[engadget] Origin PC drops AMD graphics options due to feedback, support woes

[Keysplayr]

Poor guy at Origin. Must be regretting this blunder after not pulling it off like he'd hoped.

Oh he "pulled it off" just like he'd probably hoped. He is in the news. 15 minutes of fame has started.

 

[Keysplayr]

As I said; this anouncment; banging on a drum to try and sling mug at AMD doesn't make sense from business stand point - it makes them look silly specially when ceo can't keep his story straight. It does damage you as a brand.

If you're doing a product cycle; you show the new products; not burn the hell out of bridges publicly; specially just before a new gpu launch. In this business it doesn't make any sense unless your company has gotten something to do it. Plain and simple.

If you're having trouble with a product, lets say a graphics card, and you try and try to get assistance from the company you had bought it from, only to maybe sometimes get returned emails, get blown off, or ignored, or not get what you as a customer deserved, how likely would it be that you'd eventually travel to a venue like an online technical forum and publicly call out this company and pressure them into finally giving you the attention you deserve? I have seen this practice on these forums countless times over the years when a consumer can't get a certain company to do the right thing.
Some of them are bogus, but not all of them. Some have legitimate complaints and expose poor behavior on the part of a given company.

Of all companies right now, AMD should care equally about the small guy as they do the big ones. Get in every single dollar possible. To turn down ANY sort of business that can generate revenue, no matter how small, for a financially struggling company is quite foolish to put it lightly.

 

[krumme]

Imho instead of writing here what amd should do Keys, better use your nv focus group presence to tell nv to stop bribing for badmouthing their competitors.

You can tell your nv contact you beliewe all the pr was because of origin beeing angry for good reasons and then retaliated. Fine. From a lot of us others you can please give the message we know its bribing and dont want it.

Infraction issued for callout.
-- stahlhart

 

[railven]

The company will do a lot more business in this "damaged" state than it ever would have prior to these events. And the most ironic part is, they can still offer AMD components if they want to. Any board partner or online vendor will sell to them to build their rigs.

My guess is they apologize for how they handled it. But that's just my guess.

Eitherway, it does seem like he's flip flopped on some points. Not saying he got bought out, but it seems his motives are difinitely questionable.

 

[Rezist]

Well even attacking AMD seems odd since would they not be dealing with a board partner like Sapphire or Gigabyte? Anyways the timing is perfect and the PR is free. Kind of a side effect of the PS4/XBone and the shrinking PC gaming market.

 

[Keysplayr]

Well even attacking AMD seems odd since would they not be dealing with a board partner like Sapphire or Gigabyte? Anyways the timing is perfect and the PR is free. Kind of a side effect of the PS4/XBone and the shrinking PC gaming market.

Somebody mentioned that OriginPC had used reference AMD boards til now.
They can cut OriginPC off in that regard, but they can't stop them from shopping vendors or board partners.

 

[Keysplayr]

Imho instead of writing here what amd should do Keys, better use your nv focus group presence to tell nv to stop bribing for badmouthing their competitors.

You can tell your nv contact you beliewe all the pr was because of origin beeing angry for good reasons and then retaliated. Fine. From a lot of us others you can please give the message we know its bribing and dont want it.

Infraction issued for callout.
-- stahlhart

Nothong to do with me. I didn't pay OriginPC to badmouth AMD either.
You missed the announcement Krumme. Both OriginPC and Nvidia said there was no compensation, money or otherwise to get OriginPC to badmouth AMD. Maybe, just maybe, AMD really botched handling one of their customers? I know it sounds impossible, but just maybe.

Also, don't you agree with me on how AMD should care about every dollar that comes in these days? They can afford to blow off a little guy or think him unimportant? Return the man's phone calls! IMHO.

 

[smackababy]

Nothong to do with me. I didn't pay OriginPC to badmouth AMD either.
You missed the announcement Krumme. Both OriginPC and Nvidia said there was no compensation, money or otherwise to get OriginPC to badmouth AMD. Maybe, just maybe, AMD really botched handling one of their customers? I know it sounds impossible, but just maybe.

Nope. Any time a company doesn't play nice with AMD, it is because Nvidia payed them. Any time a company doesn't place nice with NV, it is because they suck! And besides, AMD can barely keep the lights on, how could they afford to pay off people to bad mouth NV?

 

[OCGuy]

Not good news.

 

[NIGELG]

LOL at who happens to be in favour of this tactic.....

 

[Keysplayr]

LOL at who happens to be in favour of this tactic.....

You shouldn't laugh at others for having opinions of their own.
AFAIK, nobody is laughing at you for your stance.

 

[blackened23]

LOL at who happens to be in favour of this tactic.....

Dude, we get it. Nvidia employees, focus group etc etc etc. I don't really think pointing this out incessantly has any substance or anything interesting about it. Go the CPU subforum and you'll see the exact opposite situation, it's pretty hilarious. Anyway, I'm personally more interested in posts with substance instead of continually doing...what you're doing. Even if it's an argumentative tone, posts with substance are interesting to read. This isn't. No offense or anything.

 

[Lonyo]

You shouldn't laugh at others for having opinions of their own.
AFAIK, nobody is laughing at you for your stance.

Most people are of the opinion that Origin handled it badly.
Whatever actually happened, it appears that it was dodgy. Irrelevant whether it was true or not, since people have now got a negative opinion of Origin, so it backfired for them based on what the majority are saying, such as "I will not buy Origin".

And when one of the guys in charge says one of the problems with AMD was "overheating", well, now I REALLY want to buy their products. Because it seems like they are well built.

