Steam vs Origin

I was curious as to why I could not find this thread, so I decided to post it now. I personally prefer Steam because it seems more refined and has useful features such as backing up a game which Origin does not offer. The steam sales seem to beat Origins pricing, making steam a better value IMHO. As I am an owner of Crysis 2 and BF3 I have both apps on my pc, but I feel as though EA is forcing Origin a bit. However, I understand there is a lot to be discussed and there are many many factors that give each of these platforms their own pros and cons.

What do you prefer? Why? Specifics please.

 

steam all the way. just got bf3 today, i had to try to start bf3 about 3 times before it can be launched succesfully. Think there is something that EA games did not agree wtih steam or something, so they used origin, which is crap, honestly

 

I don't understand why it has to be an either/or kind of thing. I have both and am fine with having both. If EA wants to use their system to distribute their games I don't see a problem with it.

 

Same as hockeymass really, I'm using both I don't really understand why people have to choose to stick with one provider...

 

Both Steam and Origin works just fine for me.
Before they rewrote it as Origin using Qt EA had its horrid EA Download Manager running on Adobe Air.

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steam all the way unless its a game only available on origin then you dont have much choice.

 

exactly, you don't have much choice these days...

 

i dont really use either unless i have to, i have a monthly data cap so don't buy games online, but i use steam when needed and likewise origin when required.

 

Origin is "functional" in that it pretty much does what it sets out to do. Steam is (for the most part anyway) far more refined, primarily because it's been out a lot longer. I've had more problems with Origin than Steam in terms of bugs, programs not launching, etc, but it's never been anything earth-shattering. With EA wanting the glory for itself, you don't have much of a choice these days. Fortunately, if you have EA games that were released on Steam (Crysis, Mirror's Edge, some Need for Speed titles), those will always be available.

Bottom line: I much prefer Steam as a distribution and DRM platform, but have little problem with Origin if it has a game I want that's cheap to buy.

 

Because if every publisher goes this route then it's managing multiple services for your games. At least with Steam it's centrally located and easy to manage your games.

 

origin and steam offer different games.. so there is no way to choose so there is no point in discussing one over the other. Steam is better overall but u need both to play most games atm and in the future.

 

My experience with Origin had been rocky, I had a free download code for Battlefield 3 bundled with a soundcard I bought so I decided to redeem it which sounds simple enough. However the client just doesn't want me to do so! All it does constantly is load up a blank page, I thought it was my internet firewall at first but hours went by I realised other people had the same problem as I did at the time for no apparant reason. I did get through in the end but I had to ditch the Origin client, go to an obscure EA page they don't tell you about and activate from there to get the game working.

I haven't encountered that much problem with Steam except for the odd server shutdowns at times.

 

I suppose I haven't come across a PC game I want to play that's only on origin. Is it just bf3 everyone is after?

 

Never had to use Origin before. Steam serves my gaming need very well.

 

yeah steam is ten times better than origin, mainly because if you think about it: origin is about year old under its current traffic usage, while steam is i want to say 4 or 5 years old. Either way, the experience at steam is refined much better, while origin has its flaws still because its still such a new product. I give steam the edge, but it might only be because its had age and refinement. Plus anyone who said anything about the coding, thats a bunch of bull. The coding for steam was designed to work any way into almost any game. Also if you think about it, remember that award EA got a while back, as being the "Worst Company in the United States" this is why, with steam, there is no doubt that some of the profits from games go to valve. With origin, greedy money powerhouse EA gets 100% of the profit. Origin is a company's way of saying "hey look! we have our Digital Distributor! now we can make EVEN more MONEY!!!!!!!"

 

Steam. I've used their backup/restore feature multiple times to move a game between multiple computers, and it works perfectly every time. I can't seem to find a way to do something similar with Origin; I've tried simply copying the game's folder as instructed some places online, which worked for BF3, but when I tried that for Mass Effect 3, it didn't seem to care, and started downloading the entire 10gb again.

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I've had no issues with Origin and I don't think Valve is any better than EA. Both looking to get as much money from gamers as possible and both like to use their own proprietary delivery system, and both support DRM.

 

Steam is almost 9 years old.

 

Same. Origin is terrible, I wouldn't mind using Origin more if I could active my product on Steam.

EA has more money and should have the better talent between the two companies but that remains to be seen.

 

i haven't been on steam in quite a white because i haven't really been gaming too much the last few years, but the service has never failed me. it has always worked like how it's supposed to work, and it does it very consistently. the sales are just the cherries on top.

i never tried Origin before until i purchased BF3. the whole Origin experience was complete crap, to me. it just never worked. i could sit there, for hours, and click on BF3. i'd be lucky if i was able to join a single game within that time period. it totally killed my BF3 experience and the end result: i deleted Origin and BF3 off of my computer after only getting about 30-45 mins of actual game play.

 

Origin download and update speeds for me have been much faster than Steam. BF3 and all DLCs and updates went very fast and easy. Just got the ME3 Deluxe and that installed smooth and all DLCs, nice and easy. It never fails to start and connect me to BF3. Alice also installed faster than any game I've installed on Steam and nice and easy. Bought the game from Amazon.com and added my key for Alice and done. I'd say my experience with Origin is just as good as Steam so far.

Too bad about the gaming though since your machine is BEAST!

 

My main Problem with Origin is the fact that you don't have a choice. If it worked as good or better than Steam, then I'm sure people would naturally use it. But for me, I felt that it was very forced. I pop in a disk and the game itself is asking for Origin. Why can't I just install the game? Then when Origin is downloaded, it tries to make me DOWNLOAD the 10GB game I have on a disk in my PC... In the end I gave up until the next day when I finally figured it out, but it was a battle. Unfortunately EA has some titles that I really want to play. I have BF3, and I was able to buy a disc copy of Crysis 2 for $8. I actually ended up adding these to my Steam library so I can launch them from Steam. Valve has a really cool philosophy IMO, whereas EA seems to want to get their share of the glory by whatever means necessary (such as getting in fights with Valve and not offering any modern EA games on Steam). EA could really earn some credit in my mind by simply focussing on creating a better, more refined, appealing product with Origin rather than gimmicking people into having both because of a handful of titles. Think of it this way, are they really successfull when many people have Origin ONLY because of Battlefield 3 or maybe one other game or two. I would rather see competition and innovation which would actually make both Steam and Origin better products for the end-user rather than shaking my head as EA clenches to a few big name titles forcing me to have a fragmented library.

 

that's what greed does to a big company that's already raking in the dollars by the boat loads. greed really kills a company's competitive nature. competition is the very thing that drives developers to continue to pump out better, more dynamic products. instead, the company would rather focus on just the dollars part of the equation and they seem to totally forget how to be innovative.

another great example: Blizzard.

if Origin doesn't offer anything over steam then there's absolutely no reason for EA to even force the consumers to use it. clearly, dollar signs are the bigger focus, in EA's eyes. they'd rather force mediocrity onto us than make our experience, with their products, a priority.

 

I hate it too, between Steam, Origin, Amazon, Impulse, Gog.com, even some Microsoft store games I can't recall where I bought it. I end up buying the game on Steam again on uber sale because everything is conveniently located. At least Amazon is offering Steam game codes now. Then imagine if Activision, Ubisoft, and all the other publishers offer their own stores. You'll end up with a dozen applications/clients just to play your games. They could all offer to sell them on Steam too even if at a slightly higher price point.

 

I don't mind steam or origin. Both are just launch platform to me.

So far, my only couple bad experience with origin was using the disk to install BF3, which was seriously heavy copy protected flim that it was much much faster just to download and install.

The second was how difficult for others to change my password and recovery email of my Origin account. Might depend on certain reps, it was simply the Origin id and Date of birth you put in. And yes, this was how I recovered mine.

 

I don't see why they don't do it. I would have thought they would already do it rather than paying Valve, they can reap all the profits for themselves, no middle person.

 

@Houstoned

Well said. They may still get our money, but they don't make us WANT to give them business.

Mandating a mediocre product in order to experience their games isn't doing anything to help them out long term IMO. It's foolish. They walk a fragile line here between maximizing profits and alienating many fans of their games. I've read stories of some who gave up completely on BF3 because of the hassle imposed by Origin/PB, etc...

I'm sure that eventually the lack of innovation will spread and we will see the titles published become less interesting and thought out. When it is apparant that a game was released for profit and not to be a great game, or when a franchise is dragged out well after it's natural end, then I believe they will begin to lose more and more business.

Sure, people will buy games that look "pretty", but I hope we don't continue to be dumbed-down by the media we consume. My hope is that innovation and compelling advances continue to make companies successfull. Those who simply try to create a system in which they have most of the power and therefore control the product and reap maximum profit without the need to push innovation should wake up or fail IMO. At least for now, there are plenty of competitors who can replace them.

 

Curiously, I've had the opposite experience. I've had a lot more bugs with Steam than I have with Origin, which runs really smoothly for me.

I personally use both. Steam sales are unbeatable for picking up year-old games for rock-bottom prices, but I prefer Origin's interface [edit] and Origin's faster download speeds[/edit]. If a recent release is priced the same on both services, I'll buy it on Origin.

 

The ONLY bug I have experienced with Steam is using Offline Mode right after adding new games. What sort of bugs are you talking about with Steam?

 

So, why not offer it at both places but charge a slight premium to pay for Valve's take? That way they get same profit, and users have a choice.

 

+1

I totally agree. Similar to my experience. I occasionally use Steam now, but haven't touched Origin in a long while. They may have fixed their service, but I just keep things simple. Steam is simple, reliable - and they have great pricing during the deals days.

 

I've had intermittent difficulty launching the Steam program and logging into Steam (worse on OSX than Win 7, but I think I've sometimes had the issue on Win 7), and updating programs has sometimes given me trouble. I had trouble getting Deus Ex: Human Revolution to install a patch that fixed a game-breaking bug.

 

My only real beef with steam is when I politely ask it not to update my skyrim aaaaaaand it resets the setting the very next day. >_<

 

Wasn't Steam kinda forced on the users too. You had to install and create a Steam account in order to play HL2, so EA isn't inventing a wheel here exactly. And Steam used to suck back in the day it was introduced.
But as time passed, it got better and better. I don't have any complains about it.
So maybe it's fair to give Origin some time too. I haven't had a chance to try it out, newer/main EA games (ME, DA, BF, NFS) are kinda meh and everything else is on Steam. Still, having heard the complains most gamers had about Origin, it's not like EA couldn't have looked at Valve for ideas and bring them a bit further...

 

I got Steam first and don't want any other programs like that so I avoid Origin. I've had friends run into all sorts of problems with it and EA doesn't make many games that interest me to begin with. Steam has better prices, too .

Honestly, Origin just seems like a worse version of Steam with nothing new to offer. No point in downloading (for me).

 

I pretty much hate both. If I HAD to pick, I'd opt for Steam.

 

Haha the good 'ol days: