Dragon Age 2 Disappears From Steam

[Irridium]

After going through a few forums concerning this I found that a lot of people are blaming either EA or Valve, but from what I gathered its both of their faults for this cause.

Why both? From what I understand Valve released a new policy regarding DLC that companies that have their games on their services require them to have the DLC available to consumers through Steam and not their independent stores. Meaning, the new DLC content Dragon Age 2 release was available on Bioware's stores but not Steams. Which EA did not follow that said policy. So in response Valve removed the game. From the date the policy was put into effect this DLC did not follow the conditions of being placed onto their services.

Because the older games, (Mass Effect 2, etc) that were placed into Valves provider was there before the policy was put into effect they fall under the grandfather effect. They are protected unless a new DLC for Mass Effect 2 comes out soon, then that game is breaching the agreement.

So whose fault is it? Sure you can point fingers to Valve for instating this policy, or removing the game because it breached the policy agreement or you can you point fingers at EA for breaching that policy, for putting their DLC on their site and not providing a DLC for Steams.

But the way I see it in the end it is both companies faults. In the end their actions from both sides of the fence are affecting their consumers which in itself is rather sad because if they all worked together things could just be easier for others.

Also as a added note, Crysis 2 was affected by this same policy as I understand it.

Well ain't that just peachy.

On one hand I'm glad for Valve calling out EA on their damn in-game stores and wanting them to remove the things.

On the other hand I'm not exactly hot on Valve telling publishers to do things Valve's way or GTFO. But I guess that's business...

Just sad that now EA games won't be on Steam so they can be bought during Valve's epic sales of awesome. Sales that EA will NEVER do. How do I know? Because they're EA and providing the customer with good deals seems alien to them if their past/present actions are to be considered.

Did you know that EA/Origin had a summer "sale" of their own? Neither did I. Apparently the prices were still 5x that of what Steam offered during their sales.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Too those quoted and others blaming EA for this: This was a decision made by Valve to pull the title not EA.

First of all, no blame.
Secondly, I assume you have a reliable source for this? One you've not wished to share?

Wrong. Patently wrong sir.

Patently an opinion, therefore unlikely to be patently wrong.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

This is not smart EA, the ones who really suffer for this are your customers and alienating your customers is never a good ides.

 

[jFr[e]ak93]

EA will regret it... Wonder if ME3 wll be on steam..

It better be! I got 1 and 2 through Steam and I don't plan on getting 3 any other way.

 

[Xanadu84]

As I see it, this is simple. I was considering buying DA2. Now I'm not. I was definitely going to buy Battlefield. Now I'm not. Why? Because I don't want to deal with another platform complicating things. I am not alone in this. This little turf war isn't going to do anything except lose you customers.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

I have to say, I really wished EA DLC was available through Steam.

I wanna get the new DA2 DLC, which I will, but I find it stupid that I go to the site, get told I have no Bioware points, get sent to buy Bioware points then finally I get to buy the DLC with those points, after which I get to DL it.

Compare this to buying Old World Blues for Fallout: New Vegas - a much smoother experience. Add to cart, enter Paypal password and a couple more clicks and the game is updating itself with the DLC.

Seriously, if the DLC thing is the issue between Steam and EA then the latter should just go with it, really, it would be a much better system imo.

 

[Irridium]

As I see it, this is simple. I was considering buying DA2. Now I'm not. I was definitely going to buy Battlefield. Now I'm not. Why? Because I don't want to deal with another platform complicating things. I am not alone in this. This little turf war isn't going to do anything except lose you customers.

It's especially funny since they want to beat MW3.

Apparently the best way to do that is to not put the game on the biggest DD service with the largest customer base. Why do this? Because they want their own special store in the game.

Idiots.

 

[merck88]

I haven't used their origins service yet, but if their ea and bioware social accounts and services are any indication, i will not be using it. If I'm going to need origins for ME3, I'm going to seriously reconsider whether I actually purchase it or not. Does anyone know what change steam made to it's tou that prompted this?

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I wish they'd get over this business.

Not distributing EA games through Steam doesn't help the customer one bit, and I don't see how it helps either Valve or EA.

Well, of course the point is that EA wants to hurt Valve, at least from a marketing stand point. Since EA has started up it's own game play platform to compete with Steam, in a way, it really isn't a smart business decision for EA to keep it's products on the Steam market. People are comfortable with Steam, and if EA has it's products on Steam, consumers are going to go with the easy route and buy the game on Steam instead of going to Origin. Now that EA is taking it's games off Steam, people have only the choice of going to the store and buying the game, buying it and delivering it via Amazon or some other site, or buy and download from Origin.

