Origin Boss Says Steam Sales "Cheapen Intellectual Property" Pages PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NEXT | |
The ignorance of EA has crossed the boundary into the realm of hilarity :D Seriously, it's like they're completely disconnected from the real world! | |
i bought amnesia through a steam sale and i like it. if not for that sale i wouldnt of purchased it. as for EA the comments comming out of EA's PR and marketing department lately is like watching monkeys use tools for the very first time | |
Hahahahaha...just get the fuck out, Origin, you're embarrassing yourself. | |
Because people don't pre-order or buy games on release any more...umm...wait a second... No. People still buy games at release. The desire is too great. What steam sales do is let a publisher make every single dollar from every single customer they possibly can in the long term. Because there is such little overhead in digital distribution, sales maximize profits. In addition, if you release a good game and it goes on sale, you have more people playing what amounts to a demo for your NEXT game. You ALSO build up goodwill with your consumer. And lastly...even if EA believes this...why would they say it? It makes no sense to say, "Oh we are going to not drop prices because of...some lofty idealism about value of IPs". Yeah, even if that argument wern't BS, no one is going to like an argument that demands that they pay more. If you were half way decent at spinning, you wouldn't be trying to convince people that they should pay more and like it. And lastly...project $10. It makes sense for you to make $10 off an older, used game, right? Why not make that $10 of a sale on a DD site, and cut the game retailer out of the picture entirely to encourage even more sales? | |
That's not what he said. He said: "It costs nothing to produce a copy of a game." Once you have the digital distribution structure in place it costs the same to run whether you sell one game or 100'000'000 copies. Valve picks up the bill for distribution costs: the game makers send them a file and Valve distributes it via the internet to the millions of people who bought it. But valve has the infrastructure, every moment people aren't using it to full capacity they are wasting what they have already paid for. It does NOT cost extra to distribute more copies of a game. You don't seem to understand the question or the basics of the situation. | |
actually, i have something good to say about origin. when it first launched, i decided to check it out, and saw on the digital store Spore and The Sims 3. I knew that i had purchased physical copies of these games before and made sure to register them, but now had no idea where the discs were. I contacted customer support and within an hour was talking to someone who gave me digital licenses to Sims 3, Spore, Creepy and Cute and Galactic Adventures, because I had registered them. They could have easily said no, but didn't. This was the first time I was happy with EA in a long time. Especially when I've some horror stories about Steam's customer service. but i guess what really matters is that I was on Steam earlier today. I was on Origin earlier last year... | |
GoG said HUGE sales can cheapen a game. Remember that GoG.com has its own regular chunk of sale specials going on all the time, what they said was harmful were the "80%" off kind of big sales. As for EA and origin? And if they do that, don't expect it to be decent dlc at all. It'll be Capcom-quality spam DLC, like the "From a Different Sky" quest packs they are releasing for Dragons Dogma. Oh yay, 100 new quests! Positive right? Well let me finish. | |
That sounds like a load of crap to me. If people still want to buy certain games, they will buy them at full price. This just gives a chance for people who literally do not have the money to buy the games at full price a chance to get them. It is also a good way for people to pick up games that they are on the fence about and likely never would have picked up anyway. | |
This would be true if games were targeted at a niche market. They're not, they're selling them as quickly and as many as possible to everyone. Saying that sales will cheapen the IP makes it sound like a luxary product. But games are owned by so many people now can they really be called luxary? Nor can they charge luxary prices and still break even. I doubt it. | |
I kind of see his point, but god forbid there is even any reason to discuss it considering there is 4 pages of "Fuck EA". Don't get me wrong, I buy a lot of stuff from steam sales, but there is a big different between buying a game that is several years old when it's on sale and buying a game that was just released in the last 3 or so months for an obscene discount. | |
And numerous people went and bought the whole Penumbra series because of how good Amnesia is, so that sale may well have contributed to an increase in the sales of that developer's entire back catalogue. | |
So, what, you mean like just about every store in the world? That's how the entire market has worked - full price over the first few months, then discount that stuff at the end of its cycle. That is pretty much the working model for EVERYTHING with a limited cycle of noticeable sales, clothing, food, you name it. And if it's worked fine for who-knows-how-many-years with them, why can't it work just as well for Steam? Mind you, the steam sales sometimes have a CRAZY amount off, but that's good for giving one more reason to say "Hey, might as well try, right?" I mean, if you have a bit of interest in, say, a Ģ40 game, and then it gets a 75% off deal, that's Ģ10 - that's not as big an investment, so that added to the bit of interest = game purchase. Times that by however many people think like that - and that's probably a lot, given the general feeling of cynicism around the gaming community nowadays - And that's a lot of Ģ10 that wouldn't have paid Ģ40 before. So, it's not a Ģ30 loss, so much as a Ģ10 profit. | |
There are games which I like a lot. I buy those games at full price if I've got the money. I don't wait for those games a couple of months for a sale. Of course this is just the usual shit flinging from EA. They don't believe these words themselves, EA's games have been often enough on sale on Steam. They're just trying to sound like some exclusive store. | |
You know what else cheapens IPs? flogging them to death with yearly releases and lazy DLC CAPTCHA: dueling banjos. what the ef? | |
... and if you listen reaaaal carefully you can hear him whining in envy. I honestly don't think that this guy makes a remotely decent point. I mean, if you really want a game you'll buy it straight away to hell with the money you could save waiting several months, however you see a game you're considering buying but can't justify it for that price and then along comes a steam sale and you gobble up a decent deal for a game you were on the fence about! This way that company has earned money from you purchasing it at all and increased sales from a particular studio of series of games can often mean that whilst they didn't make a whole lot of cash due to sales, they've gained popularity and sequels would earn a bigger profit. | |
Valve have said a couple of times that the increase in sales boost makes up for the price drop anyway. So what you're then doing is making the same amount of money whilst reaching a wider audience, who are then likely to buy your next game closer to a normal price point later. In other words, this is the stupidest fucking thing I've heard all week. If there's a game I'm looking forward to, I'll buy it pretty much as soon as it comes out. If there are others I'm less sure about, I'll probably wait. If it stays full price, I'm not going to buy it. If I catch it in a sale, that's an investment and a potential new customer. Perhaps if publishers weren't inclined to swamping the last 2 months of every year with more releases than anyone in their right mind could afford to purchase at once, this would be less of an issue. But no, clever EA man, continue pretending that maintaining a higher price point than someone else on the same fucking product ups the prestige on your store somehow. That's exactly how it works. (And I see there's no point in doing anything more than noting the irony of a guy from EA complaining about IPs being 'cheapened'.)
