EA Launches Origin Online Game Distribution for Mac

[Bantz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B-ekl_cEWk

EA publish some of the best games
Crysis
Battlefield
Fifa
NHL
Sim City
Mass Effect.

They are fine

 

[garnerx]

You're wrong

Zero EA policy over here, I play games but won't go near EA stuff, nice to see most are in same boat, they deserve all they get.

Why? Because they're a big, soulless, profit-making corporation? And you post on an Apple fan site...

Anyway, EA is not the all-crushing money-juggernaut it once was. They've done some good stuff for "the community", such as demolishing a notorious trademark-squatter:
http://kotaku.com/5370359/electronic-arts-sues-to-cancel-langdells-trademarks

and suing the company that produces shameless clones of original games on an industrial scale:
http://kotaku.com/5931661/ea-sues-zynga-says-the-ville-rips-off-the-sims

So there you go. Maybe EA is not so bad. As for Origin, I installed it on the PC side a couple of weeks ago and bought Batman Arkham City and Crysis 2 for £5 each, which is ridiculously good value. They also had stuff like Dragon Age 2, Sim City 4, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and loads more for the same price.

Evil, evil EA.

 

[locust76]

It scans your whole computer and send information to EA and unknown third parties. Data such as which app are installed and when they are used, your bookmarks and browser history, collect data with who you are contacting for example e-mail addresses.

Prove it.

It also slows your computer down significantly because it always scans what you are doing.

No it doesn't. Origin takes up 0% CPU and 38 megabytes of ram on my system, nothing worth getting excited about... unless your system can't handle such a massive load.

 

[mikeorchard]

"Origin is quite similar to Valve's Steam." What's the point then?

Steam doesn't have quite a few EA games. Duhhh.

 

[126351]

Hardcore gamers like me don't like the way they cram the Origin software down everyone's throats.
It started with Battlefield 3 back in 2011. BIG hype and anticipation for this game, but on PC, you suddenly HAD to plug in to this Origin system in order to play the game, and on consoles the game had an "online pass" that everyone had to pay $10 for if they got the game used instead of buying at full retail... that just doesn't happen with other console games.
Since then, they've been dangling the franchises they have control over (Battlefield, Crysis, Mass Effect) in front of gamers with strings attached to things like first-day DLC and other little "rewards" for people who buy for full price on the first day of availability. They've also taken a strong stance against selling games at reduced prices like we get with Steam Sales.

In a nutshell, EA is kind of at the forefront of this creepy movement in the gaming industry to get gamers to pay more money for their games. They're trying to get everyone used to a world where nobody gets a game at a reduced price because it's used or it's been out for a few years so the price is dropped... instead, they want a world where all gamers pay full price for every game they play, which is a big deal because most full games these days sell for around $60 when they first come out.

That's why people don't like EA.

Don't forget taking down online servers less than six months after release of your $60 game.

 

[madsci954]

 

[SPUY767]

EA is the soulless corporate juggernaut of the gaming industry. I can only imagine how great the ENTIRETY of Mass Effect 3 would have been had EA not gotten its hooks into Bioware.

Instead, thanks to EA, we got a game that was 95% awesomeness followed by 15 minutes of ending that ruined the whole fusking series.

I can't see how EA hasn't run afoul of antitrust laws the way they bought up competition. Their MO of buying up popular IP and running it into the ground while milking it for cash has ruined the gaming industry.

 

[nutjob]

EA is the soulless corporate juggernaut of the gaming industry. I can only imagine how great the ENTIRETY of Mass Effect 3 would have been had EA not gotten its hooks into Bioware.

Instead, thanks to EA, we got a game that was 95% awesomeness followed by 15 minutes of ending that ruined the whole fusking series.

Wow, you can't even read a Mac blog without hearing people whine about the ending of ME 3.

 

[VoR]

Prove it.

