EA Blames Dragon Age 2 Disappearance on Valve

[Sgt Pepper]

Also, IMO, I think that it's a lot much better and easier to sell DLC through Steam instead of selling it from your own.

I agree, I'm gonna pick up the DA2 Legacy DLC soon and whilst, in the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal buying DA2 DLC is more cumbersome than buying through Steam.

Buying Exiled Prince wasn't the most monumental task ever but it was no where near a smooth an experience as picking up the Fallout: New Vegas DLCs on Steam, which was a straightforward and seamless process.

Seriously EA, I'd pay a pound or 2 extra for the DLCs if they were on Steam!

 

[42]

well to look at it from a side that isn't EA hater, from a purely business perspective EA selling a games DLC directly through the game is taking away a cut of the money Valve would normally have when it's on offer through their store. I always thoughy DLC was Steam's strongest point as you don't have to dig around for it, you just have to go to the games store page, and when it's tied to your account, it automatically becomes apart of the game. which saves time from having to re-download them seperately if you un-install a game and want to play it later. Unfortunately EA if we look at it from a conspiracy perspective, they would probably would have violated the terms on purpose, so it could you know help their newly launched Origin service. In all honesty Steam is great as it just does everything right. Multiplayer is fantastic on steam, and i'd say that it's a better DRM then any stupid thing EA or any other publisher can come up with.

 

[manythings]

Valve basically imposes a "We're the only ones to digitally sell this high profile product" clause. It's not a new concept.

This is demonstrably false. Tons of games launch simultaneously on D2D, Onlive, Gamer's Gate and Steam.

The DLC thing says otherwise. Buy with Valve or fuck you is the message.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Can anyone be sure it just wasn't a matter of good taste in games on Valve's part? I know if I operated a digital distribution platform for games I'd insist that weren't stagnant piles of maggot covered dog shit before offering to sell them. Sadly, Dragon Age 2 wouldn't make the cut in that case as to call it a pile of maggot covered dog shit would be giving both maggots and dog shit a huge disservice.

Meanwhile Steam carries FFXI. L4D2 (Which we all seem to have forgotten, had even less additions than the average present day iteration of a CoD game. Ohhhh, melee weapons and new maps! That isn't just DLC! That deserves a $50 release!). Champions Online, which was like City of Heroes, but worse in every way except customization. New Vegas, which was the one of the buggiest games ever. Black Ops. MW2. F3AR. Fable III. Nancy Drew games. Hunted: The Demon's Forge. And just many, many more absolutely fantastic games! But no no, you're SOOOO right.

To be honest, I was searching for a post like this, because I knew somebody would make it and I knew it would be the most asinine thing ever. Wouldn't you believe it? I was right on both counts!

 

[ResonanceGames]

Valve basically imposes a "We're the only ones to digitally sell this high profile product" clause. It's not a new concept.

This is demonstrably false. Tons of games launch simultaneously on D2D, Onlive, Gamer's Gate and Steam.

The DLC thing says otherwise. Buy with Valve or fuck you is the message.

No, that's the message you parsed from some vague statements made by EA.

There are plenty of other companies selling DLC for Steam games outside of Steam that aren't in violation of the TOS and haven't been kicked off. I presented a pretty realistic scenario of what probably happened earlier in the thread. You're jumping to conclusions with very little evidence.

 

[TheGuy(wantstobe)]

In all seriousness though EA are trying to fob this off on Valve not letting them sell DLC through the game and not via the Steam store. The unfortunate thing for them is that games such as DiRT 3 do this and have not been pulled so it is no more than them trying to compete with Steam not through offering a better service but by being the biggest douches possible.

 

[winter2]

I find it curious that Valve have not commented on this at all. Or did I miss something?

Like hey.. I like Steam and all (Have close to 300 games there) but this apparent silence makes me wonder if Valve might have some dirty hands in this.

 

[TheGuy(wantstobe)]

Valve basically imposes a "We're the only ones to digitally sell this high profile product" clause. It's not a new concept.

This is demonstrably false. Tons of games launch simultaneously on D2D, Onlive, Gamer's Gate and Steam.

The DLC thing says otherwise. Buy with Valve or fuck you is the message.

And yet DiRT 3 as a very recent example sells it's DLC exclusively through Live and ingame and Valve has no problem with this. This is EA looking for an excuse to pull content and not seem like massive dicks and it's failing miserably.

 

[manythings]

Valve basically imposes a "We're the only ones to digitally sell this high profile product" clause. It's not a new concept.

This is demonstrably false. Tons of games launch simultaneously on D2D, Onlive, Gamer's Gate and Steam.

The DLC thing says otherwise. Buy with Valve or fuck you is the message.

No, that's the message you parsed from some vague statements made by EA.

There are plenty of other companies selling DLC for Steam games outside of Steam that aren't in violation of the TOS and haven't been kicked off. I presented a pretty realistic scenario of what probably happened earlier in the thread. You're jumping to conclusions with very little evidence.

