In my opinion, Steam is awesome.  Why?  Because Valve is awesome.  I don’t often use it, but when I do, I’ve had zero issues with the service.  Plus they have rockin’ sales in which you often can score many games for cheap.  Well, EA wants a piece of the digital-market pie, and will soon be competing with Steam with their own digital download service – EA Origin.  Launching later this year, 150 games will be made available.  More details will be announced at E3, but check out what GameSpot has to report:

According to the Journal, Origin will function like Steam, insofar that it will let gamers directly purchase, download, and organize PC titles. The service will start out with a catalog over 150 offerings when it launches, and will be the sole online purveyor of Star Wars: The Old Republic when that game goes online (presumably) later this year. The publisher is reportedly hoping the exclusive availability of the eagerly awaited sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing game will boost the nascent service’s popularity.

We already know EA’s track record with their games – buggy and poor patches if any.  I honestly don’t trust them with their own service, think I’ll be staying far, far away for this one.