A few months ago, EA released news they were setting up their own digital distribution service call Origin. Unlike GameStop’s Impulse or Direct2Drive which are site based, Origin is a software client similar to Steam that you install to manage your games. While its true there is nothing stopping you from using both, the obvious similarities and contrasts between Origin and Steam beg to be compared. Being big game fans, we explore how well Origin stacks up to Valve’s Steam.
Steam Characteristics
Steam is a software based service attempting to provide PC gamers with more than just a place to buy games. Steam is a gaming platform which strives to provide all the tools you need for gaming.
The minimum requirements to install Steam are 512 MB of RAM, 1 GHz processor, and 1 GB of free HDD space. Once installed, actual resource use varies. My install of Steam current uses around 243 MB (Not including Games) of HDD space and anywhere from 8.4 MB of RAM (minimized to taskbar) to 113 MB (running 720p video full screen) while in use. Steam tries its best to use as few resources as possible.
In addition to advertising, selling, downloading, and managing your games (including automatic updating/patching), Steam offers other services and features. These include VOIP using Skype’s protocols, Instant Messaging service, Gaming News RSS feed, and Community Group Pages. It is very well rounded and versatile software, but what do you expect from software with 8 years of experience.
Origin Characteristics
Origin is the first real attempt to challenge Steam and comes to us via an EA Download Manager overhaul. The minimum requires haven’t been posted on Origin’s site. As Origin will only offer EA titles, minimum requirements for any game available on Origin should far outweigh the requirements of Origin itself which is listed as about 50 MB. Steam offers games like Peggle Extreme which have minimum requirements lower than the Steam application.
My install of Origin Beta uses 107 MB of HDD space and 83 MB of RAM. This number does not change when the software is minimized, showing the store page, showing the game library, etc. The only time it changes is when a chat window is opened, which brings it up to 84 MB.
Currently Origin only offers the basics of game buy, download, management, and an IM service. This is new territory for EA and you need a strong core to build on. EA stated Star Wars: The Old Republic is an Origin exclusive to help build an audience for the software. Once they have a core audience, they can move on to building new features one by one.
Comparing the Storefronts
Origin by EA currently uses the same format as Steam’s storefront. The menu has a genre and popular products drop down, search box and access to your shopping cart. The primary focus is a rotating panel of their featured titles. There’s a very small section for bargain games and a larger bar showing 5 New Releases or 5 Upcoming Games. At the bottom you have two columns for the most popular games and games on sale. There is a lot of wasted space here with unneeded spacers and names of games under easily read icons of the box art.
Steam’s storefront is a a little busy to say the least. At the top is the menu with basics like search, categories, genre, etc. The difference from Origin is the inclusion of videos, demos, and titles for Mac. Below this is the featured titles on a rotating bar, then another featured section for PC/Mac with a different focus, and further down is the title Rolodex. It has four categories of New Releases, Coming Soon, Special Offers, and Top Sellers that will list titles 10 at a time. Further down is recently added section and the publishers catalogs. In a second smaller column on the right you will find special offers, a link to the Valve store, metric data, and other odds and ends.
Origin gives you too little in the store and you will see the same 4 or 5 titles listed 2 or 3 times. While on the opposite end, Steam almost overwhelms you with options. Both need to trim down their storefronts. Steam needs to reorganize their store and Origin needs to have a tighter focus, both to cut down on redundancies. Now lets move onto where most of your time with either will be spent, the game library.
Comparing Libraries
The Steam Library can be a thing of beauty. You can change what titles are show by various options, and even search for a title if you have a large library. You can change from 3 different view styles each with their own advantages.
The list view includes metrics on you and your friends, news about the selected title, and achievements you have no earned. The tile view shows an easy to read, re-sizable icon for each game. Finally, the detailed view has the game’s tile icon, Metacritic score, when you lasted played it, and its current status. This is obviously an idea borrowed from operating system file managers, but they are all executed well.
The Origin library is a very spartan experience. It has two view styles of list or tile icons. Neither view option offers more than your library of games. The tile view uses these massive icons of the box art, then wastes space by repeating the title under the box. The list view is just that, a simple list of your games. Both have a dynamic button for download, install and play. You can adjust what titles are shown in Origin like Steam’s library. There is no search box, but I don’t expect a library of just EA titles to grow out of hand.
What About Security?
Valve’s Steam offers an optional service called Steam Guard. It requires anyone to have access to both your Steam account and the e-mail account associated with it to access your game library. If someone stole your Steam account information, they would not be able to access your account. To gain access to Steam on a different computer would require verification via the e-mail account. Its not perfect, but it is better than nothing.
