Verno wrote on Jul 19, 2011, 08:39:
Yeah except that its not about people who "refuse to buy it on Steam", Steam has a massive installed base of consumers, many of whom are casual consumers who do not follow sites like this and get their exposure from services like Steam, Gamersgate, Impulse and so on.

Who cares? What a load of crap, you of all people should know better. The consumer doesn't care whats best for EA. You know what's best for EA? No competition at all and selling their games for whatever price they want. What is best for EA isn't best for the customer so don't ask us to give a shit.

No, this has been pointed out multiple times by several posters but I will repeat it again for you. Your Starcraft 2 example is inherently flawed because Blizzard sold it at retail and made their digital release exclusive. Battlefield 3 is not being sold digitally just through Origin, they are releasing it everywhere but specifically not including Steam. More choice is always good for the consumer, end of story. You may not like the choices your fellow consumers make but you still benefit from it in several factors but most importantly on price.

As for who is our "buddy" or not, who cares? Did you ever once stop to think that people have weighed the pros/cons and still choose Steam? It's not exactly hard to believe, Steam basically revived the PC gaming industry which was really in the shitter for awhile. Steam has continually evolved both in features and catalog, it's no surprise it's successful. It is beyond ludicrous to even compare Steam and EA in terms of industry contribution.

EA wants to cut out the part where they might have to compete with others and just cut them out one at a time. If EA wants to exclusively release digital products through Origin then as Jerykk said I think it's a poor business decision but that's their choice. Playing pin the tail on the donkey with competition one at a time however is anti-competitive behavior, particularly from a company of EAs size who controls a large portion of the overall industry.