Ok, I fully admit to being a gamer. As such, I use Steam all the time. I absolutely love having a single app to store all my games in. Also, Steam's interface is very useful, especially with all the various different features it has built into it. If you are a gamer, or want to get into gaming, that is the best place to start.
Another thing I love is EA games. I absolutely love the Battlefield series and and psyched about Battlefield 3 coming out this fall. But there is a slight problem. Steam is not listed as a partner for Battlefield 3, and as a participant in the Alpha trial, from what I've seen from that is that Steam will not be partner. So then, other then a physical disk, where will you get the game? Well that's where the problem starts.
EA has always been restrictive with VALVE and as such, it seems that they have been very restrictive with Steamworks. None of their games has Steamworks integration, such as achievements. In fact, Crysis 2 was removed from Steam due to DLC issues between Valve and EA. So EA decided to copy VALVE and come out with Origin. Basically, Origin is the Steam for EA games.
Originally Origin was called EA Download Manager, and it was a place you could apply your EA game keys to get a downloadable copy of the game. But recently EA did a huge re-design of it, and re-released EA Download Manager as Origin. Now, it's nice you can redeem your EA games off of Origin, and have access to downloadable copies of their games, but the issue still arises, do gamers want to have to split up their libraries?
As a gamer myself, I like just having a list of games in one place, have the games auto-update, and only have to worry about, if I am playing online, if the server has a good ping or not. But the problem I have with EA is the fact they can't play ball with VALVE, and decided to branch out on their own. One of the biggest issues I have with Origin is the fact that the auto-update feature is not on of their features. Basically with Origin, you get access to the install file, and you then have to go through the frustration of whenever a patch is released, having to launch the game, have it download and install the patch, and waste that much time to something so trivial. Whereas with Steam, you just have your computer on, if they release a patch, it updates in the background, and you don't have to waste time waiting for the stupid thing to install.
All I ask for big developers is to figure it out. Gamers want one thing, and one thing alone, and that is to play a game, not have to figure out with app the game is on, and having to deal with those pesky patches. It annoys me to think that I will have to deal with these issues with Battlefield 3 when it is released, as EA has promised upcoming DLC with the game. The DLC means that patches are a guaranteed thing, and with that, I don't want to waste time with the update feature EA builds into its games. I also hope that if EA decides to stick with Origin (which looks like a guaranteed thing), they add the features of auto-updating, and out of game achievements. Personally, I just wish they could play ball with VALVE and just use the Steam client. If that is too much, at least listen to gamers and work to please them with the features they expect. If EA can do that, I might accept Origin.
Here is what I ask to the readers of this post. What is your opinion about Steam and Origin. Do you like it or hate it, or do you not have any preference over the two. Also, what features would you like to see EA add to Origin if that ends up being the way they release their games from now on?
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