I can't believe people actually defend EA. I mean, I understand that these people are in the minority, and that we shouldn't be worried just because a few weirdos feel the need to be contrary. But still, it's alarming.
Steam is great, the sales they have keep new customers trying out some of the older games that otherwise people wouldn't touch. The developers/publishers come to an agreement on the price with Valve so as all parties agree and are happy, it's win win for those involved. Those that aren't involved.. like EA, are just upset because they don't have the success that steam is having with digital distribution. Sorry EA.. oh wait, no i'm not.
So an indie developer with a game on Origin approaches EA with a requests. He says, "Hey, I would like my game to be 80% off for a week, so I can promote it and get sales." EA responds, "No. That sale is too deep. We don't do that." Is that how it would go?
So an indie developer with a game on Origin approaches EA with a requests. He says, "Hey, I would like my game to be 80% off for a week, so I can promote it and get sales." EA responds, "No. That sale is too deep. We don't do that." Is that how it would go?
I have 7 Indie games on my computer, all purchased on Steam...before Steam I had zero indie games.
Major_9000
still, not trying to enter this whole 'steam ruining the industry' argument, but ^ this is the same with a lot of people. steam has really helped out a lot of smaller developers.
The gaming community decides what we want from our games, not EA. They can rot in corporate hell for all I care. I refuse to purchase anything with their name on it again.
I love this line from the first link..."when you start attacking a company that actually seems to care about the people who play their games..." this is just too funny, Valve cares more about us because they discount more? EA is right, too much discounting does cheapen your products/services. That said, I don't think Valve discounts too much.
I love this line from the first link..."when you start attacking a company that actually seems to care about the people who play their games..." this is just too funny, Valve cares more about us because they discount more? EA is right, too much discounting does cheapen your products/services. That said, I don't think Valve discounts too much.Gooeykat
Haha wow you're clueless bud. Valve cares about the gaming community and it shows through their mod support, Steam discounts, and overall attitude toward gamers. DOTA 2 is a good example of why Valve is the best game company out there. IceFrog works for Valve now, instead of making mods for Blizzard who could care less about their community. If you can't tell the difference between EA/Activision and a great company like Valve, you're not even considered a REAL gamer at all, you're a scrub.
[QUOTE="vfibsux"][QUOTE="kraychik"] Let me get this straight, Valve is less "greedy" than EA? Is that your position? You think Steam discounts its products on sales because they're just nicer folks than those at EA? Elann2008
Ever owned a business? Smart business makes the customer think you are doing THEM a favor rather than making a profit off of them. EA type business makes you feel like you lose blood when you buy their products. Valve is in it for the money, of course.....but they are the better business people. Period. Clearly, they are both better business people than you are, or ever will be.. When you own a corporation as large as Valve and EA, come back and talk trash. I never felt like I lost blood or anything when I bought an EA game. I think you're on rage pills or something. EA never made you do anything so stop making things up. I agree. Some of these EA-haters are acting as if EA held a gun to their heads and forced them to buy this or that game. If you don't like EA's offerings, don't buy their products. I've bought plenty of games from EA and from Steam (and some EA games from Steam, actually). EA does seem to have an image problem, and if that affects their bottom line hopefully they'll adapt, improving the situation for both them and their customers. My main disagreement with most of the reflexively anti-EA folks in this thread is that they portray this false dichotomy, where EA's interests are in competition with its customer base - as if gamers have no choice over whether or not to buy the latest release of EA regardless of the pricing. That's wrong, because if EA's customer base is unhappy, EA will end up shooting itself in the foot. My point is that the interests of the customers and the business are in sync, so when a business makes bad decisions, we all lose out.
EDIT - And yes, I do own a business actually. I understand the need to provide value to clients, otherwise, they'd go somewhere else.
[QUOTE="Gooeykat"]I love this line from the first link..."when you start attacking a company that actually seems to care about the people who play their games..." this is just too funny, Valve cares more about us because they discount more? EA is right, too much discounting does cheapen your products/services. That said, I don't think Valve discounts too much.SKaREO
Haha wow you're clueless bud. Valve cares about the gaming community and it shows through their mod support, Steam discounts, and overall attitude toward gamers. DOTA 2 is a good example of why Valve is the best game company out there. IceFrog works for Valve now, instead of making mods for Blizzard who could care less about their community. If you can't tell the difference between EA/Activision and a great company like Valve, you're not even considered a REAL gamer at all, you're a scrub. I've got news for you, they don't discount their products because they care about their customers. They do it because they obviously think it makes good business sense. You're the one is clueless if you don't understand this. They are running a business not a charity, Valve does what they do because it makes good business sense, that includes mod support, offering DOTA 2 for free. They have a long-term business strategy.
