Mass Effect 3 requires Origin, ALL flavours

[dsheinem]

Battlefield 3, ME3, etc are not on Steam purely because EA doesn't want to give Valve a cut of the DLC/etc sales.

Can you blame them?

[MrPopo]

My point exactly. Why don't we see these threads when game X uses Steam?

Because Steam is established and many of us already have an investment there. While digital distribution wouldn't be my ideal purchasing method, if I'm going to do it, I'll go with the service I've already got 160-odd games on. Not yet another random client.

Battlefield 3, ME3, etc are not on Steam purely because EA doesn't want to give Valve a cut of the DLC/etc sales.

Of course it's so they don't have to give Valve a cut of the DLC. But again, why is it more burdonsome to have two clients vs. one? Yes, it takes up fractionally more system resources when they're in their idle state. I'm talking about a substansive burden. Once the client is installed adding new games is pretty painless for either service. For me the difference between Steam games and Origin games is I launch the Origin games out of my Games folder and the Steam games out of the Steam launcher.

[isiolia]

Battlefield 3, ME3, etc are not on Steam purely because EA doesn't want to give Valve a cut of the DLC/etc sales.

Can you blame them?

Not necessarily, but spinning it as being "limited" by Steam is disingenuous. PSN or XBL, I'm sure, have similar policies, if not more restrictive, and yet they'll work with them because there's no other option.
If it was just a matter of not offering it on Steam, I wouldn't care. I buy physical copies of new release games anyway. It's the forcing people to use Origin that annoys me.

But again, why is it more burdonsome to have two clients vs. one?

How long before every studio has their own? At one point I had Impulse installed because I'd bought Sins of a Solar Empire, and it ran from inside that (and now Gamestop bought it, and uses it for their digital distribution). Or you already have had things like Games for Windows Live logins, or even the stupid EA logins for games to enter on launch.
It's a poor trend for PC gaming when you'll wind up needing to sort through a stack of clients and logins just to get to whatever game you happened to want to play.

What would be more ideal would be to see them integrating that stuff better, so I don't need to enter some Need for Speed login despite already being logged into Steam, for example.

[Jmustang1968]

Mass Effect 3: The Pirate Bay Edition will not require Origin.

Ya! Tenuous justifications to steal and pirate!

[MrPopo]

Not necessarily, but spinning it as being "limited" by Steam is disingenuous. PSN or XBL, I'm sure, have similar policies, if not more restrictive, and yet they'll work with them because there's no other option.

They are being just as limited on PSN or XBL, but the difference is that consoles are a closed platform, so either they put up with it or they get out. Look at all the XBL exclusive content that doesn't make its way to the PSN due to restrictive licensing terms. On the PC they have the option of using another solution than Steam. And if they want to talk to a server in order to curb some measure of piracy then it makes more sense for them to use a single unified platform rather than having every game use its own communications method. It makes their fleet much easier to maintain. And from a business standpoint by having a unified portal they can integrate things like a store and provide more services to an end user.

Would a single unified platform across all PC games be better? Of course. But that's a very tough sell from a business standpoint. Valve is a small company that managed to take the lion's share of the digital market by correctly forecasting that digital distribution was going to take off big. Should that grant them a monopoly on digital distribution, with th massive amounts of royalties that gives them? Or should we allow for competing services to see if they can provide a superior product to Valve's? Right now we see Origin as the EA client because currently those are the only games offered on it. But what if EA started courting other developers and indie developers to put their games on Origin? Now you'd have real competition, rather than the current "we don't wanna pay royalties" situation that EA is in.

[ZenErik]

Mass Effect 3: The Pirate Bay Edition will not require Origin.

Ya! Tenuous justifications to steal and pirate!

It's a good reason. Like I got the PC version of Skyrim, and now I can't sell it because the key is forever linked to my Steam account. I should have left my copy sealed and found a cracked copy that doesn't use Steam so I could actually resell the game if I want to. Now it's practically worthless on the used market.

[Jmustang1968]

Mass Effect 3: The Pirate Bay Edition will not require Origin.

Ya! Tenuous justifications to steal and pirate!

It's a good reason. Like I got the PC version of Skyrim, and now I can't sell it because the key is forever linked to my Steam account. I should have left my copy sealed and found a cracked copy that doesn't use Steam so I could actually resell the game if I want to. Now it's practically worthless on the used market.

Only if you buy the game I suppose... I don't sell my games anyway...

[MrPopo]

Mass Effect 3: The Pirate Bay Edition will not require Origin.

Ya! Tenuous justifications to steal and pirate!

It's a good reason. Like I got the PC version of Skyrim, and now I can't sell it because the key is forever linked to my Steam account. I should have left my copy sealed and found a cracked copy that doesn't use Steam so I could actually resell the game if I want to. Now it's practically worthless on the used market.

So your reason is that you are going to steal the game so you can sell it later?

[ZenErik]

So your reason is that you are going to steal the game so you can sell it later?

Yes. I would like the ability to resell my games if I so choose. This is a retro game forum as you know. Being able to B/S/T is a big thing for me as a gamer and as a collector. You can't get your money back if you don't like a game you download or a game that requires a key that can only be used once.

[Jmustang1968]

So your reason is that you are going to steal the game so you can sell it later?

Yes. I would like the ability to resell my games if I so choose. This is a retro game forum as you know. Being able to B/S/T is a big thing for me as a gamer and as a collector. You can't get your money back if you don't like a game you download or a game that requires a key that can only be used once.

That has been the case for any pc game with relevant online gameplay