Valve responds to Electronic Arts’ comments about Discounts – Video Games Update
Electronic Arts’ (EA) David DeMartini, who is incharge of the company’s digital distribution service Origin, stated last month that gamers should not expect Origin to have large discounts similar to those available on Steam as EA believes that discounts
‘cheapens the Intellectual property (IP)’.
David stated that he knows that Valve thinks that it’s the right thing to do but EA will not be following that example since the company believes that developers work really hard to produce the game and huge discounts mean that the developers are losing
out on the deal.
According to EA, discounts put off gamers from buying the game when it comes out or pre-ordering it as they know that they can get it for much cheaper if they wait a few months. He also stated that EA is not aiming to be a wholesale store like Target rather
it wants to become a high end retail outlet like Nordstrom.
"When I say that, I mean good value, we're trying to give you a fair price point, and occasionally there will be things that are on sale you could look for a discount, just don't look for 75 per cent off going-out-of-business sales,” said David as he talked
about the negative effects of the discounts that are available on Steam.
David also stated that EA has other plans to move around aging games inventory but nothing has been revealed so far.
Valve’s business development chief, Jason Holtman, disagreed with David’s views and claimed that the opposite is true regarding discounts. He compared game sales to Box Office tickets and said that fans don’t wait for the DVD release of a movie they like
as they try to watch the movie as soon as they can.
"For instance, if all that were true, nobody would ever pre-purchase a game ever on Steam, ever again. You just wouldn't... But our pre-orders are bigger than they used to be... Our first week, second week, third week, all those are bigger,” said Jason replying
to EA’s claim about discounts killing of pre-orders and day one sales.
Steam is currently the largest digital distribution platform in the world with over 40 million registered users where EA’s Origin is ranked second with only 11 million users and most of them are only there because of EA’s decision to release its PC games
exclusively on its own client.
Tags: