|
Yes, everyones favourite Swedish game developer may have lost some Twitter followers over the weekend as Markus Persson, Mine-creator, recently spoke out about Origin and downloadable services when talking to GameSpy. The game dev recently said about the digital distribution service. Let's just say he's all about fair competition.
"I think it's a bit dangerous to only have one digital distribution platform like Steam," he said. "I love Valve, but out of principle, I find the idea of one platform a bit scary. So I like that there are others competing - for example, Desura and Impulse, who recently got bought by GameStop. It's a good thing that there are more."
But just because Notch is glad that EA has launched a competitor to the Steam juggernaut, that doesn't mean he's completely on board just yet.
"Origin does a couple things badly compared to Steam," Notch admitted, "which is impressive since they had eight years to study Steam."
During those eight years, Steam has established itself as the dominant force of similar distribution methods, boasting 35 million current active users, and an impressive peak of 5 million simultaneous users online. Compare that to EA's Origin service, which currently caters to only 9.3 million gamers, with only 1 million of those active per day.
Even though currently dwarfed by Steam, 9.3 million users is nothing to scoff at. Unless you're Notch, in which case the scoffing sounds a bit like this: "They should definitely have a chance to do their thing," he said, "but they might want to move away from titles that make people use it and show people why they should use it."
Still, one or two jabs aside, Notch still approves of the service, saying, "But I think, in principle, it's a good thing."
"I think it's a bit dangerous to only have one digital distribution platform like Steam," he said. "I love Valve, but out of principle, I find the idea of one platform a bit scary. So I like that there are others competing - for example, Desura and Impulse, who recently got bought by GameStop. It's a good thing that there are more."
Notch makes a great point about there being different services and of course, not everyone is going to side with one company simply based on service, it will come down to games but even Notch admits, "Origin does a couple things badly compared to Steam, which is impressive since they had eight years to study Steam."
Of course in those eight years, Steam have had their ups and downs and I remember when Steam first came out and it had such a rocky start, no one thought it would last till the end of the year, but here we are now...
Notch was fair in his judgement, ultimately saying "They should definitely have a chance to do their thing," he said, "but they might want to move away from titles that make people use it and show people why they should use it." And regarding the two competing brands "But I think, in principle, it's a good thing."
Who knows, in the end Notch might make his own gigantic indie juggernaut made of just Pay What You Want and we'll all be screwed.
Via [TheEscapist]
|
Comments
Steam isn't an Origin competitor if they don't have the same games.
Reply