Much hate for EA Origin? Check this out...

Plague_Injected said:
I'm looking at the AusOrigin and there is nothing about getting a bonus game for pre-ordering BF3 at the inflated price of US$82.
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It was a bonus for people that played in the BF3 Alpha which as far as I know was only given out to people in the US.
 
Yeah it's very hard to not hate EA right now when US gamers are getting every single benefit in adopting Origin while the rest of us enjoy the right to buy EA games and DLC at higher prices that never get discounted.
 
Derangel said:
It was a bonus for people that played in the BF3 Alpha which as far as I know was only given out to people in the US.
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It was given out to people all over the world. Has nothing to do with having played the alpha and everything to do with EA ripping off anyone outside the US.
 
Plague_Injected said:
Yeah it's very hard to not hate EA right now when US gamers are getting every single benefit in adopting Origin while the rest of us enjoy the right to buy EA games and DLC at higher prices that never get discounted.
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If it wasn't so sad how often you guys get screwed when it comes to games it would almost be funny. All of you Australian gamers need to rise up and demand better treatment.
 
Derangel said:
If it wasn't so sad how often you guys get screwed when it comes to games it would almost be funny. All of you Australian gamers need to rise up and demand better treatment.
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They'll just have a bunch of haters on the [H] forums trying to tear them down for asking for similar treatment.
 
I've been making a fair bit of noise here about it for a while now and nobody has managed to tear me down yet...probably because nobody can really think of a real reason why gamers in any region should get screwed by default.

There isn't any justification for it...publishers get interviewed about game pricing in Australia by a few of the gaming sites and mags here often and they are very quiet and awkward, basically resorting to the age-old excuse of "freight", as well as "people seem happy with paying $100-$130 for games so we must be doing it right". EB (Gamestop in Aus) is the real reason why we pay so much but publishers don't have the balls to admit it and even that doesn't justify why we don't get the EA Store/Origin sales and having to pay more for DLC, like $20 for BFBC2 Vietnam, when Steam saw fit to charge us fair prices for DLC (at least) and make Summer/Holiday/Midweek/Weekend Sales available to us.
 
Plague_Injected said:
I've been making a fair bit of noise here about it for a while now and nobody has managed to tear me down yet...probably because nobody can really think of a real reason why gamers in any region should get screwed by default.

There isn't any justification for it...publishers get interviewed about game pricing in Australia by a few of the gaming sites and mags here often and they are very quiet and awkward, basically resorting to the age-old excuse of "freight", as well as "people seem happy with paying $100-$130 for games so we must be doing it right". EB (Gamestop in Aus) is the real reason why we pay so much but publishers don't have the balls to admit it and even that doesn't justify why we don't get the EA Store/Origin sales and having to pay more for DLC, like $20 for BFBC2 Vietnam, when Steam saw fit to charge us fair prices for DLC (at least) and make Summer/Holiday/Midweek/Weekend Sales available to us.
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There really is no reason these companies can't give promotions to other countries. I don't know how much you follow US news, but a few known faces in the industry have been playing lip service to games saying games are too expensive, yet those with the power to change it (like say Todd Howard) seem to believe that their games are above that reproach and are magically worth even higher prices (ex: Skyrim PC is $60 here NV, FO3, and Oblivion were all $50 titles). So even if publishers admitted anything it would be nothing but lip service.
 
Derangel said:
There really is no reason these companies can't give promotions to other countries. I don't know how much you follow US news, but a few known faces in the industry have been playing lip service to games saying games are too expensive, yet those with the power to change it (like say Todd Howard) seem to believe that their games are above that reproach and are magically worth even higher prices (ex: Skyrim PC is $60 here NV, FO3, and Oblivion were all $50 titles). So even if publishers admitted anything it would be nothing but lip service.
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I do remember Kotick stating in an interview that he wanted to charge more for games ("if it were up to me") last year sometime...

Publishers are enjoying the additional income from regions like Australia where the currency is equal-to-or-greater-than the US dollar. They are probably salivating at the idea of selling games to the much larger US market for something closer to US$100 when other regions are happily paying that and more.

Rather than factoring in the high Australian dollar and adjusting prices here accordingly, they might adjust US prices. I'm going to bet that next-gen titles will be $80 for US gamers, with PC titles soon to follow.
 
Derangel said:
If it wasn't so sad how often you guys get screwed when it comes to games it would almost be funny. All of you Australian gamers need to rise up and demand better treatment.
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This. Surprised this hasn't happened yet as well.
 
Plague_Injected said:
Yeah it's very hard to not hate EA right now when US gamers are getting every single benefit in adopting Origin while the rest of us enjoy the right to buy EA games and DLC at higher prices that never get discounted.
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Actually that kind of makes me like Origin more. :D
 
I think its an issue of market limitations. Now I could be wrong with this analysis, since I'm not Australian, and can't claim to know the market perfectly. There seems to be several issues at cause here -

1) Australia has relatively poor consumer internet infrastructure
2) Australia is a relatively small market without similar geographic neighbors to rely on. For instance the UK market can be shared to some extent easily with the rest of Europe. Canada can be some extent shared with the US (for instance we don't have a "Canadian" DD service, we just use the US version).

Issue one means that publishers have to support to the retail market there, since the majority of Australia is not ready to embrace a digital market, even less so than NA and Europe. I've even heard that certain ISP packages basically limit you to certain services since they do not count bandwidth for them, and using one not on that list would be cost prohibitive. (for instance some ISPs apparently don't count bandwidth used from Steam, this would make entering the market quite difficult).

Issue two causes the problem of a lack of digital distribution companies familiar with the Australian market and catering to their needs. For all we know the EA Origin division handling Australia is just one over worked intern (ok probably not that extreme lol...). To some extent Steam serves this purpose, because they are the largest, and so become far reaching, and even if they devote relatively low resources to this area it is still the highest in absolute terms. But even then there are limitations, as I can see using steamprices.com, as the publisher/retailer relationship still dictates prices. But because they have the stronger presence there, they are more willing to negotiate sales with the publisher, whereas others would ignore this market.

Issue two also the causes the problem of limiting consumer response. In the case of Europe and NA, if one region is too unfair to the consumer, they can more easily import from a different region. I'm guessing importing from say New Zealand is likely not an option? This puts much less pressure on the existing retail market to make changes.

Thirdly I'm not sure, but do Government regulations come into play indirectly causing higher retailer costs and prices? I've heard this mentioned by some Australian's in passing before as a possible cause.
 
Climber said:
They'll just have a bunch of haters on the [H] forums trying to tear them down for asking for similar treatment.
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This part is sad but true. It's as if their delicate sensibilities would be damaged by reading the complaints of anti-consumer policies. Like public outcry is some personal attack against them.
 
limitedaccess said:
I think its an issue of market limitations. Now I could be wrong with this analysis, since I'm not Australian, and can't claim to know the market perfectly. There seems to be several issues at cause here -
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You are wrong on all counts

limitedaccess said:
1) Australia has relatively poor consumer internet infrastructure
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Its actually not that poor in most capital cities.

limitedaccess said:
2) Australia is a relatively small market without similar geographic neighbors to rely on. For instance the UK market can be shared to some extent easily with the rest of Europe. Canada can be some extent shared with the US (for instance we don't have a "Canadian" DD service, we just use the US version).
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We have South East Asia right next to us, I think the relative size of those combined markets should be more than sufficient for critical mass of economies of scale.

limitedaccess said:
Issue one means that publishers have to support to the retail market there, since the majority of Australia is not ready to embrace a digital market, even less so than NA and Europe.
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Australia is more than ready to embrace digital markets, and in fact the Productivity Commission (the Australian Government's independent research and advisory body) released a report finding that there was no real reason why digital content was more expensive here other than as a result of anti-competitive practices.

