coopolon said:EA games get constantly discounted on Origin too. In fact, they get discounted earlier, faster, and more significantly than Valve games on Steam (based on Portal 2, I can't really remember how quickly L4D2 went on sale.)
I don't think buying physical copies is really any better. You can back up your downloads off of Origin, burn it to a disc, and you've backed it up just as well as a physical copy. Of course if you like the 2 page manual or box or something that's different. In terms of non-Steam EA games, I just buy wherever's cheaper whether it is Impulse, D2D, retail, or Origin.
Um, Valve has never priced a game over 49.99. And there's always the 10 percent pre-order bonus. EA has to go 25% percent off before they even match the day 0 orders of Valve games. Has Crysis 2 gotten even that, yet?