Rant: Origin vs Steam

So this blog post will be a little more than discussing games or game theory, this is my own perspective on the 'feud' between Valve and EA over digital distribution.

Back when EA announced their plans to release their own digital distribution service I was very pessimistic on the subject for the simple fact that if anyone could compete with Valve, it would be EA. I have invested a great deal into Steam ever since installing it to play my Christmas present of Half Life 2. At first admittedly I was a little confused why I had to be online to play my games, but as time when on I stopped thinking about it and just went with it. Over time once I had access to my own income I began a series of purchases for Steam games including the Orange Box. This at the time was a fantastic deal and left me with some great games. My library consisted only of Valve developed games. Over time this purchasing digital products became acceptable, the connection issue never even bothered me again. My library has since grown in size to be around 80 games from many developers and worth a great deal of money.

With such a great investment into one service that I have grown to trust, the subject of competition did make my heart sink. EA is one of the biggest games publishers out there with so many good games under their name. Right off the bat I knew troubled waters were ahead.

It first began with the pulling of Crysis 2 from Steam, according to EA this was done by Valve due to a breach of contract. It is of my opinion that this was a very clever and basterdly move by EA to make it seem like it was Valves fault. Now I am not saying that the Steam terms of Service are good, infact quite the opposite, but to knowingly breach terms of service that they had agreed to prior to this is far worse. The move to breach terms was timed with the beginning of marketing for Origin and so anything to make fans of Crysis be put off by Valve makes perfect business sense to me, but remains a dishonourable move. Oh and my theory on it being an intentional breach is all the more credible as EA announce Crysis 2 being 'Exclusive to Origin' so very shortly after. To summarise EA made Steam look bad by highlighting flaws in the ToS and blaming them for the pulling of EA products.

Not long ago Valve have responded in a PR move saying that they want EA back. This is PR ans pure as it comes really, making it seem as if EA are the unreasonable ones. It is of my opinion that the terms of service put forward by Valve for Steam are a little on the harsh side, with no transactions being able to take place outside of the service. So without making this a 'Balanced piece' we have two distinctly different 'dickish' moves from both sides.

Now EA have made the next move by selling Valves games on their service. What could be wrong with that? Well lets look a little closer at this move. If I were to put myself in EA's shoes I would say it comes as a move to get people to make purchases using Origin. Once people make their first purchase using a system and all goes well they are more likely to continue to buy more. This kind of cheap deal doesn't normally come as a surprise for a service just starting up, but what is curious is how they are selling Valve games. The cynic in me tells me its simple trickery, because this could be perceived as 'an act of good faith'. Selling games from your competitor who you recently screwed over. The games being sold are NOT digital copies. which makes no sense from a digital distribution service, unless you are trying to create the image of selling a wider variety of games from everyone and not just shovelling your own software.

I dislike all moves made on this front especially the move to get Crysis 2 and other EA titles pulled from Steam. I choose to use Steam, and if I can no longer buy EA products digitally through my ONLY digital distribution software, well then I choose not to buy those games. Which is a shame really when Battlefield 3 and SW:TOR are just around the corner. Maybe they could have waited to pull all this off once people chose to use their service, rather than trying to sabotage or hinder competition before any real investment is made from consumers. This has ruined my perception of Origin from the get-go and bought back to light the issues with the Steam terms of service.

The winner in all this? No-one, but the consumers sure as hell lose out.