With the alarming amount of people these days that don't care or want to own physical copies of their games, I willing to bet there will be plenty of people that will cave and get EA games from Origin if they don't already have it on Steam.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

I really EA is either telling a lie or only a half truth.

Where does it say that a game cannot be on other services? Loads of games are on those others, INCLUDING the Orange Box, VALVE'S own game.

 

[Azev2000]

People claiming they will not purchase a game because of an additional download service are bogus. You want to hear the best thing about Origin? YOU can run all installed games without the ORIGIN SERVICE even running. Put all your eggs in one basket and it will just be more tears when some hacker decides to screw up your account.

 

[viranimus]

Will it result in either company applying proper ownership rights to content they sell? No? Then this really doesnt matter to me. Let them pummel each other into oblivion.

 

[Bodyless]

So people are calling EA idiots because EA uses the same means that Valve used to create steams monopoly which they love so much? Or did you see any Valve game in any other DD shop?
At least Origin is not required to play their games nor does it force you to update your game which could break your savegames or mods.

 

[Epona]

Meh, let EA have their tantrums. DA isn't even that good.

I'm all for letting EA look like the jerk again, not that they need much assistance -- and DA never floated my boat either. I just hope this little ripple isn't the start of a massive tsunami of cloud-based BS, or that soon we'll all be looking back dreamily on the days when we actually owned the applications we use.

You never have owned the applications, you just bought the right to use them.

Wrong, you always owned it until publishers started using the internet to force full price rentals. As an example. I have 3 copies of Super Mario 64, the N64 version which is on a cartridge that I own and can do anything I like with. The Wii Virtual Console version which is extremely limited, I can't even play it on my second Wii and finally the DS version which is on a card and I can do anything I like with it.

 

[Epona]

So people are calling EA idiots because EA uses the same means that Valve used to create steams monopoly which they love so much? Or did you see any Valve game in any other DD shop?
At least Origin is not required to play their games nor does it force you to update your game which could break your savegames or mods.

Good point. If it's wrong for Valve to do it though, it's wrong for EA to do it and it is wrong because monopolies are wrong.

 

[aashell13]

thanks EA for making it easier for me to not buy any of your stuff.

*rounds of applause*

 

[thedarkfreak]

Meh, let EA have their tantrums. DA isn't even that good.

I'm all for letting EA look like the jerk again, not that they need much assistance -- and DA never floated my boat either. I just hope this little ripple isn't the start of a massive tsunami of cloud-based BS, or that soon we'll all be looking back dreamily on the days when we actually owned the applications we use.

You never have owned the applications, you just bought the right to use them.

Wrong, you always owned it until publishers started using the internet to force full price rentals. As an example. I have 3 copies of Super Mario 64, the N64 version which is on a cartridge that I own and can do anything I like with. The Wii Virtual Console version which is extremely limited, I can't even play it on my second Wii and finally the DS version which is on a card and I can do anything I like with it.

Sorry, but you're mistaken here. Even if you hold a physical copy of the game, the EULA prevents you from doing anything you like with it. Legally, you can do as much with it as you can a digital copy on a console/PC.

What he said was true; you have NEVER owned the software. The only thing you've ever purchased is a license to use the software.

 

[Plazmatic]

I think we may be seeing the beginning of the downfall of Steam. That sort of pisses me off too but that's the result of each publisher having their own download service, it sets up a sort of monopoly.

It's like if EA owned Target, they wouldn't want to sell their games at Wal Mart as that would compete against them.

Except target does not manufacture games, and this is not the downfall of steam, just the downfall of stocks over at EA, when share holders (like my self) see that they lose money with Origin.

Look unlike other products on the market, you cant exactly have any thing BUT a monopoly when it comes to things like steam. You have all your games on steam, you don't want to have another thing that only houses some of your games, that you have to boot up ALONG WITH STEAM or have the hassle to also close steam to run this digital distribution application, and then play those games, it simply isn't practical. No one wants 30 steam copy cats running at the same time.

Also Origin will always suck because it is run by a company with public investments, where as Valve is private, and doesn't give a shit what a bunch of people who just want to get a big return on their investments say, and will do the right thing, not the thing that fucks over the customer to make lots of money.

If EA owned Target then Target would manufacture games. Next time don't go outside the scope of an example to mount an argument against that example.

EA is a publisher at this point, it does not actually make the games, it buys up developers, who make the games and it publishes them out for platforms and advertisement. It doesn't even make the hard copies, it tells a manufacture to do that part.