limitedaccess said:
I've even heard that certain ISP packages basically limit you to certain services since they do not count bandwidth for them, and using one not on that list would be cost prohibitive. (for instance some ISPs apparently don't count bandwidth used from Steam, this would make entering the market quite difficult).
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Has not been a problem here for a long time given that quota sizes offered by most ISP's have been increasing at a rapid enough rate.

limitedaccess said:
Issue two causes the problem of a lack of digital distribution companies familiar with the Australian market and catering to their needs. For all we know the EA Origin division handling Australia is just one over worked intern (ok probably not that extreme lol...). To some extent Steam serves this purpose, because they are the largest, and so become far reaching, and even if they devote relatively low resources to this area it is still the highest in absolute terms. But even then there are limitations, as I can see using steamprices.com, as the publisher/retailer relationship still dictates prices. But because they have the stronger presence there, they are more willing to negotiate sales with the publisher, whereas others would ignore this market.
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There is nothing to be familiar with, all they need to do is open up their digital store fronts to us rather than enforcing absurd IP restrictions or local RRP. The only possible reason why they would not want to do this is to pander to local retailers.

limitedaccess said:
Issue two also the causes the problem of limiting consumer response. In the case of Europe and NA, if one region is too unfair to the consumer, they can more easily import from a different region. I'm guessing importing from say New Zealand is likely not an option? This puts much less pressure on the existing retail market to make changes.
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Vast amounts of consumers here have begun importing their games from Europe, the US and South East Asia, so much so that retailers here have begun whining about it. Most of the time I can import physical copies of games from the UK cheaper than the pricing offered by any digital retailer.

limitedaccess said:
Thirdly I'm not sure, but do Government regulations come into play indirectly causing higher retailer costs and prices? I've heard this mentioned by some Australian's in passing before as a possible cause.
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Nope, and I fail to see how that would have any impact upon prices offered in relation to digital content.
 
limitedaccess said:
I think its an issue of market limitations. Now I could be wrong with this analysis, since I'm not Australian, and can't claim to know the market perfectly. There seems to be several issues at cause here -

1) Australia has relatively poor consumer internet infrastructure
2) Australia is a relatively small market without similar geographic neighbors to rely on. For instance the UK market can be shared to some extent easily with the rest of Europe. Canada can be some extent shared with the US (for instance we don't have a "Canadian" DD service, we just use the US version).

Issue one means that publishers have to support to the retail market there, since the majority of Australia is not ready to embrace a digital market, even less so than NA and Europe. I've even heard that certain ISP packages basically limit you to certain services since they do not count bandwidth for them, and using one not on that list would be cost prohibitive. (for instance some ISPs apparently don't count bandwidth used from Steam, this would make entering the market quite difficult).

Issue two causes the problem of a lack of digital distribution companies familiar with the Australian market and catering to their needs. For all we know the EA Origin division handling Australia is just one over worked intern (ok probably not that extreme lol...). To some extent Steam serves this purpose, because they are the largest, and so become far reaching, and even if they devote relatively low resources to this area it is still the highest in absolute terms. But even then there are limitations, as I can see using steamprices.com, as the publisher/retailer relationship still dictates prices. But because they have the stronger presence there, they are more willing to negotiate sales with the publisher, whereas others would ignore this market.

Issue two also the causes the problem of limiting consumer response. In the case of Europe and NA, if one region is too unfair to the consumer, they can more easily import from a different region. I'm guessing importing from say New Zealand is likely not an option? This puts much less pressure on the existing retail market to make changes.

Thirdly I'm not sure, but do Government regulations come into play indirectly causing higher retailer costs and prices? I've heard this mentioned by some Australian's in passing before as a possible cause.
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The size of the country against its spread out and small population is definitely a factor regarding the higher prices but it still smells off. When the Australian dollar was worth US<$0.60 games were still going for the same prices as they are now...and while I'm not sure of how much the operating costs of stores have gone up since, the inflation rate here certainly hasn't increased to a point that it can be used as a scapegoat.