No that's the message from Valve. When Dragon Age came out it was fine until Awakening came out, because if you bought it DA:O from Valve then you had to buy awakening from them. No other option. Same with any franchise, you either buy it all from them or you can go to hell.

 

[LordFisheh]

Ugh... if this is an Origin ploy. I can't stand origin for he simple reason that I want all my games and friends in one place. That's what Steam does. All my games are on it. All my friends have it.

Any competition has to offer a big improvement over Steam to compete with that. If there are two services like that, both very similar, then the older one will win because it's already ingrained; everybody already has their 'stuff' on it. Trying to force the issue through exclusivity just strikes me as a cheap shot, and faintly anti-competitive.

 

[manythings]

Valve basically imposes a "We're the only ones to digitally sell this high profile product" clause. It's not a new concept.

This is demonstrably false. Tons of games launch simultaneously on D2D, Onlive, Gamer's Gate and Steam.

The DLC thing says otherwise. Buy with Valve or fuck you is the message.

And yet DiRT 3 as a very recent example sells it's DLC exclusively through Live and ingame and Valve has no problem with this. This is EA looking for an excuse to pull content and not seem like massive dicks and it's failing miserably.

Umm... Yeah... really over-priced DLC that they get a cut of is clearly evidence they aren't cutting a publisher out of their service.

 

[Antari]

Sorry EA ... as much as you might try to make Valve seem like the bad guy here. We all know your far far worse. Even if Valve did impose restrictions on their game. I don't much care. I don't support EA in any way.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Perhaps its because Dragon age accesses the DLC from in game and Steam didn't like that becuase they couldn't offer deals and suchlike.

Not to say EA aren't being shady but that's a possibility I guess.

 

[Waaghpowa]

EA, you accepted the ToS when you signed up your games on Steam. Valve retains the rights to make changes to these terms at any time, without telling you, and without your consent. You violated them, Valve removed your games.

This is basically my first thought, you agreed to a contract. Next time, actually read it or say no if you don't like it.

 

[ResonanceGames]

Valve basically imposes a "We're the only ones to digitally sell this high profile product" clause. It's not a new concept.

This is demonstrably false. Tons of games launch simultaneously on D2D, Onlive, Gamer's Gate and Steam.

The DLC thing says otherwise. Buy with Valve or fuck you is the message.

And yet DiRT 3 as a very recent example sells it's DLC exclusively through Live and ingame and Valve has no problem with this. This is EA looking for an excuse to pull content and not seem like massive dicks and it's failing miserably.

Umm... Yeah... really over-priced DLC that they get a cut of is clearly evidence they aren't cutting a publisher out of their service.

They do not get a cut of sales of DLC that do not go through the Steam store. DiRT 3 DLC is not sold in the Steam store so they do not get a cut. I would have thought the word "exclusive" would have tipped you off to this but you are even more literally challenged than the average internet denizen.

This guy has clearly made up his mind that big, bad Valve is just trying to force everyone to use their platform, despite the fact that only EA seems to have been affected by the TOS changes (which, again, were made to accommodate third party free-to-play games). There's no arguing with willful obstinance.

Unfortunately, we'll probably never hear from Valve about this because there's a good chance that their own TOS and contracts with their clients forbid discussing the details of these things publicly.

No great loss either way, if I REALLY want to play an EA game I still can. It would just be nice to not have to give my personal info and credit card number to yet another online store for "safekeeping."

 

[Vrach]

What "restrictive terms of service" was there exactly that prevents download off of Steam? I've got to call BS on EA on this part. It cannot possibly be purchasing downloadable content in-game, because many other games allow that including the just added new set of Free-2-Play titles that Valve ENCOURAGES!

It's not a problem of allowing it, it's a problem of taking a cut out of DLC. The other games on there are likely happy to pay 'tax' to Steam for selling their virtual content - why else do you think Valve took the F2P titles on board?

If you sell the DLC outside the game, you sell it as an item. See for example, Battlefield Vietnam. Steam can take a cut out of that. However, when DLC is sold through the game itself, there is no need for Steam to play any role in it - as it's not the digital distributor in that case, it's sold the game and the game handles the transactions from there on.

Valve has likely put in a clause that any game selling DLC through it must pay tribute to Valve for having sold the game. Which, if anything, makes Valve the money grubbers here, not EA. Although, in reality, there is 0 need to demonize either company, they're both just doing business and in the right, it's just not surprising at all that EA is unwilling to take such a ridiculous deal, considering they don't need the promotion the other, less popular titles do.

 

[Spawny0908]

You know, this whole Origin vs Steam, EA vs Valve thing is one of the few times I'm glad to be a lowely console player. I don't have to worry about where I will get my games.

EDIT: I'm not anti-PC gaming at all. I'm just saying that "Not having to deal with DD services is a plus for me"

Hear Hear! Lowly console players UNITE!

*I'm also not anti-PC*