As much as it hurts, I think Origin is better than Steam, Because it works. Steam is a bugfest for me. I can't explain it - every single PC in my house has had and still continues to have problems with Steam.
EA is quite desperate to get rid of their worst company title two times in a row now. It is clear that they want their stocks to rise. First it was the Humble Origin Bundle, now its this refund policy.
Regardless, Steam nor GOG.com offer a refund policy. I think this is the first case, I may be wrong that digital distribution can be refunded. If you ended up buying a disastrous game such as Aliens: Colonial Marines from Steam, you would never get your money back. I know its only for EA games for now but this policy alone could make Origin quite better then Steam in the future. If this does become a bigger issue, I am sure that Valve will have to end up implementing a refund policy, which they should have had from the start. Please don't bring in the DRM argument in this topic. This is about refunds which is more imperative to common consumers who purchase products. That doesn't mean DRM isn't, but most people don't even understand DRM.slimgrin said:
I think Origin needs to offer a better selection of games and sales to be better then steam.slimgrin said:
It actually looks like they're doing something right. I'm shocked, in a good way. I don't care what their motive is - if it's a genuine attempt to be Nicer, or if it's being forced on them by EU legislation, it's still good, and kudos to them for doing it.
(I'm assuming that they will honour their committment to make this world-wide by the end of September. The first sign of any delay or attempt to get out of that promise will put them forever in the realms of evil).
(I'm assuming that they will honour their committment to make this world-wide by the end of September. The first sign of any delay or attempt to get out of that promise will put them forever in the realms of evil).
Sonuvagun, that's fucking fantastic! This is the kind of stuff we need in a world with digital markets, really excellent move Origin. Well, looks like I have some games to get ^^
That's most likely because EA games are now only sold through Origin. EA is a much bigger publisher then Valve, you have DICE, Bioware and EA Sports that make them a lot of money. Every PC Gamer has bought at least one EA game. Steam still has far more publishers that pretty much sell the majority of all games.CostinMoroianu said:
Although as a consumer I should of course be 100% positive about this, and I definitely think that having refunds for digital games too is a good thing, they need to make sure the system does not get abused - 24 hours is a long time.
There is a policy in Europe already where you can return almost any product within 7 days of an online purchase, but you can only return the product if you've not (in the case of films/CDs etc.) used it or only once to test it out (for monitors, PCs, etc.). EA needs a similar check on how long a game was played before they return money to people exploiting this system.
There is a policy in Europe already where you can return almost any product within 7 days of an online purchase, but you can only return the product if you've not (in the case of films/CDs etc.) used it or only once to test it out (for monitors, PCs, etc.). EA needs a similar check on how long a game was played before they return money to people exploiting this system.
Honestly I like Steam and I don't 'like' Origin per say but it still has been fortunately good to me. I never faced any issues with either so far, so either I'm incredibly lucky or I don't know what. I have heard many of my friends in real life too apart from those online on both being buggy with origin taking a lead in it, well it has a long way to go. But let's not forget, EA made Origin so they keep the entire bucks from their games in sales. And having to have Origin for even the boxed version of games is the biggest blasphemy, though it's not much of a big deal than it sounds. But for the same point, it's wrong to blame steam for having it in boxed version of some games, it's their devs who choose to integrate steamworks in the core.
One reason why I hate Origin is the mandatory installation together with your game, not necessarly digital. I bought Alice Madness Returns (box) and was forced to install Origin in order the play the game, same as Uplay for Assassin's creed 2 and GFWL for Batman. I hate this kind of tricks. But definetely the return policy is something that we really need and I'm pleased and surprized. I just need something more to go to Origin for games.
I hope at least this move will suggest to other digital distributors to do the same.
I hope at least this move will suggest to other digital distributors to do the same.
Costin Moroianu: Steam didn't pioneer DRMed client. They just proliferated the usage of such things. I don't see any reason to use Origin or Steam while they have DRM.
I think for GOG in order to compete, they need to catch on good things of other services (incremental patching, convenience of use and etc.), while avoiding the bad sides of them (keeping DRM free nature by providing installers / downloadable patches, releasing the updater client as open source to enhance trust and so on). Having proper refunds is a good thing to have too.
I think for GOG in order to compete, they need to catch on good things of other services (incremental patching, convenience of use and etc.), while avoiding the bad sides of them (keeping DRM free nature by providing installers / downloadable patches, releasing the updater client as open source to enhance trust and so on). Having proper refunds is a good thing to have too.
I just like the fact that someone has finally realised that the correct way to compete is by improving your own service, rather than just trying to stomp on everyone else.
dragonbird: Isn't it an ages old method?-) Kind of stupid not to know it to begin with.