EA soft-launches Link

"cooool look at it this way guys : 1- u dont need a cd for downlaoded games so that makes it better you dont have to change the game every time. 2- u dont have to go to any place 2 buy a game just stay home and buy it online and then downlaod and have fun. 3-well....there will be more place in your room because you dont have a box. 4- well i dont know. " ***** 1- ISOs dumbass. Now you have so much copyright protection that reinstalling might void ur license. 2- For god sakes are you so lazy that you cant even get off ur ass and buy a game. It might be the only light of day you get for a month 3-then throw away the goddamn box **** 1- U have a crappy PDF manual 2- U cant resell at EB 3- U have to leave ur computer on for like 3 days cause the bandwidth is so low. 4- U dont have the pleasure of having a box, a CD, or any material showing that you have a video game just a bunch of data of data on your porn-filled, virus infected, HD ***** I think that these distrubution things are terrible. Look how bad the gamespy one is. YOU HAVE TO PAY FULL PRICE. COuld these guys make any more money on people who live in their parents basements and use their allowance on video games cause they have NO LIFE! ***** Things they dont have to pay for 1- Shipping ($1) 2- Store($5-10) 3- Printing and Packaging ($3) THings they do have to pay for 1- Bandwidth (a few cents) ***** Now tell me this isnt a rip

IT SUCKS!!! Ea link doesnt work, it has always errors, i bought battlefield 2142 and i cant install it. I have mailed ea support but they never answer! Stay away from ealink!

cooool look at it this way guys : 1- u dont need a cd for downlaoded games so that makes it better you dont have to change the game every time. 2- u dont have to go to any place 2 buy a game just stay home and buy it online and then downlaod and have fun. 3-well....there will be more place in your room because you dont have a box. 4- well i dont know.

Oh great... I'm just going to stay clear of this.

Steam will always be better, theres no way EA link is going on my computer :D

Ugh. EA.

I don't like the idea of the downloading service, although I have not looked into it, I'm pretty sure EA will have the monopoly on selling there games that way so it will only cost you more then shopping around online

I still like having the box.

Woohoo! Duh :D

Download services are cool as long as review crews like the good people here at GameSpot keep publishers honest. By keeping them honest, I mean, if a game is unfinished, then said review team writes a review that reflects that unfinished business. I trust the review team here at GameSpot. If they give a game a 6.7, I am not going to rent it, much less buy it. Also, as long as we the consumer, don't pay for all the extra add-ons that go w/games these days, we will actually continue to get games that are finished products, and not just shells that we have to pay to fill.

EA will always copy or buy out ideas/companies......Steam is thee best!

its about time more game developers adopt what valve did;... Valve had it right from the start. Steam kicks ass and EA knows it

Are they charging any fees for the use or just the games?

tats better cuz always ERROR

learn to type'A:

You know that in The Godfather game you can rent a better killer with 250 points? It isn't a problem with only one or two franchises; when some of then take in account that his competitors can win easy money with thing like this one the microtransactions will expand like a locust plague. I´ts not a problem with Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo or EA: all of them and alot more will up to the wagon and will apply the same techniques to take your money. The problem isn´t the existence of platforms like Steam or Link, the problem is the change of the classical Status Quo of videogames industry: the money now will not come from the sale of finished games, but from monthly cuotes and small downloads to complete unfinished products... ç And imo the things will be ever worse in the next years, belive me.

Ondoval's "Prepare your money to buy ammunition and gasoline aside from the ogiginal game " hehhehheh Isn't that where MMOs are going? (I don't use those, but I read it somewhere) buying ammo...hehhehheh Pay for more content that is ty[pically expected as part of any original content of a packaged/downloaded 1.0 of a game... are going to be features of unimaginitive franchises like Gran Turismo, as they have implimented in GT HD. I've never been interested in GT , & still repulsed by it. I do enjoy Burnout Revenge though.

An objective hands-on: I just updated the EA Downloader to EA Link and I'm re-downloading BF 2142 on a fresh XP pro install. The interface is much improved over the downloader and the download speeds are really, really fast. Unfortunately the whole thing is sparse right now. As the person said below, EA needs to add older faves like Syndicate and System Shock 2 for $9.99 or whatever. The thing needs more content and EA needs to mine their classics. It's fast though.

While I like the service, I'm a little dissapointed: all the EA games I want are their old ones, not the new ones. Syndicate, System Shock 2, the Ultima's, etc. I really don't much care about their newer PC titles (not my cup of tea).

the thing always apears as some error thing

Obviously stuff like Steam considers failing hard drives or reformatting when providing such services. Consumers would be quite upset if they had to purchase the game again. But that's not the case. Your account owns the game after you pay for it; it becomes associated with your account, not just the physical drives. It checks your PC for the game in order to launch it and if it's not there, it will ask you if it can put it there again - 'cause you own the product.

Timbydude said: "This'll never beat Steam...unless EA buys out Valve." Dude... don't even THINK about it! Please!

ondoval, clearly e-distribution doesn't work this way. It just having to download the entire thing. Also u can backup as many copies as u want and than activate one of them via online.

i agree with ondoval

Digital downloads & microtransactions will be the cancer of the videogames industry. In the future, you can expect start games like Halo 4, Killzone 3 or Quake 5 with a knife and nothing more -the arsenal will be buyable apart-, and you could play racing games in wich you simply can´t win with skill because the guys who pays for the better downloaded cars will be always on top. And you could buy a multiplayer game and never play with your friends, because they will have different stages, racing circuits, etc. Sorry for my english, but the idea is clear: you can see what I talk in games like GT HD, BF2 and a lot more in the future. Prepare your money to buy ammunition and gasoline aside from the ogiginal game :(

"""i think its a good idea but what if your computer crashes or you lose your data? i had to do a complete restore a couple of months ago and had to reinstall everything. i wouldn't want to have to buy the game again just because my computer crashed. wait a minute ... maybe EA is on to something.... """ I don't know how EA's system works exactly, but with Valve's Steam, it keeps track of the games you've bough, etc... I've had to format a couple of times sine I've bought aot of their games andit never forgets.... so this is really a non-issue probably. Same thing with Guild Wars and games like that. When I login, it remembers me and says "oh hey, you have this"

There's too much of the unknown involved in digital downloads. So many "what ifs". I'll stick to discs for a few more years yet.

i think its a good idea but what if your computer crashes or you lose your data? i had to do a complete restore a couple of months ago and had to reinstall everything. i wouldn't want to have to buy the game again just because my computer crashed. wait a minute ... maybe EA is on to something....

Is anyone having problems with it saying the server is down?EA sucks

For those who complain about price. Quit yer griping... cmon now, get withthe program, this is the future. EA is just another one jumping ont he bandwagon. Valve Software has been doing this for a few years now and has been very succesful and Half-Life 2 was still anywhere from $49.99 - $79.99 depending n the gaming package you got. Don't expect prices to change just because you download it instead of havn the disks. This is why most games come with a manual in them or there's a downloadable/printable version too. Even the Call of Duty series joined up with Valve's steam to become downloadable at the same price they are in stores. You have to remember when you buy a game you aren't paying for the paper/disks. you're paying for the game. Disks and paper manuals are only about 10 cents of the cost there if that much for the companies who put them out... I'm glad EA has jumped in here. Makes it great for those of us who are lazy or don't really care about the physical disks... Granted, I still usually prefer to have them, but it's not a big deal if I don't.

Now you can get spyware in your EA games without even going to the store!!!

Ok...

Remember, Big_Red6986, Steam had it's share of growing pains as well. Unfortunately, in this day and age, it's common-place to have issues when releasing new software.

My friend bought BF2142 off EA Downloader, and now that EA Link is out he is had nothing but problems trying to play. Getting invalid CD-Key messages, Punkbuster kicks him from servers if he finally gets into a game...and he gets random error messages. EA needs to get their sh*t together, atleast Steam WORKS. I'm just glade my retail version of BF2142 works with only the occasional crash.

Well for those with multiple hard-drives EA Link still installs itself to your C drive. For those of you who'd rather have it on another hard-drive though I have a solution. Hit regedit, go into the Electronic Arts section (you'll have to look a bit) Change values from the C drive to whatever drive you want EA Link to be in. Then move EA Link to that drive and you should be set. Worked for me.

If you dont offer a discounted price....there is no reason to buy from you EA. If I pay the same amount.....I want the pretty little case and disk and instructions. Are you kidding me, asking the same price. Im a fan of EA games but Im not buying.

Keep em cheap and you may see my custom.

I'm surprised Nintendo haven't sued for the use of the word 'Link'. With all the petty lawsuits going around from other companies for such other small-minded issues, you'd think.. ..But then again, Nintendo aren't petty, I think..

I like disks as well. I think it's a rip off having to have to disc. If I'm paying money for it I want the product!

How many times have I had to buy stuff AGAIN from iTunes because of my freaking computer? Too many! Give me disks.

@KingofTrolls. Yes, because the boxart is the hard part.

Burn it to one genius

I feel more secure with a disk

Digital Downloads suck. What a lazy way for publishers to get you a product and they don't have to make the boxart, dvd labels or even the damn DVD. Sorry but I want the full retail box when buying anything.

the ps4 will have digital dist its the future but i still want my box and stuff

EA is a very bad company in my mind...rather than put out better content than the competition, it just buys out the company that releases the better game and gets rid of them...just the idea that those kind of things are starting to happen in the gaming world worries me.....do me a favor EA and get back to some real innovation and real game making like you did so many years ago, it was really magic but you seemed to have lost it along the way

im glad that game companys are milking people to buy shoes for their character in tiger woods or something rather than making them unlockable, has the game industry really become so much about profit that its turned a cold shoulder to the gamers? EA is just rediculous because they release the same game, year after year, and everyone goes out and buys it for what? new roster? heres an idea, rather than release a new madden next year with maybe oh 1 more game mode and a new roster, save the consumer 60 bucks and just sell them the roster and game modes online so they dont have to shell out that kind of cash for such limited content. i think online distrobution, when done right, is awesome. but not when its paying a dollar for stupid things that should be included in the original game anyhow

I don't think I'd ever "buy" a digital download.

Yeah and they also broke BF2142 when they released it: [url=<< LINK REMOVED >>]EA Breaks BF2142...Again[/url]

Lame! EA sucks ass.