Valve and EA: Mending fences (Time for wild speculation)

[GeorgW]

I saw this coming when I saw Kingdoms of Amalur on Steam. I figure EA finally realised that Steam brings in just too much money to be arrogant enough to not have their games there. That's great.

Something tells me Battlefield 3 still isn't going to show up on steam though since it requires Origin to start the game up. Kind of unfortunate, because I would have been willing to buy it over steam.

Don't be so sure, Steam has games that require other services to use, such as certain Ubisoft games.

 

[The Mighty Stove]

So... just seen this today, ah what the hell, here.

 

[Xanadu84]

I wonder how many people actually know why EA's games were removed from Steam?

It is because
1. Steam changed its DLC policy to were all DLC must be sold through Steam
2. EA likes to sell it's DLC through its own store, via in-game adverts on their game's launchers.

Neither side was more greedy then the other, forcing game companies to sell their DLC through Steam makes Valve big cash, they just had different versions of how to manage thier greed.

Crysis 2 came back because
1. It has ALL THE CONTENT in the pack
2. No new content is going to be made

thus allowing it to side-step the "all DLC must be sold through Steam" thing by putting all the DLC with the purchase.

EA's other games could come back under similar "ALL IN 1" bundles in the future, but that will only be after all the DLC is out for awhile.

Not knocking it, it's a solid theory, however, what is your source for knowing 1) That Valve requires all DLC to be handled through Steam and 2) That this is indeed the reason why Crysis was pulled and then put back? Is this the hard facts I'm hoping for, or the wild speculation im mullung over?

If true, I'm encouraged. I prefer Steam by a long shot, and if I need to wait, no big deal. Kind of sucks, but its not as maddening as being strong armed onto Origin.

 

[Irridium]

I wonder how many people actually know why EA's games were removed from Steam?

It is because
1. Steam changed its DLC policy to were all DLC must be sold through Steam

Not quite.

You can still sell DLC through whatever means you want, but if the game is on Steam the DLC must also be on Steam in addition to other places. Fallout 3, for example, has its DLC available to buy through GFWL and Steam.

All EA would have to do to keep their games on Steam is to put their DLC's on Steam in addition to their stores, launchers, websites, or whatever.

 

[NathLines]

Lolnope. Valve and EA argued about DLC. That right there is the complete edition of the game. No more DLC is getting made. EA wants to sell DLC themselves. So, unless they publish a game that isn't going to receive any DLC, Steam most likely get their hands on it. It's worse with Bioware's games. Can someone tell me if the DLC for their games ever go down in price/sale?

 

[SajuukKhar]

Not knocking it, it's a solid theory, however, what is your source for knowing 1) That Valve requires all DLC to be handled through Steam and 2) That this is indeed the reason why Crysis was pulled and then put back? Is this the hard facts I'm hoping for, or the wild speculation im mullung over?

If true, I'm encouraged. I prefer Steam by a long shot, and if I need to wait, no big deal. Kind of sucks, but its not as maddening as being strong armed onto Origin.

It was from articles way back when this whole mess started

One of the biggest things mentioned was how Steam changed its DLC policy, and that is why stuff was removed, but people were to busy going "YEP ITS ALL AN EA SUPERSCAM TO PROMOTE ORIGIN THEY NEED TO BURN" to read the entire article.

I could try to find some archived article about it if you want...

Not quite.

You can still sell DLC through whatever means you want, but if the game is on Steam the DLC must also be on Steam in addition to other places. Fallout 3, for example, has its DLC available to buy through GFWL and Steam.

All EA would have to do to keep their games on Steam is to put their DLC's on Steam in addition to their stores, launchers, websites, or whatever.

That is why I said "through Steam", not "only through Steam".

I understand why valve would want it that way, but at the same time I dont think any company should be forced to sell its DLC through Steam or else gets its game removed.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Perhaps they realized that Origin's service was shit compared to Steam, so they're trying to recoup losses by releasing on both platforms again?

And thus, was Resonance's prophecy made the day of Origin's launch proved true.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

So... just seen this today, ah what the hell, here.

I saw that, too, and it reminded me more about the whole publisher/developer relationship in the entire gaming industry than just EA's soul-devouring shenanigans.

Still true about EA, though.