EA Blames Dragon Age 2 Disappearance on Valve

[koroem]

I don't see the issue here EA, clearly you agreed to steams terms of service and knew you wasn't allowed to sell dlc inside the game, denying steam it´s share of the profit.

This is exactly why people should be questioning this shadiness. The terms of the distribution had to have been set before the deal was set into motion. Both Dragon Age 2 and Crysis 2 were on Steam, then pulled. Someone had to have breached contract for them to have been pulled.

The first question is who was it, and the second is why haven't legal actions been taken by either party? The bottom line is this hurts the customers and hurts competition. It really seems like deliberate action on EA's part to cut Steam out of their profits, and distribution even though they have some kind of deal.

I'm no Steam Fanboi, but I can certainly see problems abrewin for PC gamers...

 

[Danpascooch]

It's not a coincidence, it's EA looking for an excuse to pull their product and deal a blow to the goodwill Steam has generated by trying to blame them.

How do you know its not the other way around. Steam is pulling the products and knows that if it just shuts up on the whole subject its loyal fanboys will flock to its defence. Mabey they see origin as a threat and are trying to kill it off.

So.... how much they charge for a game automatically makes Valve innocent in taking Dragon Age 2 down? That's what I'm getting from that argument.

If he is using that logic just point out the fact that three quarters of the games on steam are priced higher then everywhere else.

Valve has never taken this position with any other games from publishers that utilize their own distribution network, also Valve has nothing to gain from pulling the games if they didn't break contract because if anything that HELPS EA since their network will be the only place to buy it, they certainly aren't going to get more profits that way.

 

[Omnific One]

Ea has the wool pulled over their eyes. PC gamers are by far the most informed gamers and about 95% of them use Steam (hardcore, that is). So when factor into account that many, if not most, Steam gamers use Steam exclusively (i.e. they won't even use D2D or other sites, just because they aren't Steam), why would they think that alienating that group entirely will make them more money? It's just ridiculous.

 

[synobal]

Seems kinda obvious, EA signed a contract with Valve when they decided to distribute their games through Steam, now that they have origin they are breaking the contract and shouting 'it's valves fault!' when they get pulled from steam. I mean what the hell seems kinda obvious to me it's your fault if you're breaking a contract. Trying to build negativity against valve and support for your Origin service by this childish behavior is just lame and shows how stupid you think your customers are EA.

Besides Dragon age 2 sucks, it's better for everyone if they just remove it from Origin as well.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

What "restrictive terms of service" was there exactly that prevents download off of Steam?

That's what everyone's asking. Until you come up with the goods EA, don't start this playground tattletale.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

EDIT: And all this seems eerily similar to the TF2 console situation don't it? Microsoft wanted Valve to charge console players for DLC for TF2. Valve said no and walked away with all of it. So now the PC version of TF2 gets showered with DLC on a monthly basis while the console versions haven't even seen a drop of it for years, and they're still the poster boy company that can do no wrong.

it's not similar, it's almost the opposite.

Valve gives their DLC for free, but microsoft doesn't allow free DLC. Valve doesn't think it's console users should have to pay for something their PC users get for free so they refuse to sell it.


I don't get why you'd get all angry and hateful because the company is trying to give you stuff for free. /shrugs

 

[ecoho]

ok this is BS and it will hurt BF2 when it comes out but if you think this is gonna hurt the sells of ME3 im sorry to inform you but most of its sells have always been on consoles and now its on 2 instead of 1 so they lose 500k purchases (if the entire pc market doesnt buy it over it and i have my doubts) they will still sell over 5 million the first week if its good (bioware i swear if you screw this up...)

 

[Micalas]

It's funny because despite it's issues, DA2 was superior in many ways to DA:O.

 

[tautologico]

steam is not a prophet of chirst (which the greater PC gaming community believes valve to be), if they do something questionable or bad it means they're just as fallible as any other game company!

It may very well be that Valve is "in the wrong" here (these are business decisions, not really right or wrong).

But don't you think it's fishy that only EA games (and only recent and well-sold ones) are being pulled out from Steam? I've bought plenty of DLC outside of steam for games I owned in Steam, like Mass Effect 2. In this thread many people mentioned examples of games that sell DLC outside of Steam. Yet no one else is complaining and pulling their games from Steam.

You accuse people of blindly following and defending Valve, but maybe you suffer from the reverse problem, and your hatred for Valve/Steam is clouding your judgment.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Snip

What are Valve's rules for publishing a game on Steam?