Origin on the other hand has exactly that, nothing. I gave my account information to a colleague and he was able to access my Origin account with no issue. There’s no extra security measures beyond an email and password.
Extra Value
While game purchasing and management is nice, both software platforms need to offer more to the players to make their use compelling. In this section, we’re simply ignoring both being requirements for certain titles and look at why anyone would use the software beyond buying games.
As mentioned before, Steam also has a News and Community section. Both of these do exactly what their titles imply. The News section is an RSS feed reader that keeps up news about game releases, updates, L4D2 weekly mutations, game news and random funny stuff game related.
The Community tab provides access to Steam Groups, metrics on your friends and a place to have your personal page with Steam. There is now a section to post, view, and share screenshots. Reaction to the Community section is mixed as some players don’t like their friends knowing exactly what they played and achievements they received. While other enjoy it for the exact same reasons.
Origin is just too young to offer additional features. I can’t hold this against the software and I applaud EA’s Origin development team for showing restraint at first. It is a good idea as this is new territory for them to get the core of the software working well.
Origin is already leaps and bounds better than the EA Download Manager it replaced. It is said the first step to innovation is imitation. It seems to be a solid foundation for EA to build on and hopeful will provide competition for Valve in the future. I am glad someone else is trying this approach and hope EA brings innovation to the software distribution platform.
Since Origin is now the EA account management service I have to use it in Battlefield 3 for its news feed, buddy list and friend feed. This is perfectly fine with me and I hope it it carries over to all EA titles so I don’t have to manual find my friends again with every new title.
I cannot say for sure if this will work as intended with the final version of Battlefield 3, but there is a communications disconnect in the Beta. Battlelog, which handles servers and stat tracking, has its own friend list. There was a way to import your Origin friends, but this feature did not function at first.
Once this issue was corrected, Battlelog made Origin virtually unneeded as it was delegated back to just being a download service. I personal never even bothered to turn Origin on during the Beta, though Battlelog would launch it for some reason once I attempted to join a server. Battlefield 3 Beta and Battlelog currently take focus away from Origin, which is bad for the brand.
Final Thoughts
Lets talk about the elephant in the room. Many of you have seen news articles on the Internet about the issue with several EA titles and them being available on Valve’s Steam or not. The issue first came up when Crysis 2 was removed from Steam around June 12th. This occurred about a week after Origin was first available on June 3rd. Shortly after this, several other titles including Alice: Madness Returns and Shank were also removed. EA was quick to point the finger at Valve and claim their Terms of Service was changed recently causing this issue. Valve has not responded to this claim publicly to my knowledge.
A few weeks back, salt was thrown in the wound by EA when they publicized a list of digital distributors to have Battlefield 3 available for purchase. As Steam was noticeably absent, every game and tech site quickly posted this information. As a gamer, I am also upset about this but not for the same reason everyone else seems to be. I am upset because this is just another example of EA trying to throw its weight around.
EA’s initial claim that the problem was due to a recent change to Valve’s TOS doesn’t hold water. A change to Valve’s TOS should affect every game license they have or will have, yet only EA’s triple A titles of Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3 are being affected. Shank and Alice were both returned to Steam. In addition, not one other company has removed a current or upcoming titles from the service.
People here at Futurelooks.com have sent EA e-mails asking to provide us with more information. I personally sent one back in June related only to Origin as the Battlefield 3 issue had not arose. We were ignored. Another news site did manage to get EA to say the problem with the Terms of Service is related to how Steam requires DLCs and patches to be delivered.
Once again the evidence doesn’t support EA’s claim. It is true Steam does like to handle patches and updates to all titles available from their service, but I am sure this is a convenience not a requirement. I own at least 7 titles (5 of which are owned by EA) that have patches, DLC, and required updates either solely distributed or available outside of Steam. Bioware’s (owned by EA) exclusively does in game and site based purchases for DLC for all their titles. This suggests to me the issue is really related to either the DRM being used by EA for up coming titles or EA looking to maintain more control over their content.
Several online only sites like Newegg.com that sell Battlefield 3 were also left off the list of digital retailers, yet Amazon was included. I hope EA takes note the only one people cared about was Steam. Bad Company 2 did not appear on Steam until only a few weeks away from release while other services had it available months in advance. This at least means there is some hope EA and Valve will work this out. I am just sad to see EA has gone out of their way to make themselves the bad guys.
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