Mass Effect 3 Gives Steam a Miss at Launch

[Logan Westbrook]

Mass Effect 3 Gives Steam a Miss at Launch

EA blames Valve for Mass Effect 3 not appearing on Steam.

It seems that the spat between EA and Valve over Steam is still going strong, as Mass Effect 3 [http://www.amazon.com/Mass-Effect-3-Xbox-360/dp/B004FYEZMQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1326587274&sr=8-2] will not appear on the service when the game launches on March 6th. Writing on the BioWare forums [http://social.bioware.com/forums/forum/Mass-Effect-3/Mass-Effect-3-General-Discussion/Origin-and-Mass-Effect-3-8975536-1.html], community co-ordinator Chris Priestly said that while ME3 would be available on certain third party download platforms, Steam would not be one of them.

The blame is once again being laid at Valve's door, with Priestly saying that Steam's restrictive policies regarding downloadable content and interaction with customers. He didn't say that the game would never be available on Steam, but implied that Valve would have to change its policy before that could happen.

"During initial release Mass Effect 3 will be available on Origin and a number of other 3rd party digital retailers, but not on Steam at this time," he wrote. "Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content. We are intent on providing Mass Effect to players with the best possible experience no matter where they purchase or play their game, and are happy to partner with any download service that does not restrict our ability to connect directly with our consumers."

Priestly also made it clear that Origin would be necessary to play the game on the PC, regardless of where the copy of the game had been bought. "Mass Effect 3 will require a one time, single authorization for the single player game. There is no limit to the number of installs. Playing Mass Effect 3 multiplayer will require a constant connection ... Origin is required for the PC versions of Mass Effect 3, both physical and digital."


Mass Effect 3 comes out for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on March 6th.

Source: Ripten [http://www.ripten.com/2012/01/14/mass-effect-3-for-pc-will-not-be-available-on-steam/]

Permalink

 

[scotth266]

"Restrictive terms of service"? Baloney, you just don't want to hand a competitor a AAA title/pay them their cut for the DLC. And physical copies require it too?

I don't have as big a problem with Origin as some folks, but this is a joke of a press release.

 

[Tony2077]

meh i wasn't planning to buy it from steam anyway so this doesn't change a thing

 

[Evilsanta]

Required to have Origin? Screw that.

Sorry Bioware, You just lost a sale.

 

[Jellly]

"Playing Mass Effect 3 multiplayer will require a constant connection."

Well there's plenty of other games to play anyway, looks like ME3 can wait.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Oh, so they don't like that Steam will stop them from rolling out buggy patches? Really, because after the number of updates that killed the Sims 3 for me I'd like Valve to stop and make sure it works beforehand. The Sims 3 on Steam was always behind in terms of patches, but that was for a good reason EA.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Whatever. EA's still a prick, and Bioware isn't what it used to be. At least Steam would let me pay money directly towards DLC, instead of buying redundant Bioware Points with which to buy stuff.

I also enjoy how for games like New Vegas, Steam downloads the DLC when updating your game, so that all you need to do is pay and then boom, DLC is right there. No need to download, because you already did.

 

[Igen]

"connect directly with our consumers." "restrictive terms of service" "limit how developers interact with customers"

Notice the wording. There was a huge uproar a short while back about the wording in the Origin terms of service; And concern that EA through Origin would be monitoring activity that people would prefer not be tracked or information spread/sold. EA doesn?t want to use steam because it restricts EA's ability to disturb customer privacy.

 

[ShaneGunWolf]

This is coming from the company that pioneered online passes that keep people from playing online unless they buy the game NEW.

SENSE! EA MAKES NONE!

 

[anthony87]

"Playing Mass Effect 3 multiplayer will require a constant connection."

Well there's plenty of other games to play anyway, looks like ME3 can wait.

But...if the multiplayer is online wouldn't you NEED a constant connection to...y'know, stay connected?

 

[Sylveria]

yeah... since this is EA we're talking about, all i'm hearing is "waaah! valve won't let us spy on our customers!"

This, and I'm sure there's probably some underhanded stuff going on with those "patches" and "DLC"

Like someone else said, I don't see many other companies making these claims about Steam.. just the one with their own distribution platform that may or may not be datamining your PC for information to sell.

 

[Waaghpowa]

"Mass Effect 3 will require a one time, single authorization for the single player game.

Now does that mean I can run the game without starting Origin after the first time? If so, who cares if I have Origin? I'd never need to run it again.

 

[Irridium]

EA/Bioware is complaining about restrictive terms.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HA

If they really cared about their customers, they would put out ME3 with no third party "service" attached to it. No Origin, no Steam, no DRM, no nothing. Just the game.

And from what I know from their whole spat a while ago, it was because Steam requires DLC for Steam games to be sold on Steam. Meaning EA wouldn't be able to sell us DLC through their websites using their stupid-ass "Bioware points".

I mean hell, EA seems just fine with putting out shit-loads of Sims 3 DLC, not sure why it's such a problem with ME3.

EDIT: Hm, from what others have been telling me, it seems Steam just requires DLC to be sold through Steam in addition to other places. So essentially, they can sell the DLC however/wherever they want, they just need to be selling it on Steam as well.

And if this is the case, EA's reasoning is even dumber.

 

[Michael Zipp]

They do realize they will probably lose sales to this right? I'm sick of companies like EA. Valve and Steam work wonderfully, why go away from that? I'm more likely to pirate the game and find a way to send money straight to Bioware now. Even if it's a damn check in the mail.


I also give it 2-3 days tops before the internet finds a way to crack ME3 to run without Origin.

 

[Bantis]

I haven't used Origin for anything yet. So if you don't need a constant connection for single player but you do need Origin does that mean Origin pretty much acts as the game launcher like the uplay "front-end" for ac: revelations? I take it Origins has content ads and update notices like the ME2 launcher? Just curious.

 

[MercurySteam]

"Mass Effect 3 will require a one time, single authorization for the single player game.

Now does that mean I can run the game without starting Origin after the first time? If so, who cares if I have Origin? I'd never need to run it again.

As long as you're only playing SP then I'm sure you could get away with running Origin once then setting it to offline mode any time you want to launch the game after that. Because ME3 'requires' Origin you'd probably still need to run Origin but if you only wanted SP then you could just run in offline mode after you activate it.

 

[Richardplex]

yeah... since this is EA we're talking about, all i'm hearing is "waaah! valve won't let us spy on our customers!"

I'm glad you came to remind us all that, even if that is not mentioned here. I'll watch your latest comments to see you no doubt discuss butterflies on the next SOPA news piece.

 

[Korten12]

"Playing Mass Effect 3 multiplayer will require a constant connection."

Well there's plenty of other games to play anyway, looks like ME3 can wait.

But...if the multiplayer is online wouldn't you NEED a constant connection to...y'know, stay connected?

I was about to say that. Obviouslly multiplayer will require a constant connection. I can't go on BF3 or MW3 play a match while not connected online.

 

[AMAZED]

I don't know enough about origin to say anything about it, but that seems like a stupid decision to make it in the first place. All the things happening as a result are getting them bad sales and worse press.