 

[Skurge]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7405/maingear-prepping-r9290x-desktop-systems

Origin Sour?

 

[Lonyo]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7405/maingear-prepping-r9290x-desktop-systems

Origin Sour?

They already basically said they were sour because AMD wasn't paying them as much attention as they wanted.

 

[Keysplayr]

Most people are of the opinion that Origin handled it badly.
Whatever actually happened, it appears that it was dodgy. Irrelevant whether it was true or not, since people have now got a negative opinion of Origin, so it backfired for them based on what the majority are saying, such as "I will not buy Origin".

And when one of the guys in charge says one of the problems with AMD was "overheating", well, now I REALLY want to buy their products. Because it seems like they are well built.

Hehe Lonyo, the only people who have formed a negative opinion toward Origin are AMD loyalists. Otherwise who would care? I mean is it really any kind of "big whoop" to a neutral party? I should think not. And the thing of it is, OriginPC can still build AMD rigs if they want to.
The only thing that was dodgy was the CEO using this as a publicity stunt. Yeah, he could have handled it better, but chose a more controversial approach. Positive or negative, attention is still attention and the more AMD loyalists kick and scream about it, the more he gets. Keep that in mind.

 

[bittermann]

When did Nvidia change their name to OriginPC?

 

[Grooveriding]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7405/maingear-prepping-r9290x-desktop-systems

Origin Sour?

Haha. Hopefully a good supply of diapers for the Origin CEO was part of the payoff for the failed PR attempt.

 

[Teizo]

LOL at who happens to be in favour of this tactic.....

Sure, and even if Nvidia offered them incentive to get an exclusive deal....how the heck do you think AMD got the exclusive deals for both consoles? You think there wasn't a bidding war? AMD just went lower than Nvidia was willing to, so they pulled out.

 

[Keysplayr]

Haha. Hopefully a good supply of diapers for the Origin CEO was part of the payoff for the failed PR attempt.

I can't believe you think it failed. It was a raging success! A mountain of publicity. Probably more than that CEO ever expected.

 

[Keysplayr]

Sure, and even if Nvidia offered them incentive to get an exclusive deal....how the heck do you think AMD got the exclusive deals for both consoles? You think there wasn't a bidding war? AMD just went lower than Nvidia was willing to, so they pulled out.

Was it ever determined that Nvidia or any other parties even put in a bid for the consoles? I mean, was AMD the only bidders? Anyway, this is OT.

 

[Teizo]

Was it ever determined that Nvidia or any other parties even put in a bid for the consoles? I mean, was AMD the only bidders? Anyway, this is OT.

Nvidia passed on its hardware being used in the PlayStation 4 due to the "opportunity cost."

"I'm sure there was a negotiation that went on," Tony Tamasi, Senior VP of content and technology at Nvidia told GameSpot, "and we came to the conclusion that we didn't want to do the business at the price those guys were willing to pay."

"Having been through the original Xbox and PS3, we understand the economics of [console development] and the tradeoffs."

"We're building a whole bunch of stuff," continued Tamasi, "and we had to look at console business as an opportunity cost. If we say, did a console, what other piece of our business would we put on hold to chase after that?"

"In the end, you only have so many engineers and so much capability, and if you're going to go off and do chips for Sony or Microsoft, then that's probably a chip that you're not doing for some other portion of your business. And at least in the case of Sony and Nvidia, in terms of PS4, AMD has the business and Nvidia doesn't. We'll see how that plays out from a business perspective I guess. It's clearly not a technology thing."

I guess so? And no, I don't think it is off topic. I just think certain people take a blind eye to AMD doing what a 'business' does as long as Nvidia is on the short end. If it's the other way around, it's all out war. Pretty dang sad, really. But, it is what it is. Got to love freedom of speech. The -insert blank- make themselves easily seen that way.

 

[railven]

I guess so? And no, I don't think it is off topic. I just think certain people take a blind eye to AMD doing what a 'business' does as long as Nvidia is on the short end. If it's the other way around, it's all out war. Pretty dang sad, really. But, it is what it is. Got to love freedom of speech. The -insert blank- make themselves easily seen that way.

Sure, that's obvious. In every thread, on almost every forum.

AMD fans booo NV news.
NV fans booo AMD news.

Even in this thread, you can see who's all rah-rah versus sour grapes. Ironically, there is one thing almost everyone agrees on - it seems the PR Stunt had more negative fanfare than positive. The one guy claiming it's a runaway success probably has a Battle Box tracking number for his support.

Go figure, people take sides. Glad you're here to point it out.

 

[KingFatty]

We should believe what the Origin PC guy says, but it would be awesome if he waits for the discussion to reach a peak, and then drops a bomb on us by releasing the actual interaction he had with AMD showing he was right all along.

This guy could be a raving lunatic, but if he offers a system I'm interested in at a decent price I might buy from him just because I could look at that system and think back at how I became a part of history, and that system represented buying from a company that generated a giant thread on Anandtech, I mean it broke over 20 pages worth of comments!

 

[Keysplayr]

We should believe what the Origin PC guy says, but it would be awesome if he waits for the discussion to reach a peak, and then drops a bomb on us by releasing the actual interaction he had with AMD showing he was right all along.

This guy could be a raving lunatic, but if he offers a system I'm interested in at a decent price I might buy from him just because I could look at that system and think back at how I became a part of history, and that system represented buying from a company that generated a giant thread on Anandtech, I mean it broke over 20 pages worth of comments!

You just esploded mah sarcasm detector!! I am billing you!!