[QUOTE="SKaREO"][QUOTE="Gooeykat"]I love this line from the first link..."when you start attacking a company that actually seems to care about the people who play their games..." this is just too funny, Valve cares more about us because they discount more? EA is right, too much discounting does cheapen your products/services. That said, I don't think Valve discounts too much.Gooeykat
Haha wow you're clueless bud. Valve cares about the gaming community and it shows through their mod support, Steam discounts, and overall attitude toward gamers. DOTA 2 is a good example of why Valve is the best game company out there. IceFrog works for Valve now, instead of making mods for Blizzard who could care less about their community. If you can't tell the difference between EA/Activision and a great company like Valve, you're not even considered a REAL gamer at all, you're a scrub. I've got news for you, they don't discount their products because they care about their customers. They do it because they obviously think it makes good business sense. You're the one is clueless if you don't understand this. They are running a business not a charity, Valve does what they do because it makes good business sense, that includes mod support, offering DOTA 2 for free. They have a long-term business strategy. You're harshing my buzz, brah. Pass the spliff and the drum, brah. Peace n' love, brah.
[QUOTE="SKaREO"][QUOTE="Gooeykat"]I love this line from the first link..."when you start attacking a company that actually seems to care about the people who play their games..." this is just too funny, Valve cares more about us because they discount more? EA is right, too much discounting does cheapen your products/services. That said, I don't think Valve discounts too much.Gooeykat
Haha wow you're clueless bud. Valve cares about the gaming community and it shows through their mod support, Steam discounts, and overall attitude toward gamers. DOTA 2 is a good example of why Valve is the best game company out there. IceFrog works for Valve now, instead of making mods for Blizzard who could care less about their community. If you can't tell the difference between EA/Activision and a great company like Valve, you're not even considered a REAL gamer at all, you're a scrub. I've got news for you, they don't discount their products because they care about their customers. They do it because they obviously think it makes good business sense. You're the one is clueless if you don't understand this. They are running a business not a charity, Valve does what they do because it makes good business sense, that includes mod support, offering DOTA 2 for free. They have a long-term business strategy. You know what they say: It's easier to keep a returning customer than it is to find new ones. Maybe EA should take some of that advice and plug it into their tiny little brains. Probably won't make a difference though, Origin is a P.O.S. and a failure of an online distribution platform. EA execs are just butthurt whiners who can't figure out how to make good games or provide people a decent entertainment service. Ignore those tools, and move on. Don't buy their crap, let them rot in bankruptcy. That's my take on this.
You raise an important distinction between EA and Valve that I overlooked - EA is a publicly-traded company which certainly changes things. Still, shareholders want a business to be profitable, and a business can't be profitable unless it's satisfying its customers. Gamers are buying EA products, and that tells us a lot. The assertion that the interests of business are in competition with the interests of consumers is false, which seems to be how you're characterizing things: EA vs. the gamers. EA cannot succeed without us, but we can easily live without EA. You seem to be suggesting that EA can get away with "greed" whereas Valve could do the same but simply chooses not to out of the goodness of their hearts. That's just not how things work. kraychik
Gamers are buying EA products, but EA's shareprice hasn't been doing very well lately at all, which says a lot about their own financial stability. Add in the pressure of being a publicly traded company, and its no wonder that games like BF3 which had the proclamations of never selling maps by DICE before launch, low and behold how the game has been monetised in almost every conceivable way a triple A full priced product could be (I mean really, paying for unlocks, players purchasing the game having to grind in comparison?). EA games sell, I don't dislike EA, but their practices are very much aimed towards walking that very fine line between customer relations, and getting as much as they can out of customers and their own IPs in terms of profit. There's good moves, and then really unhealthy business practices.
[QUOTE="SKaREO"][QUOTE="Gooeykat"][QUOTE="SKaREO"] Haha wow you're clueless bud. Valve cares about the gaming community and it shows through their mod support, Steam discounts, and overall attitude toward gamers. DOTA 2 is a good example of why Valve is the best game company out there. IceFrog works for Valve now, instead of making mods for Blizzard who could care less about their community. If you can't tell the difference between EA/Activision and a great company like Valve, you're not even considered a REAL gamer at all, you're a scrub. I've got news for you, they don't discount their products because they care about their customers. They do it because they obviously think it makes good business sense. You're the one is clueless if you don't understand this. They are running a business not a charity, Valve does what they do because it makes good business sense, that includes mod support, offering DOTA 2 for free. They have a long-term business strategy. You know what they say: It's easier to keep a returning customer than it is to find new ones. Maybe EA should take some of that advice and plug it into their tiny little brains. Probably won't make a difference though, Origin is a P.O.S. and a failure of an online distribution platform. EA execs are just butthurt whiners who can't figure out how to make good games or provide people a decent entertainment service. Ignore those tools, and move on. Don't buy their crap, let them rot in bankruptcy. That's my take on this. That's fine, I agree, I think Valve's business model is much better than the one EA endorses, the proof is pretty obvious given the sales that Steam has had and the legions of fans they have. But I in no way think that the folks at Valve are somehow nicer than the some of the folks at EA because of their business practices. I'm talking middle management guys, the guys behind the scenes, not upper management. Obviously Gabe Newell is far more likable than Ricetillo (or whatever the hell his name is).
