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[jack_norton]

Just found this news:
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ea-announces-origin

honestly I'm surprised that EA didn't do such a thing SOONER. But... will it last? can they compete with Steam now or is a "bit too late"?

[eld]

They've just renamed EA download manager, they've had a digital distribution network for quite some time.


Origin will compete with steam as much as the old republic will compete with world of warcraft

[jack_norton]

Origin will compete with steam as much as the old republic will compete with world of warcraft

Lol that's a very clear comparison :D

[Destral]

It'll be interesting to see how their gamble with SWTOR-only-through-Origin works out for them.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think it'd be good for steam to have actual competition that isn't 1/100th of its size, a monopoly is never good for anyone

[Taiko]

I think I'll stay with Steam.  I'm mainly a Valve guy anyway for my AAA games and I like the way Steam has progressed with usergroups and sharing screenshots.  Also Steam seems pretty indie friendly with Recettear, VVVVVV, Night Sky, Blueberry Garden and many others on there.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

in my experience it's less-indie friendly than competing services

for instance, immortal defense is on d2d (used to be owned by ign and was later bought by gamefly), on gamersgate, on reflexive (which was bought by amazon), and on stardock impulse (which was later bought by gamestop), but not on steam

[Destral]

i think it'd be good for steam to have actual competition that isn't 1/100th of its size, a monopoly is never good for anyone

It'll be interesting to see, but they have a huge headstart on everyone else. Then again, Gamestop did buy D2D or one of the other DD platforms, so it would surprise me if they didn't leverage their existing muscle in order to catch up to Steam pretty quickly.

[gimymblert]

note: nintendo is lagging and may totally fail this fundamental shift (who's talking about blue ocean those day?)

[jack_norton]

i think it'd be good for steam to have actual competition that isn't 1/100th of its size, a monopoly is never good for anyone

Listen to Paul, those are holy words! 
Seriously a monopoly is not good in any business field, and I have some of my games on those platforms Paul mentioned but not on Steam. I'd say is hard to find a distributor LESS indie friendly than Steam! 

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

to be fair, microsoft's 'games for windows' distribution service is less indie-friendly than steam (but it's about the only one i can think of)

[TheLastBanana]

It seems to me like Steam is based on whether they actually like your game or not, and less on how much the game is expected to sell. I could be totally wrong, but that's what I've heard about it, anyway.

[jack_norton]

It seems to me like Steam is based on whether they actually like your game or not, and less on how much the game is expected to sell. I could be totally wrong, but that's what I've heard about it, anyway.

To some extent yes. I mean if is a small mostly unknown indie game, then yes. But recently they have added in the submission form "Sales"... Yes you need to tell them how many sales you had of your game 
Which obviously depends on many factors like marketing, if you just started, etc and doesn't really/always reflect the game potential.

[TheLastBanana]

Ah, okay, that makes enough sense. It's an interesting business model nonetheless.
Hopefully Steam won't be a monopoly forever, but I do have to wonder if having EA as their competitor is any better. These are the same people that have secretly packaged borderline malicious DRMs with many of their games, after all. As I recall, the EA download manager was a pain to work with, too, so hopefully they'll give its interface a once-over before this goes live.

[Player 3]

to be fair, microsoft's 'games for windows' distribution service is less indie-friendly than steam (but it's about the only one i can think of)

But what I've heard is that Games for Windows is less user and indie friendly than Steam. I had no problem with Steam this far.

[Nugsy]

I bet they put their games on this with no DRM other that the platform itself. That way people will choose it over Steam if they want to buy an EA game.

[deathtotheweird]

They haven't mentioned that, but even if that was the case I still would not choose that service over Steam.

and using the economic definition of monopoly, Valve/Steam is quite far from being one.

[Dragonmaw]

D2D is the quiet juggernaut of digital distribution. It was one of the first, and it has a library about the size of Steam.

[Pineapple]

to be fair, microsoft's 'games for windows' distribution service is less indie-friendly than steam (but it's about the only one i can think of)

But what I've heard is that Games for Windows is less user and indie friendly than Steam. I had no problem with Steam this far.

GFWL is a steaming pile of shit.

[falsion]

If they do try to make it like Steam (or compete with it), I don't see how they'd succeed.

Who the hell would want a "Steam" just for one publisher? I'd really hope they wouldn't try do something stupid like pull all their games off of Steam and then make them Origin only.

Imagine if every publisher started doing something like that. Who the hell would want to run 10 different programs just to play different games?