It's a pretty vague EULA, that's everyones issue with it!
After all the bad press and the EA PR statement telling us that it's not spyware, they did update the EULA to say that it is actually scanning your machine (and monitoring software usage) and that they're not liable for any of the data they gather - It's pretty bad

 

[William Gates]

Really want to play the new sim city when it comes out. How do you think it will run on a virtual machine using parallels?

I played the closed beta on my 2011 MacBook Air 1.7 Ghz using parallels. It crashed at start up the first 15-20 times. After that it ran ok. It was slow, but not terribly slow. Nevertheless, i enjoyed the **** out of playing SimCity.

 

[MacMan988]

Believe me, your computer has so much more running in the background on a constant basis that you have no control over. You seriously need to upgrade your machine if it can't handle something so inconsequential as Origin.

Origin is currently idle on my machine, uses 0% CPU and 37 MB of memory. That might have been problematic if we were in the mid-90's.

It doesn't matter how much powerful your computer is, if you continue with that habit of populating the system with all those software, your computer will be always slow.

 

[locust76]

It's a pretty vague EULA, that's everyones issue with it!
After all the bad press and the EA PR statement telling us that it's not spyware, they did update the EULA to say that it is actually scanning your machine (and monitoring software usage) and that they're not liable for any of the data they gather - It's pretty bad

There's a huge difference between a badly worded EULA and what the program actually does. There would have been a *****storm of bad press had the program actually been found to be snooping through bookmarks, emails, contacts and the like (which, by the way, any program on a PC can do, with or without your consent). Yes, EA knows which apps you have purchased through Origin and knows when you're running them. In reality, that's probably pretty much the extent of the information they're interested in, but their team of lawyers (who probably haven't spoken to a real person in years) can't seem to put words on paper that don't ring major alarm bells.

But to suggest that the program is uploading sensitive personal documents, histories and contacts without any proof is absurd.

----------

It doesn't matter how much powerful your computer is, if you continue with that habit of populating the system with all those software, your computer will be always slow.

Sure, if you have dozens upon dozens of instances of Origin running on a single machine, it may slow down. But adding Origin to a reasonable amount of running processes (say, a few dozen) that don't belong to the OS on a modern computer is not going to cause the system to come to a screeching halt.

 

[ProVideo]

I downloaded this to get rid of unanswered friend requests in Simpsons Tapped Out. You can't delete them in game and some have been sitting there for months. I figured going through the Desktop application might work. Nope. You can't even see the Pending requests, let alone delete them. Great job, EA.

Now how do I do a clean uninstall so it deletes any files it put in the System Library along with the Application itself?

 

[fblack]

I'm not super crazy about EA, but its nice to see more games for the Mac platform. Oh, wait they have 49 titles for Mac and 24 of those are The Sims and 6 is Lego? Err...you need to work on that there EA. I mean I'm sure that Sims fans are probably excited, but you hardly left me wanting anything you got there. I'm a little underwhelmed, call me when you expand your roster of games for the Mac.

 

[VoR]

There's a huge difference between a badly worded EULA and what the program actually does. There would have been a *****storm of bad press had the program actually been found to be snooping through bookmarks, emails, contacts and the like (which, by the way, any program on a PC can do, with or without your consent). Yes, EA knows which apps you have purchased through Origin and knows when you're running them. In reality, that's probably pretty much the extent of the information they're interested in, but their team of lawyers (who probably haven't spoken to a real person in years) can't seem to put words on paper that don't ring major alarm bells.

But to suggest that the program is uploading sensitive personal documents, histories and contacts without any proof is absurd.

Of course there is, but the sheer fact the EULA was changed to include machine scanning and liability waiver (but remain just as vague...) after the *****torm of bad press (that already happened) is pretty suspect.

I certainly don't think it's absurd... It's a proprietary application with a EULA that's either very badly worded or worded exactly as desired. Due to the nature of the software there's little we can do bar what has already been done... Exactly what caused the initial *****torm and EULA rewrite?