[QUOTE="kraychik"]You raise an important distinction between EA and Valve that I overlooked - EA is a publicly-traded company which certainly changes things. Still, shareholders want a business to be profitable, and a business can't be profitable unless it's satisfying its customers. Gamers are buying EA products, and that tells us a lot. The assertion that the interests of business are in competition with the interests of consumers is false, which seems to be how you're characterizing things: EA vs. the gamers. EA cannot succeed without us, but we can easily live without EA. You seem to be suggesting that EA can get away with "greed" whereas Valve could do the same but simply chooses not to out of the goodness of their hearts. That's just not how things work. skrat_01
Gamers are buying EA products, but EA's shareprice hasn't been doing very well lately at all, which says a lot about their own financial stability. Add in the pressure of being a publicly traded company, and its no wonder that games like BF3 which had the proclamations of never selling maps by DICE before launch, low and behold how the game has been monetised in almost every conceivable way a triple A full priced product could be (I mean really, paying for unlocks, players purchasing the game having to grind in comparison?). EA games sell, I don't dislike EA, but their practices are very much aimed towards walking that very fine line between customer relations, and getting as much as they can out of customers and their own IPs in terms of profit. There's good moves, and then really unhealthy business practices. I agree with you.
[QUOTE="Gooeykat"][QUOTE="SKaREO"][QUOTE="Gooeykat"] I've got news for you, they don't discount their products because they care about their customers. They do it because they obviously think it makes good business sense. You're the one is clueless if you don't understand this. They are running a business not a charity, Valve does what they do because it makes good business sense, that includes mod support, offering DOTA 2 for free. They have a long-term business strategy. You know what they say: It's easier to keep a returning customer than it is to find new ones. Maybe EA should take some of that advice and plug it into their tiny little brains. Probably won't make a difference though, Origin is a P.O.S. and a failure of an online distribution platform. EA execs are just butthurt whiners who can't figure out how to make good games or provide people a decent entertainment service. Ignore those tools, and move on. Don't buy their crap, let them rot in bankruptcy. That's my take on this. That's fine, I agree, I think Valve's business model is much better than the one EA endorses, the proof is pretty obvious given the sales that Steam has had and the legions of fans they have. But I in no way think that the folks at Valve are somehow nicer than the some of the folks at EA because of their business practices. I'm talking middle management guys, the guys behind the scenes, not upper management. Obviously Gabe Newell is far more likable than Ricetillo (or whatever the hell his name is). Agreed.
If they're supposed to be Normdstrom shouldn't their stuff be significantly nicer? Even their house brands should be of a quality level proportional to the price. They aren't.
aint gonna lie....sometimes i like EA but rarely have i smiled upon its origin service. and now with them following suite with GOG on attacking Valve for the deep steam sales just because steam is at this point able to do so. steam has been around much longer than most DD services and with longevity and support of the smaller devs comes the build-up of trust. Now, we have EA and GOG citing steam as being the big bad DD service bacause it offers games at a price that noone can match and make these ridiculous claims that its ruining gaming....whos fault is that really that EA and GOG arent able to do so at this point in time?? you certainly cant blame steam because your services are friggin pocket plunderers. earn the trust and support of small time devs. help them gain a foothold in the community. establish relationship that dont involve buying and closing studios and perhaps EA, you could do the same...
aint gonna lie....sometimes i like EA but rarely have i smiled upon its origin service. and now with them following suite with GOG on attacking Valve for the deep steam sales just because steam is at this point able to do so. steam has been around much longer than most DD services and with longevity and support of the smaller devs comes the build-up of trust. Now, we have EA and GOG citing steam as being the big bad DD service bacause it offers games at a price that noone can match and make these ridiculous claims that its ruining gaming....whos fault is that really that EA and GOG arent able to do so at this point in time?? you certainly cant blame steam because your services are friggin pocket plunderers. earn the trust and support of small time devs. help them gain a foothold in the community. establish relationship that dont involve buying and closing studios and perhaps EA, you could do the same...slvrraven9
Well said, this is a competitive industry, and as the saying goes.... "if you can't take the heat..." Still, EA regularly discounts is products, so I'm not sure what this DeMartini clown is crying about when he complains about Steam's sales "hurting the industry". Puh-leez.
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