Displaying items by tag: EA

Within the last few years more and more developers have been turning to digital sales as a means to sell their games. In fact, many companies can base nearly their entire success on digital sales. Companies such as Steam and Origin are some of the first that come to mind when consumers think of buying games online. Major companies such as EA and Activision Blizzard are expecting digital sales to exceed physical media sales within the next few years.

There could be good news for gamers as EA (formerly known as Electronic Arts) has agreed to a settlement in the Anti-Trust case over their exclusive deal with the NFL, NCAA, and AFL. Although all of the details are not known what we do know is that EA is agreeing to end their exclusive deal with the AFL and allow their agreement with the NCAA to expire in 2014. On top of these EA will pay $27 Million in compensation to consumers that bought any of these titles and will not seek another exclusive deal for five years. What is missing here is any mention of their exclusive deal with the NFL. Why this critical piece of the puzzle is being left out we are not sure.

Looks like there will be a Crysis3 and yup, there is footage EA has released an official game trailer for the long awaited game. From what we are hearing you will go back into the Nanosuit as Profit (I could have sworn he died in the last Crysis though…) and are fighting against the evils of the Cell Corporation once more.

We have heard many comments about Steam, Vale’s distribution service these range from very bad to it is the greatest thing since the invention of the internet. Our personal feelings fall in the middle. It is a great service and has some very competitive pricing, but we would like to be able to turn a few things off from the social side and as a parent I would like to be able to monitor it a little better.

Still no matter what you think about Steam one thing cannot be denied. Steam has found a way to make money even in Russia, where the majority of games and software are pirated. How have they done this? Well they have decided not to try and stop piracy (which is impossible) but to compete head to head with it.  To quote Gabe Newell "The best way to fight piracy is to create a service that people need," We would add at least a service that people want. Gabe recently spoke to Kotaku about this subject and their concerns over companies Like EA and Sony developing their own Steam-Like services.  Gabe said he is not concerned about either.

The problem as Gabe sees it is that companies like EA (who has their own problems with their recent EULA mistake), Sony, and others are making their games “Worth Less” (not to be confused with worthless) by adding in more DRM restrictions to protect and monetize their games. This is often presented as a way to thwart piracy (which is, of course, impossible) but is more and more commonly meant to nickel and dime the consumer and try to make more money per game title. Instead of worrying about this type of approach Gabe thinks that companies need to provide a service to the consumers, this way they will feel the value of the game and the service behind it; "Customers want to know everything is going to be there for them no matter what: Their saved games and configurations will be there. They don't want any uncertainty." Which is what you get when you get many of today’s games uncertainty , you never know if you are going to get what you pay for or if the game will run due to restrictive DRM that is forced on you to try and “prevent piracy” (which is impossible).

Gabe also mentioned that Steam will not be standing still, as the market moves from the PC to the Console to the Integrated TV, Steam will have to evolve. To put is in his own words “"Where we are today is trivial to where we will be down the line. We need to be focusing on where we are headed."
He also goes on to say that he knows that if they make a big enough mistake Steam can fail and become nothing more than the “answer to a trivia question."

Source Kotaku

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