazy good download speeds, and I really like the 'box art' view. Makes the 'collection' feel as real as up on the shelf. Steam is just a bunch of text. The Steam store is better designed, but the library sucks.

Offer Battlefield 3 for less than $10.

According to steamcalculator.com my Steam account is worth over $5500. There is literally nothing EA could do to get to me to switch. Hell, even if we lived in some alternate universe where I trusted EA more than Valve but still had all these games on Valve's service, I still wouldn't switch. Valve has a superior service, a superior library, superior pricing, and superior trust. Why would I ever switch?

Release more quality games like ME3 that are only on Origin to force me to log in more, then give me some crazy sales events to get me to start spending money. Even then, I have so much money invested into Steam that Origin becomes something that I also use at best.

According to steamcalculator.com my Steam account is worth over $5500. There is literally nothing EA could do to get to me to switch. Hell, even if we lived in some alternate universe where I trusted EA more than Valve but still had all these games on Valve's service, I still wouldn't switch. Valve has a superior service, a superior library, superior pricing, and superior trust. Why would I ever switch?

There's literally nothing it can do for me. Origin's sole reason for existence is for EA to say "look, we can do this to!". These "me too" services (Bing, Silverlight) are just delusions of grandeur of some overpaid jackass executive who thinks he can make crazy money by copying a competitor's cash cow without taking into consideration or providing the resources of what made the original product or service profitable. And that always results to a service that nobody wants and nobody needs.