Even aside from all that, there is no reason for why digital prices are so high. It's fact that they are high because retailers threaten publishers with less/no shelf space for their big titles if they undercut them via Steam/Origin too much, which is an extremely anti-competitive practice as well as very anti-consumer. You are right about us having pretty low download quotas compared to what we pay, and that some ISPs offer unmetered content for both Steam and Xbox Live; this is mainly used by ISPs in trying to court gamers to their service rather than having an substantial effect on digital game pricing.

There was some government regulation that affected Steam prices for a while, but it was abolished as part of a free trade agreement between Australia and the US back in 2008 (I think). Steam prices went up literally overnight, in some cases by 100%. I do cut a bit of slack for publishers to raise digital prices here a bit for full-games but for DLC it doesn't make sense unless they're keeping it in line with the inflated price of MS Points here (1500MS Points = $25-$30). There is no reason why sales like the recent $5 BF sale on Origin can't be extended to Australians, even if we have to download from US/Europe servers and cop it on our download quota for the month.

Defiant007 linked me a UK-based import site a while ago and I'm using that and Steam sales for my gaming purchases now, since I can't see any upside of supporting negligent and plain exploitative business practices by EA/Origin and the local rackets...that is until retailers force publishers into region-locking games and consoles again. Importing is now a concern to local retailers in all industries, but their solution is not to lower their prices by any percentage at all, but to pressure the government into making customers pay a tax on imported goods so that importing is less desirable. The local retail industry needs to change its own ways and adapt to the changing market because they can't keep up the same model forever - the Internet acts very much like a global marketplace, with people becoming more aware of it and more confident with online purchasing with systems like Paypal.
 
Thuleman said:
It's not free, you paid for it by paying full retail for BF3 like a sucker. Congrats!
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Thank you. I will enjoy my 2 highly reviewed and/or anticipated games for $60 dollars, thanks to an awesome EA Origin promotion. I'll be playing BF3 Limited Edition the second it gets unlocked.

You'll be playing MW like the rest of the noobs.
 
Fail said:
and for installing Origin!

LOLWUT
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What?

I have it installed and it doesn't give me any headaches, unlike Steam does every now and then. Especially when I downloaded a beta for a patch(for Company of Heroes) and now that the patch is out the beta is obviously never going to be used again. But I can't remove it from my list of games, Steam told me to just hide it in a custom group. Awesome, thanks a lot there.
 
For some reason origin thinks it's my birthday and gave me 25% off my next purchase.
 
xIronCrossx said:
What?

I have it installed and it doesn't give me any headaches, unlike Steam does every now and then. Especially when I downloaded a beta for a patch(for Company of Heroes) and now that the patch is out the beta is obviously never going to be used again. But I can't remove it from my list of games, Steam told me to just hide it in a custom group. Awesome, thanks a lot there.
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They just have hate and jealousy. Don't buy into it.
 
I've only had a positive experience with Origin thus far as well. I'm going to enjoy BF3 oh so much as I loved the Alpha.
 
I'm from the US. If it has nothing to do with the alpha, can I get a free game? How? I'm in.
 
Yeah, I'm in the US, preordered through Origin, and got no free game.
 
Plague_Injected said:
The size of the country against its spread out and small population is definitely a factor regarding the higher prices but it still smells off.
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I really dont think it has anything to do with that at all. They could charge $60AUD and still be making a killing off us. Even as a consumer you can order games from overseas for a pittance, so it must be costing the retail stores shipping in bulk sweet fuck all.

They charge that much money because...
a) They can
b) They can

I do remember hearing/reading/dont remember that Australia has a higher average and minimum wage than the US, whether that factors into it I dunno.

There was a time (not sure if its still the case) where you could buy a Pontiac GTO in the US cheaper than the equivalent Holden Monaro here in Australia... despite the fact they were built in Australia and shipped to the US.

Especially with the US dollar the way it is against a strong Aussie dollar, for many things its cheaper to just import from the US.

Even the fucking supermarkets do it, Coles and Woolworths, the price increases on basic food products has been immense. As much as I'd like to support Australian supermarkets they can go fuck themselves, I'll buy at ALDI where I dont walk out of the shop feeling like I've just been arse raped.
 
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spacing guild said:
Thank you. I will enjoy my 2 highly reviewed and/or anticipated games for $60 dollars, thanks to an awesome EA Origin promotion. I'll be playing BF3 Limited Edition the second it gets unlocked.

You'll be playing MW like the rest of the noobs.
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I bought Deadspace for $5 on Steam and the game sucks, I can't imagine that Deadspace 2 is any better.

I didn't buy MW nor will I. I did buy BFBC2 on Steam for like $7.50, and looking at about 2 years worth of backlog on Steam games, for all of which I paid less than $10 just because I don't require a Day 1 purchase, I don't have the need to pay $60 for anything whether it's one game or two.

My point however is that Deadspace 2 was not free, you paid for it whether you realize it or not doesn't change the fact.
 
Thuleman said:
I bought Deadspace for $5 on Steam and the game sucks, I can't imagine that Deadspace 2 is any better.

I didn't buy MW nor will I. I did buy BFBC2 on Steam for like $7.50, and looking at about 2 years worth of backlog on Steam games, for all of which I paid less than $10 just because I don't require a Day 1 purchase, I don't have the need to pay $60 for anything whether it's one game or two.

My point however is that Deadspace 2 was not free, you paid for it whether you realize it or not doesn't change the fact.
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Amen brother. If you have to buy something to get something for free then it wasn't free!
 
Thuleman said:
I bought Deadspace for $5 on Steam and the game sucks, I can't imagine that Deadspace 2 is any better.

I didn't buy MW nor will I. I did buy BFBC2 on Steam for like $7.50, and looking at about 2 years worth of backlog on Steam games, for all of which I paid less than $10 just because I don't require a Day 1 purchase, I don't have the need to pay $60 for anything whether it's one game or two.

My point however is that Deadspace 2 was not free, you paid for it whether you realize it or not doesn't change the fact.
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I agree, same logic those tools were using to justify buying DA2 because it came with ME2, but still cost 60 bucks. Fools can convince themselves of anything.
 
Thuleman said:
My point however is that Deadspace 2 was not free, you paid for it whether you realize it or not doesn't change the fact.
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Fail said:
I agree, same logic those tools were using to justify buying DA2 because it came with ME2, but still cost 60 bucks. Fools can convince themselves of anything.
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I payed for Dead Space 2? No.

I bought BF3 thinking that was only game I was purchasing? Yes.

Did I have any knowledge and/or forethought that I would be getting an additional game? No.

Therefore, I got it for free.

TwistedAegis said:
Anyway, back to your regular scheduled vagina monologues.
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lol.


Logic...it's a difficult concept I know. Esp. for jealous trolls.
 
Fail said:
I agree, same logic those tools were using to justify buying DA2 because it came with ME2, but still cost 60 bucks. Fools can convince themselves of anything.
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I'll trust you as the expert on that.

I bought DA2 full price and enjoyed it at that price level. ME2 for free was just a great bonus. Now I get Dead Space 2 for free, which is actually a game I wanted. Awesome.

Anyway, back to your regular scheduled vagina monologues.
 
Yeah, I got the same promotion in my email right after the alpha ended. Didn't take them up on the offer because I already have ME2, Dead Space 2 isn't my cup of tea, and MOH is garbage. Still haven't pre-ordered BF3 yet too, it's still a whiles away.
 
I suppose that those of us that already have DS2 on our account will be getting a free gift? Maybe we can trade it in the origin marketplace for hats or maybe another game? No? Sucks then.
 
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