 

[TheDooD]

This is damn low even for EA...

 

[Wolfenbarg]

If the article is right and Valve wants a cut of the DLC that EA included in-game, it undermines Project 10 dollar and they were right to leave Steam. Why should you have to purchase DLC for a steam copy through Steam when you could get it directly from EA? They were both getting greedy, but EA is completely in the right here.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

If this were a problem for me which it's not i'd go out and buy a hard copy since i will never be going to Origins side.

 

[Continuity]

I think the only relevant question here is Why doesn't EA just comply with the Steam rules, whatever they are, they can't be that onerous and EA is just loosing sales by not being on Steam... the only answer to this question is that EA is quite happy not to be on Steam, otherwise they would make whatever little effort is required to comply with the steam rules.

Why is EA quite happy not to be on Steam? there is only one answer: Origin.

 

[Danpascooch]

Valve has never taken this position with any other games from publishers that utilize their own distribution network, also Valve has nothing to gain from pulling the games if they didn't break contract because if anything that HELPS EA since their network will be the only place to buy it, they certainly aren't going to get more profits that way.

You obviously are not very attentitive now are you. Have you ever actually looked at the shit some of the valve fanboys spew out? Valve could literally come out and say ya we took it down because we dont like EA starting their on DD service and the fanboys would still blame it on EA.


The problem here is valve wants a cut of the money regardless of wether or not the dlc was sold through steam. EA said go fuck yourself and so valve is being a little child and removed the game. The reason this isnt happeneing to other companies is because they are all to small to argue with valve or they dont actually have their on DD service. Up untill now valve could basically say what ever they wanted and developers would be forced to agree to their terms because for some idiotic reason PC gamers worship steam like a god. EA is tired of valve being a greedy bastard and has finally challanged them on it.

You know why there are so many rabid Valve fanboys? Here's a clue, it's not because they covered a dartboard in developer's names, and threw a dart at it while blindfolded, it's because Valve has built up a reputation for being a fair and honest in their practices, and making quality software.

Steam allows a game to reach a wider audience, that service is literally worth money, and they deserve a cut of what gets put on it, that's how it works, EA is trying to use all of the advantages of Steam while cutting it out of the loop when it comes to contractually obligated profit sharing, and they were well within their rights to drop the game.

With EA's massive legal team, they would have to literally be retarded to not know they were violating the terms, but they did it anyway because they wanted the game exclusively on their service, and this was a convenient way to pull it from steam while clumsily trying to direct the negative PR at them. It's the only explanation that makes any sense

 

[Doom972]

OK, now I know EA is lying.
With the case of Crysis 2 they said Crytek made an agreement with a distributor that was a violation of Valve's terms. Fair enough - Even though they didn't specify what sort of term was violated.
This time - they say it's the DLC system. The same one that's being used for Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. These two games that are still on Steam.

Theory: When games are sold through distributors, the distributors get a big share of the money the consumer is paying. What EA wants is to sell the games at the same price and get both their regular share and the distributor share. They could sale these games at about 10$ less and make a great profit and thus make more people buy it online but they are just too greedy (plus there is that whole download limit shit that really makes it not worthwhile).

 

[Pinkamena]

Awwww, poor EA. Not.

 

[Max_imus]

Can't say this affects me very much, I prefer my games as "hard" copies, even though I'm probably one of a dying breed.

But this does reek of a publicity stunt for Origin. God help those who want to buy stuff there, EA is gonna find a way to make its DRM even more annoying...

 

[bjj hero]

I love how all of the valve fan boys cannot entertain the idea that valve are being shadey. EA's greed would not let it pull a title and lose sales for no reason.

 

[bootz]

2 Points
1. Bioware PC DLC is the hardest thing in the world to get. I have to find the web page (took me forever its not in the games)I found the sight from yahoo answers (it wasnt on google) sign for it (took me forever) Then I have to search for the DLC If I didnt want it really bad I wouldn't have gotten it. I had to buy points instead of just paying real money for the dlc. (they don't tell you how are link to buying the points) Its a Reallly Really bad waste of time. There is no way they are getting impulse buys.

If the did it through steam and it was seemless there sales would make up for the lost revenue given to steam.

2. BF3, I know My group of friends realreally wanted that game but we are not because its not on steam. They lost 6 sales just because of that. I love being able to join in a game with people but I don't want a seperate buddy list and background program for one game .