EA have this morning sent out an email confirming that owners of The Sims 2 will be receiving the "Ultimate Edition" of the game for free via Origin. Later this month they'll be dropping technical support for the 2004 hit, and want everybody to have "the most up-to-date" version in their collection. If you're a fan, prepare yourself for a huge amount of new DLC.
By now, everybody should know that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. Let's apply that to EA, shall we? The publisher is giving away copies of The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection, for free... and not mentioning that it includes the controversial SecuROM anti-piracy software.
I'm sure no one is surprised that EA pulled this shit. I'm so sick of this company. Why do people support them?
Because the world still hope that EA can change so they continue to spend money.
Of course, we all know they can't.
What makes this more impressive is that they never told us a thing about it. I guess thats what you get when you think EA does something for "free"
"EA Never told us"? The game had SecuROM when it released. It's honestly not surprising that they haven't removed it just so they could give the game away for free.
Well...they're not going to take time to remove the feature for a free release.
Good news for the Sims fans, Now the Sims 2 Ultimate Collection available for free on Origin.
People tend to sh*t on EA a lot but this is very generous. Because of the "On the house" program I'm starting to use Origin more than ever.
Free games are nice. But having to install spyware for one isn't...
http://www.cinemablend.com/...
For the love of god Origin isn't looking through your UserAssist registry key. Its actually Windows that's doing it.
http://www.reddit.com/r/pcm...
@elhebbo16
Origin collects information about your computer and sends it to EA and this is stated in the EULA.
Why do you doubt EA?
@brish and so does steam but thats not the point, what rdgeoz3 was SPECIFICALLY TALKING ABOUT is not true at all.
@elhebbo16
To most people the term spyware means software that collects information from your computer and takes it.
A lot of people view Origin as spyware because it does exactly what fits their definition of spyware as stated in the Origin EULA.
EA seems to think taking data from people's computers is fine as long as it's in the EULA. Many people disagree.
@elhobo The TOS may allow them to look through your comp (can't use the program unless you agree to the TOS), but it doesn't mean it's right.
Fun quotes:
"Well, from the looks of it, Origin is taking its merry time looking around the personal files on your computer, most probably when they are running, and this includes your browser as well. Now while we do not know whether it can spy on your browsing activity as well, the mere fact that it is accessing the browser process is discerning."
"The screenshot doesn’t appear to give away much at first but the files are hidden using a ROT13 Cypher (credits: brainiac256) used by the Windows Registry."
"Infact some of the process shown in this screenshot actively decode to Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, iTunes and Foxit Reader apart from a game or two (Torchlight)."
http://wccftech.com/ea-spyi...
Just because ea are giving away free games does not mean they are all of a sudden a good company.
So far, all they have given away is mobile games such as Plants Vs Zombies(which in my opinion is total garbage)The Sims 2 is a 10 year old game for gods sake.
If EA want to win back the hearts of gamers, they need to start fixing there broken games and stop backstabbing there PC gamers with sub-standard console ports.
Also as rdgneoz3 mentions above, Origin is far from a perfect launcher.
They gave away Dead Space and Battlefield 3. Maybe not the hottest stuff around, but these are genuinely free. No PSN-style subscription, no "f2p" revenue model. It isn't a bad scheme.
They also had a pretty decent sale recently, just prior to Steam's summer sale. Not on the same level as Steam, but I picked up something like 8 games at good prices.
And I don't think they have offered up bad console ports recently?
BUT it certainly isn't all good news. EA have a very clear and obvious intention to push the price of PC gaming up. They are trying to charge console prices (and beyond) for their up-coming games, and that doesn't sit well.
are you kidding me? they gave out BF3 and deadspace as well, does Sony ever gave out Uncharted and infamous for free? and please don't count PS+ as free.
@volkama
"BUT it certainly isn't all good news. EA have a very clear and obvious intention to push the price of PC gaming up. They are trying to charge console prices (and beyond) for their up-coming games, and that doesn't sit well"
That is why i will never buy a game from origin, total scam artists, I bought Titanfall (hardcopy) on PC from Amazon UK for £35, the same game(digital) on origin came to £49.99, what a total rip off. Currently it sits at £23 on Amazon (digital) while origin is £30.
The Sims 4 is currently £38(hardcopy) at Amazon UK, while origin has it at £50(digital)
@elhebbo16
Nothing is for free, they make up for giving away free games by charging stupid silly prices for games and DLC.
I pay £40 a year for PS+ and probably download and play upto £400 worth of games for that measly price, show me origin or any other service doing that.
@snipercontrol are you stupid or trying to act like it? free is free, dont try to justify that its not free because you have to pay for DLC. thats the most bullsh*t excuse I've ever heard.
@elhebbo16
WTF? seems you have a bigtime hard#n for origin and ea, no one even mentioned PS+ apart from you, i am a PC gamer first, so god knows why you bought PS+ into this.
I never said free was bad, all i said was, no amount of free games are going to iron over the bigger issues that ea have, like pumping out half finished and broken games like Battlefield and FIFA on a yearly basis.
You go play peggle, i'll go play Lego Batman, Strider, Dead Space 3 for my £3.33 monthly contribution towards PS+.
I'm just going to download my game and not complain, EA are giving it away for free and I've already gotten many free games from them already. I will not ask for much more (also It doesnt matter how old it is and if you wanted something newer they gave away BF3 a while ago).
Its nice of EA to do this: since market reports say that most people will buy the newest version if they own a previous version.
That's nice of EA (and strangely out of the ordinary for them).