Okay, I went to the EA Store because, surprise! EA won't make hot direct download babies with direct2drive or Steam. They instead have their own, shittier download service. This way they get all the profits. Unfortunately, their store is so terrible that most people won't touch it with Synbios's flippers, so in the end, they make basically nothing off it. Fuck EA, yadda yadda.
Unfortunately, EA does put out a good portion of the hotter computer games, so them being in the Shit Age of direct downloads is kind of a black mark on the whole direct download market. Tonight I went to their store to see if I couldn't scare up a copy of The Sims 2.
Well, last time I used the store was earlier this year, to purchase a copy of Battlefield 2142. I know, I know, and you know, you know my shitty spending habits. It's not a bad game, though, I swear! Back when I did this, the store was called EA Link. They had their own version of a Steamy client, except it was shitty and all. You had to keep the client running while you played the game, which was a bitch because it used a lot more memory than Steam did.
Anyway, I went to the store tonight, and I saw that it's not EA Link anymore, it's the EA Store. Oh, I thought, maybe they made this workable. Guess again. Instead, they made things so terrible that even I was revolted enough to put my wallet away.
I didn't get to the part where I had to install their client to download the game. I didn't even get to the payment screen. Yous ee, upon finding the product I wanted and looking at my cart, I noticed a warning indicating that when you purchase fromt he EA Store, you can only DL the game you BOUGHT for 6 months. If you pay a 6 dollar service fee, you can DL it for 2 years. Once your date passes, you have to repurchase the game with cash money. Again.
What. The. Fuck?
The best part of direct download services is that you never have to worry about losing a CD or the like. You own the game, and you have ready access to it anywhere on earth. For this reason, I don't mind paying a slight premium on Steam from time to time. D2D has the same policy as Steam: You buy the game, it's yours forever. EA's shitty store basically negates the main consumer benefits of direct downloads. Like, there's NO REASON for me to purchase from the EA Store. if I do, I'll probably have to rebuy again at next reformat.
The EA Store has other imperfections. Large imperfections. But it's the above that makes the store fundamentally useless and awful. The next major problem would be the shittiness of their offered library. The big names are all their for download: The Sims, Sim City, Battlefield and the gang, but there's not much worthwhile content available. EA has a looooong ass legacy on PCs, and the best they can do are a handful of games basically all from the past 5 years? If EA had a decent facsimile of their full library available at the Store, I'd be willing to overlook a lot of flaws. As it stands, they have the most laughable online store out there. Get with the program and get your shit on Steam, EA.
