The last week has been dominated by an ongoing debate over an excerpt in the EULA (End User License Agreement) of Electronic Arts' new Origin digital distribution service, which will be mandatory for PC gamers who want to play all the upcoming titles from the company, like Battlefield 3 or Need for Speed: The Run.
The EULA highlighted that Origin may record and transmit data anonymously about the user's computer, programs or preferences to EA.
While I admit that it would've been decent for the program to offer a way of opting out this thing, like Valve is doing with its Steam surveys, the amount of hate, uproar and threats to boycott
Origin has become a bit annoying, especially since many of the arguments of anti-EA protesters can easily be applied to Valve and its own
Steam.
Many PC gamers are angry at EA because Origin needs to be running while they play any of the upcoming games like Battlefield 3 or Need for Speed: The Run. They seemingly forget that Steam does the exact same thing, because the program is used as a DRM (Digital Rights Management) software by publishers. As such, if you want to play games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Steam needs to be running, at least in its offline mode.
Others are angry because EA insists on growing Origin's userbase by forcing it down the throats of the many people who want to play its upcoming titles, including the aforementioned
Battlefield 3. They probably forgot that Steam was also mandatory with one of the biggest games of the last decade, Half Life 2, as Valve saw fit to make the players use its own digital platform.
All of them shouldn't forget that Electronic Arts is running a business, so moving away from Valve's monopoly isn't a crazy move. In fact, it's using pretty much the same recipe the Half Life developer had with Steam, only applying it to its own titles.
Some issues, like the data collecting one above, will appear, as with the start of any project of this size, but PC gamers should at least give EA the benefit of the doubt. Who knows, maybe in a few years, Origin will become a natural part of playing games, just like Steam is at the moment.
What do you think? Is EA doing the right thing with Origin or should it abandon the whole project and just be content under Valve's Steam?
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