How is Multiplayer and achievement tracking done with Steam and Origin?
I bought a bundle (the HumbleBundle), and it provided me with codes for the game on both Steam and Origin. I activated all the codes successfully on both clients, but I was wondering:
If I play a game (say, Medal of Honor) online, how will it track my stats? It won't matter if I start it through Origin or through Steam, right?
If I play a campaign and get achievements, and make progress, will that matter between Origin or Steam?
The games included in the bundle were:
- Dead Space™
- Burnout™ Paradise: The Ultimate Box
- Crysis® 2: Maximum Edition
- Mirror's Edge
- Dead Space™ 3
- Medal of Honor™
- Battlefield 3™
- The Sims™ 3 + Starter Pack
Edit: Since the answer seems to be "depends on game", I'm most interested in the Multiplayer save data for Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3. Please add specifics based on those games, if possible.
I would highly recommend choosing one or the other. As Raven Dreamer said, they do not share between each other. For some like Medal of Honor where your multiplayer loadouts and statistics are saved on a server, you could do either one, but only for multiplayer. Singleplayer is saved in each individual client.
Finally, there isn't much point in having the game installed twice on your machine. I personally activated everything I could on Steam and only activated Origin exclusives on Origin.
Steam and Origin are separate services. They do not share saves, statistics, or achievements.
Multiplayer is potentially handled differently based on the game, but for anything with a dedicated server, it shouldn't matter what client you connect from.
So if you're interested in keeping track of your stats, stick to one service over the other.
We have to differentiate here between Games that are on Steam and Origin and Games that use your Origin/EA ID in the game.
Games that are sold on Steam and Origin do not share any data, except if there is a third system in place, e.g. same leaderboards for both versions. But only the Steam Version can unlock Steam Achievements and only the Origin Version can unlock Origin Achievements ( which exist in the current Origin Beta ).
EA Games however, are a bit of a different matter. Some EA Games, like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, use EA's own System to track your progress and Achievements and also save in a neutral place, not within Steam's folders for Steam Cloud.
So for example, Dead Space and Dragon Age are using the same files, no matter what service you use and your progress and achievements are the same, no matter which service you use to play it.
The same applies to multiplayer stats. If they are saved online in a place where the game can access them from both services and not within the Steamworks System, then the game can access them no matter what service is used.
SN: I can even launch Dragon Age through Origin even though I bought it on Steam since it got automatically added to my Origin Account when I logged into that within the game and Origin does recognize the installation under Steam.
So the answer to this question really highly depends on the game you are using.