Official PC Thread

[dave is ok]

They didn't take anything away. They have the right to leverage their content in a manner they see fit.

Online distribution is cheap. They felt like they were giving Steam 30% for something they could do themselves for less. So they did it.

I can buy Valve's last major releases on Origin. I can't buy EA's last major releases on Steam.

That is what Yoshi is getting at.

[Diff-chan]

But you still need to go through Steam to play it.

[James]

Steam, GOG, and the occasional indie from Desura. I've got a Uplay account only because Far Cry 3 required it, and an Origin account I haven't touched since Burnout Paradise was on sale for $5 a year or two ago. I really don't feel any need to juggle multiple accounts beyond the 3 I primarily use, and honestly, Steam gets 95% of it for convenience's sake.

James

[Tain]

Maybe it's different for games heavily tied to Origin (which games are these, even?) but going by a tiny handful of games I've bought Origin seems perfectly fine. Unlike Steam, I can actually play these games offline (offline mode in Steam has been bugged every time I've needed it in the past few years) and without starting up the store client.

[Yoshi]

I can buy Valve's last major releases on Origin. I can't buy EA's last major releases on Steam.

That is what Yoshi is getting at.

This is correct.

But you still need to go through Steam to play it.

I always have Steam running, so if I've played it recently, I can right click on the taskbar icon and pick the game in 0.5 seconds. It's literally faster than going to the Start menu, and I don't do desktop shortcuts. I demand a clean desktop.

Frankly, I don't like EA and don't want to give them an extra cut either. I'm not pretending this is 100% objective. I've been fond of excuses not to buy from EA since they were fond of excuses not to make DC games.

[Joust Williams]

That is exactly how it works on Origin as well.

[Yoshi]

Yeah, but then I need two things running, one of which I don't want at all and that adds zero value. It's like having iTunes and Windowswhateverthefuck both running to play music. That's not going to happen either.

[Diff-chan]

Origin's value is exactly how much you value playing its games. So, for me, for example, Origin's value is being able to play Battlefield 3 or Mass Effect 3. Obviously if you don't care about those games (or DS, NFS, etc.), then yea, it has zero value.

[Joust Williams]

Not to beat a dead horse but I don't think it's the same as music. With music, you roll your music into one big playlist and let it go (I am sure not everyone does, but whatever). With games, particularly single player ones, you play it for 10 hours or whatever and then you go to another game. You don't rotate every five minutes.

I am just saying not to judge a game's worth based on the non-game value-add the the DD client it is released on has or doesn't have.

[Diff-chan]

You don't rotate every five minutes.

Well, you don't have Yoshi's backlog.