EA turns hypocrite, discounts games on Origin up to 87.5 percent

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/ea-turns-hypocrite-discounts-games-on-origin-up-to-87-5-percent-20120618/

by ukdm • 14 years ago

14 12 14 years ago

I'd still rather buy from Steam than Origin.

pdubs• 14 years ago

Honestly EA is "terrible" gaming company, but I can't complain too much about Origin. I got it when Battlefield 3 came out and I have had 0 issues with it. There's plenty to harp on EA about without picking on Origin.

walru2• 14 years ago

I seem to remember most people taking issue with Origin's TOS/'Spyware', Customer Service, and itchy ban trigger if you should ever venture into their forums. Not the actual program itself.

wangarific• 14 years ago

Money talks!

Selling a game at 87.5% and earning $5 > selling a game at 100% and earning $0. EA chases the cash and talk is cheap.

jgroome• 14 years ago

Wow, for a moment there I thought I was on reddit.

I don't play games, so don't use either Origin or Steam. But even I can see that branding EA "hypocrites" is exactly the same as accusing a politician of "flip-flopping". They made a call, it was the wrong thing to do, so they've listened to feedback and have now gone another way.

What's the problem? Are you really complaining about Origin selling games for less money? Perhaps you'd prefer it if they cancelled the sale and put their prices up?

ukdm• 14 years ago

I'd prefer it if the head of Origin didn't make statements about protecting IP and not shortchanging developers only 2 weeks later to change his mind.

It was a stupid statement to make to begin with. He accused Steam, the most successful digital games distribution service available, of going about their business the wrong way and that Origin wouldn't make the same mistake.

I think this is more of a complaint about the way EA do business. What was the point of DeMartini's original comments? Who was he trying to appeal to as it certainly wasn't gamers.

walru2• 14 years ago

What's even more bizarre is that they've been heavily discounting their iOS catalogue on a routine basis. For example, the last two holidays they've lowered nearly every app to 99 cents in order to take over the majority of the top 25 best selling games. Some factions within the company must have already understood the effects of volume pricing long ago.

Actually.. I think what EA really needs to start doing is using Origin to fund games ala Kickstarter. I think that's what their fans really want.

citricsquid• 14 years ago

You can view the article that quote comes from here: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-06-ea-origin-wont-...

> DeMartini agreed with this position: "What Steam does might be teaching the customer, 'I might not want it in the first month, but if I look at it in four or five months, I'll get one of those weekend sales and I'll buy it at that time at 75 per cent off.'

> "It's an approach, and I'm not going to say it's not working for Valve. It certainly works for Valve; I don't know if it works as well for the publishing partners who take on the majority of that haircut."

If you mention Steam to someone it's likely they'll think of Steam sales, there is a huge following of Steam sales on reddit etc and I don't think EA wants to (or ever will) become that. I'm not sure if he really meant they would never do sales like this, I suspect he meant more they would not become a core part of the service, Steam sales are a core part of Steam.

Origin has had sales before this interview, I have an email from March when they did a (very public) 50% off sale and they did a similar sale in December last year. There's a big difference between a few older games at ~75% off and having half of your entire inventory at 90% off, including games released 6 months prior.

WalterSear• 14 years ago

The reason that Valve makes more money per employee than Apple is that they have tapped into a market of gamers that did not otherwise exist: those that would have either gone without, or pirated the games.

I was one of them, and instead, I now have legally purchased far more games than I will ever get round to playing. Keeping prices high in order to finance bloated AAA titles (that are IMHO, generally unappealing) leaves my money on the table.

b3b0p• 14 years ago

I have no problem with Origin. They have been good about providing nice deals.

However, I do not want to manage and run multiple clients, multiple accounts across multiple websites, etc...

Thus, I have chosen Steam as my choice and have stubbornly stuck to that.

I want Mass Effect 3 quite badly. Maybe someday there will be a Steam version. I have hopes.

talmand• 14 years ago

Seems to me this yet another example of a guy at the top of a company going out into the wild to say things about which he has no clue as to what's being said.

How does a game franchise show value? By making money, not by being full price for the life cycle of the product.

Of course they would have sales like this, a game cannot stay full price forever. Especially since Valve can prove with sales numbers that you make more money in the long run with these type of sales. The guy at the top may say we won't have steep sales because he thinks it cheapens the franchise but the guys who count the money will eventually slap him down, tell him to shut up, and slash the price of that game to make more money.

rsanchez1• 14 years ago

I don't get all the EA hate. They publish Mass Effect, they get hate. They try to boost indie games and developers, they get hate. They start doing sales on games, and they get hate.

There's so much irrational hate on the internet.

EA turns hypocrite, discounts games on Origin up to 87.5 percent

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