Maybe they have new features in the pipeline that will be revealed as the games that use them are released, but if you're going to launch a new digital distribution service, I'd say it's probably a good idea to have a new digital distribution service. I'm dreaming now, but wouldn't it be nice if they tried to compete with retail pricing for new releases? Hell, even making sure they are the cheapest place to download their games from would be a good start, but right now recent releases like Need for Speed: Shift 2 and Alice: Madness Returns have an RRP of £34.99 on Origin and under £30 on both Steam and GamersGate. Maybe they could be offering features like cloud saving, or international pricing parity (since they own the entire distribution chain for Origin, it's their choice, and their choice alone, to practise international pricing bollocks). The client is good enough, just about, but updating it is always more of a hassle than it should be, it's kind of slow to navigate, if you want to download and install a 5gb game you need 10gb free space, and when buying PC games that have a Mac version you only get the PC version. I'd much prefer to have seen the energy that's gone into rebranding their service, focused on developing it. Poking around the Origin website, they still link to their (now dead) twitter account, which then links to the which then again links you to the actual one they decided to use: They should probably fix that. Will that big list of outlets just be selling serials to plug into Origin?Ī point about Origin that should not be missed in all of this: Origin could be argued to appear like a rebranded EA Store, which had been going for years. Requiring a separate client being installed for patches and/or buying DLC could be something that is against Valve's recently updated terms, whereas plenty of the other digital distributors already do essentially that for Steamworks games, so would (presumably) have no problem selling games that require Origin. They've dabbled with this in the past, where certain retail games could be optionally registered on EA Store, but mandatory installation via Origin would be a good way for them to get their client installed on a whole load of PCs. Or could it be something else? Obviously BF3 is still going to be getting a retail release (how else would they arrange retailer exclusive DLC?), but I have my suspicions that perhaps future EA games will require Origin for installation. Is Battlefiled 3 going to have DLC that is only compatible with copies bought from Origin? It wouldn't be a first for EA/DICE, the Mirror's Edge Mario Galaxy map pack only works on retail and EA Store copies of the game. There's plenty of signs suggesting this is part of Valve and EA's disagreement about DLC stuff. They seem to be living up to their promises of wanting to offer consumers a broad choice of where to buy games from, but that's little consolation to customers who might not be able to buy Battlefield 3 from their go to digital distributor. From the looks of things it is going to be sold anywhere else that will take it. It's interesting to note that this is not an example of EA securing Battlefield 3 as an Origin exclusive, like with The Old Republic. I can't remember EA having ever previously put together a list like that, so it feels like they're going out of their way to make a point. Maybe this list will resurface with Steam on it at a later date, but my gut is suggesting otherwise. I asked a bloke from EA about it, and they have nothing to say except to keep your eye on the official website for news about the game. We don't actually know for certain that Battlefield 3 won't be announced for a Steam release at a later date, but Steam was not on the now removed list. It's the next chapter of the ongoing kerfuffle between EA and Valve. Nearly 100 different digital distributors were listed in total, but conspicuous by its absence, it seems there are currently no plans for Battlefield 3 to be made available on Steam. It included the likes of Gamersgate, Impulse, Direct2Drive, and EA's own (sort of) brand new download service, Origin. I had a good look at it at, but it's curiously now been taken down. Over the weekend, or at least I noticed it over the weekend, EA stuck up "A list of digital retailers who will be selling Battlefield 3" onto.
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