10. Origin
Do you remember the good old days where you could purchase a game, install it and then play it? Good god I loved those days, running home from school to find Morrowind sitting in a lovely case and watching it install on my computer before delving into the magical, yet buggy, world of happiness and fun. Don't get me wrong here, I appreciate the fact that I no longer have to pop into the shop or wait for a delivery to begin playing a game and can purchase it on-line and play straight away, but that's where I draw the line. I hated Steam at first, especially when I purchased a game from a shop and found I had to install Steam to play it, but I steadily got over this and began to love Valve. My issues with digital distribution re-surfaced however when I pre-ordered a physical copy of Dragon Age 2: Super Shiny Edition (that's right the one with a black-and-white manual and no actual physical goodies, now who were the publisher's behind that I wonder) back in 2011. It popped up in the mail and my hands trembled with glee as I inserted the disc. I was ready for Steam to pop up with my fingers poised over the keyboard to enter the serial key and begin playing when all of a sudden I ran into a problem; I didn't have Origin. I grumbled, but if the only way I was going to be able to play my game was by installing the program then there was only one path available. Now if I have an issue with Origin why is it ranked so highly? Because essentially this isn't a problem JUST with EA but with most publishers and on-line distribution companies. We live in a world now where you can't just purchase a game and play it; due to piracy companies have to implement systems to ensure that games are legitimate copies. Valve's reasoning for pulling games such as DA 2 and Crysis 2 was due to EA releasing DLC that could be purchased through the game rather than through Steam itself, essentially cutting Valve out of their take. Peter Moore did have one little interesting tidbit to add though, when asked how Origin could compete with Steam he replied that Origin was now up to 45 million registered users but failed to mention that EA is one of the largest publishers and how the vast majority of newer games pass through Origin rather than Steam. When I compare my game library on both distributors I see a vast difference, close to 200 games on one and 4 on the other. People aren't using Origin out of choice, but out of necessity.