It's a bit reminiscent of Sony executives announcing that "most people don't know what a rootkit is, so why would they mind us auto-installing one?" - That was swept under the carpet pretty well... People should get vocal!

ps. I'm a bit of an OSS fanatic, and have more machines running software that I can guarantee isn't 'snooping with/without my consent' than I can't.

 

[S.B.G]

I really want to play the new SimCity game when it's released, but I equally really do not want to install Origin.

 

[locust76]

I meant a bigger *****torm... if someone had run a scanner and found that Origin actually accessed files it shouldn't, that would have been splattered across the web like the AACS decryption key was. In the grand scheme of things, negative articles about the EULA followed up by a revision to said EULA and then nothing more isn't really a whole bunch of bad press.

But the entire problem is with the EULA, since nobody's found any evidence that Origin is plotting to steal our contacts and bookmarks. So yeah, suggesting that the program does that is ludicrous.

However, the vaguely worded EULA definitely needs to be tightened up in order to give a clearer picture of what exactly the software does.

 

[roadbloc]

I avoid anything EA like a plague nowadays. They do not know how to treat their customers. They will not be getting another penny from me. Origin will not be touching any of my computers.

 

[VoR]

I meant a bigger *****torm... if someone had run a scanner and found that Origin actually accessed files it shouldn't, that would have been splattered across the web like the AACS decryption key was. In the grand scheme of things, negative articles about the EULA followed up by a revision to said EULA and then nothing more isn't really a whole bunch of bad press.

But the entire problem is with the EULA, since nobody's found any evidence that Origin is plotting to steal our contacts and bookmarks. So yeah, suggesting that the program does that is ludicrous.

However, the vaguely worded EULA definitely needs to be tightened up in order to give a clearer picture of what exactly the software does.

One of the most famous brands in the world silently installing a back door (with vulnerabilities) on PCs used to play audio CDs didn't get that much bad press. They didn't get that much bad press when they said "people don't know what it is, why should they care?" either. The vast majority of computer users are oblivious to these sort of things. It should be up to the sort of people that visit tech sites like these to get angry, remain cynical and keep these companies in check. Origin does scan your entire machine, and more than likely is completely innocent and does nothing with it, that's not the point

Yeah, I think the EULA should be cleaned up. Although ideally, we should still be allowed to run applications without an extra piece of valueless (to the paying customer), intrusive software chugging along.

There's a fair few proprietary applications with dubious license agreements and background processes, but this is a thread about EA and I feel they've acquired and ruined enough companies to get a biased rant from me, an anonymous forum poster

 

[Dr McKay]

This will never be installed on my machine.

You had me at "EA".

I regrettably had to install it to play Mass Effect 3. EA is possibly the only Company I literally hate. I hate how they sink their claws into popular and loved games, force them to squeeze out game after game after game. If the game is multi-player forget about it being balanced because EA will simply off you a "Instant Mega-Death Ultimate Insta-Win Gun" DLC for $10 a month after the game is out.

Eventually people realize this game series is now horrible and half-baked because EA force them on a tight release schedule and stop buying the game, at this point EA will move onto another game series.

 

[Yvan256]

EA = DRM+Cider

No thanks.

 

[TomA]

Oh great... another "Steam-like" environment? No thanks. Steam is already a bucket of pain that I finally booted from my system after constant crashing problems. What happened to just releasing the games?

 

[DaveOP]

Oh great... another "Steam-like" environment? No thanks. Steam is already a bucket of pain that I finally booted from my system after constant crashing problems. What happened to just releasing the games?

Can thank all the pirates for that. Not being naive and saying that all this DRM solves the problem, but it probably helps some analysts sleep better at night. Idk, I don't really have a problem with paying for the 2-3 games a year I actually care about, and really don't get bothered by booting up Origin when I do. I don't have much on my gaming rig I would be worried about someone tracking or looking at anyway.

 

[BigJohno]

Now the question is.... Simcity for mac or PC???

 

[220hertz]

Ha ha!

How about no?