Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0228/technology-gabe-newell-videogames-valve-online-mayhem.html
70 million in sales with a gross profit of 55 million. Good sweet lord, that's a chunk of change well beyond most conventional game makers reckoning. Care to add any accusations of Steam gouging developer profit margins? They don't have to, period.
Consider a thought exercise. Most developers release physical media, and in-turn get maybe a 30% gross profit. Once that covers all of the costs, you're down to pennies on the dollar. If steam makes a 78% profit margin (55/70) they can pay their bills (personnel, hardware, and software updates), deliver greater margins to the developer, and still make a fat profit. Whenever you look at it, the developer can consistently make more money (10% more in a 50-50 profit split), does not have to manufacture their product (physical media carries high costs and risks), and still leaves a sizeable chunk of profits for Valve.
With everything I have said, do you not see EA's transparent motivation? They want the nearly 80% profits from everything, without having to pay a perceived "tax" to be on Steam. The problem is that Steam has withstood nerd firing squads, and proven that it is a venerable and trusted solution. EA has proven that they will screw consumers left and right for the perceived threat of piracy. They have released half baked DRM schemes again and again, without the slightest breath between screaming that sales are down and the cause must be consumer piracy. They piss on their customer base, and wonder why their sales figures are decreasing.
~sigh~
EA ranting is for somewhere else. It's almsot akin to trolling at this point. We all realize that they can only pull this crap off because of how big they are.
Back to the original topic. EA is trying to increase sales, without spending a whole lot of money. I view Origins as a half baked scheme by the upper level management, who thought "Hey, we're paying Valve to be on Steam. Why don't we stop paying them, and fall back on our own catalog to create a very profitable online distribution system?" without regards to the massive hardware and software investment that makes Steam so acceptable to use. It will be another goat-f***, which isn't hard to see given how many other people have tried to compete with Steam without a solid backing and an exceptional games catalog.
I wonder how long until EA realizes that even with an online presence, that it wasn't piracy that caused losses (it was their own limited vision and perceived disdain for their own customers). It will be a day in the not too distant future hopefully, maybe then EA can stop sucking so hard...
I can dream, can't I.....