See top paragraph. And link: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/24/less-is-more-gabe-newell-on-game-pricing/ | |
Mind control. EA is going to unveil mind control. They will then use it to make us pay twice full price for games. OT. I agree to a degree. I don't own Skyrim cause I don't want to pay 60 bucks. I want all the dlc and the game for 30. | |
i'm currently rocking a free to play game by EA called Command and Conquer Tiberium Alliances, and the only thing paying can do is cut down waiting times, which doesn't turn out to be a HUGE advantage. I'm all for EA bashing, but fair is fair, and sometimes even the devil needs an advocate. | |
Wow, this just really makes me angry. What a bold d-bag to just come out and say that consumers getting good deals and buying more games is hurting the industry. I could almost pity him if he weren't so full of it. Oh and sales happen everywhere, not just steam. | |
Steam sales are to get people onto Steam with cheap games. They win when the percentage of people who stick begin buying at full price. | |
Likewise, Origin shouldn't hold its breath for me to get to the party. | |
EA Vice President David DeMartini will soon be looking for a job as more and more manufacturers distance themselves from his insane comments. With all game forums at 99%, (give or take 20% forinternet accurracy) against Origin, and marketers watch this, something is going to give. | |
Everything is worth what the buyer is willing to pay. Never forget this EA, or you may oneday be the company failing (as opposed to the companies you buy out and ruin). | |
This is a naked attempt to shame people into thinking that these low prices screw the artist rather than just the middlemen. In the retail world, you've got to make a certain amount per copy to break even, due to the cost of producing, packaging, and distributing each unit. Selling below that price can cause a lot of problems. In the digital world, you've got to make a certain amount total to break even, because the product must only be produced once. So selling one unit for a million dollars, or a million units for one dollar is financially identical to the seller. But which is better from a business perspective? Well, I'd rather have a million people talking about how fun my game is and how great the price was. EA is still stuck on this per-unit logic pothole. | |
For whatever reason EA has for not wanting to offer sales en par with Steam's, you can be absolutely sure that it is NOT because they wanted to take a moral high ground. | |
You mean it teaches people to save there money until the price is a t a point they feel is right for them? How dare they. | |
I think there's something you're misunderstanding, and I think it's the same thing EA's folks are missing. We only see the developer "getting screwed" if we look at the per-copy sale price and compare it to the usual. In the retail world, that comparison holds water -- it costs money to burn the disks, package and ship it all, and get it stocked on shelves. In the digital world, however, there is no per-copy cost. Moving one unit at $1 million is exactly the same as moving a million units at $1 each. | |
Sigh... Does EA even know anymore how businesses work. | |
Really? My Ģ3.74 Portal 2 begs to differ. As does my Ģ2.50 Alpha Protocol, Ģ3.74 Alien vs Predator, Ģ2.50 Tachyon: The Fringe, Ģ5.00 X3: Gold Edition. Actually, most of my Steam games I got considerably cheaper than you can boxed. | |
Saying it harms the market is BS. Despite what EA might think, gamers aren't one giant hivemind. Lots will fork out extra and jump through hoops to get a game early, others will wait half a year to save $10. I use your stupid platform to play BF3, and I forked out $60 to get the game a few hours early. Then you come up with "Premium". I used to be cool with EA, but their treatment of DICE and BF3 is total BS. Why can't it be like BF2? No stupid dick waving contests with Valve or Activision, no stupid DLC ideas, more useful patches, and GODDAMN MODDING TOOLS! | |
Guess I won't be looking at Origin games. Not everyone can spend full price for games. | |
Translation: Steam summer sale coming soon! | |
Don't get me wrong, I love me some GOG.com...it's pretty much the only other place I get game downloads other than STEAM... I think it can be really helpful, when they cut the price of a game that isn't selling well. Even if it's an impulse buy, a struggling game can get a second chance from those impulse buys, pushing it onto the top sellers list on STEAM, generating interest from players...and you never know, you might find a new favorite game (Love you, Humble Bundles)... But then, I can see it as damaging since it gets buyers into a mind set of "Oh, i'll just wait till it's on sale" and they don't buy the game until one of those big sales, or maybe they don't buy it at all because they are waiting for a specific price they are willing to pay, but the game never falls to that price... I guess it's a two way street...helpful if it is done right, but hurtful if it's abused... | |
hehehehahahahLMAO!!!! nice going EA, keep spouting that bullshit, :D and keep giving me more reasons to never use Origin (like i need more of those) | |
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I think you meant to say "they're". All three times.
I'm usually not such a grammar nazi, but seeing someone miss the mark 3 times in a row just twists something inside of me.
As for EA's statement here...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Cry some more EA, cry some more. I wouldn't use their service even if they DID offer sale prices that could compete with steams. See, while the execs at EA were attending business school and learning how to crush beer cans against their heads, the guys at Steam were actively working within the game industry as developers, testers, etc. How much you wanna bet that none of the top dogs at EA actually PLAY games?