New version of EADM just got out. It has an in-game overlay and chat for certain games. It seems EA wants to compete seriously with Steam now.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/5602582.page
http://www.ea.com/1/download-manager

In forcing me to download loads of useless updates when I just want to play the game I've been quite happy with for the last few months. I'd say they're already serious competitors.

That would be cool. I love steam but it could really use some competition.

I quite like it, though my friends list is empty at the moment!

And if anyone has problems running EADM on their PC, I have learned from experience (and about 10 months of frustration) that a simple bios update tends to fix the problem!

Ad mi! Delixe as usual. Hell come on i'm rather interested in this. EA are one of the few companies who can take on Valve and Steam needs a LOT of improvement.

That's great and all but I'm always terrified to update the bios so I never do.

Why is it everytime I load up EADM I'm forced to update to even login? That's areally annoying. At least they didn't automatically turn back on Start EADM at Windows Login. It remembers your choice from the last EADM version. Hooray. Remembering to turn it off every update was annoying.

It's that good a service?

Also nice pic btw.

I like the EADM a lot. No install limits, unlimited downloads what's not to like? People who bought Crysis: Warhead retail have to deal with activations, I don't. The EADM is easily the best store used by any publisher and this includes Battle.Net.

My old copy of Dead Space uses an old version of EADM for patching. I wonder if the new client can allow tying that copy into it?

Are you sure that applies to all games past and present?

No it only applies to games that use the EADM and retail games like C&C Red Alert 3 activatied on it still have the activations the retail copy had. However games purchased from the EA Store are your's for life. They will give you any activations you need.

Interesting. Retail games do have revoke tools so while that requires extra diligence to remember to deauthorize, it technically gives unlimited activations as well. I'd still choose my Mirror's Edge disc. I save the bandwidth and gain a 16bit PCM audio CD vs 192kbps mp3 audio.

I agree, I use EADM as much as I use Steam, and I really like it. Also, I never had a problem with it.

Can I register my retail keys with this and download the files from there?

Yes you can with C&C Red Alert 3, NFS Underground and Dead Space. They are the only ones I tried.