EA Confirms No Battlefield 3 on Steam

[Dense_Electric]

Why the hell am I not reading News about "Diablo 3 not on Steam" or "Minecraft not on Steam" (or any of the other dozen/hundred of games out there that don't appear on Steam) which should be getting the same kind of baseless vitriol as this?

Because Blizzard and Notch haven't been going on about how those games are going to outsell their hugely popular competitors, and a large percentage of the PC-gaming population buys off Steam almost exclusively. It's not that EA is hurting their sales, it's that they're hurting their sales while going on about how great their sales are going to be.

 

[DarksideFlame]

The only game from EA I care about is Mass Effect 3 and if the game itself is a worthy conclusion to the series and not rubbish then I will get no matter if I have to get it from origin or any other place

 

[drakythe]

You don't need to use Origin to play Battlefield 3.
Getting a Retail copy or just using any of the other half a dozen Digital Distributors out there it will appear on like Direct2Drive or GamersGate will do the trick just fine.

It won't take any of your experience away as Battlefield has always had Stat Tracking/Achievements/Friends List/Clan Support/Voice and a lot of other things packaged directly with the game for a while. What you would do by buying it on Steam is just adding another DRM on top of it you would have to run whenever you want to play the game...

Hell if you are such a ... "fan" of Steam, you can even use the "Add a Non-Steam Game" feature and you'll be able to use the Overlay and talk to your friends and do everything else you always do anyway... ffs...

Why the hell am I not reading News about "Diablo 3 not on Steam" or "Minecraft not on Steam" which should be getting the same kind of baseless vitriol as this?

QFT.

I'm not super familiar with Steam's internal workings, but I do know that Torchlight has tools to make mods for the game, and if you have the steam version, your mod has to support some changes made in the steam version of the game. Yeah, I think EA is blowing this out of proportion, but I am glad to see someone standing up to Steam.

Yes I have games on Steam. Do I try to avoid that whenever possible? also yes.

 

[SamStar42]

What a ridiculously stupid decision this is.

 

[antofdeath]

Does anyone else get this feeling that this is directly related to the fact that EA only likes customers who pay shiv and leg out the ass for DLC and steam has a funny tenancy to like to go and sell "Super bundles"?

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

This just in:
Sticking your hand in a blender might be a bad idea. We bring you this report from people with a firm grasp on the obvious. Tune in next time when we tell you that using your cat as ammo might not work out

Really, did anyone NOT see this coming?

 

[Chicago Ted]

Now, there is little chance for me to get BF3 on the PC. I'm sorry, but every encounter I have with an EA PC or Online service has been nothing but shit. I regard almost all of their online services as the worst ones I've had to put up with, and am not going to continue to try them after several problems I've had before.

Guess I'm getting my copy for XBox.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

"The service limits our ability to deliver patches and downloadable content directly to players."

Bull crap EA. You aren't doing this for the players. If you were, you'd have it on Steam as well.

Seconded, not to mention a rough 30% if not more of the PC market were anticipating a Steam release.

And, also, Steam is the easiest way to deliver patches, takes like 10 seconds and does it instantly, and no traipsing around websites.

 

[Lord Krunk]

You don't need to use Origin to play Battlefield 3.
Getting a Retail copy or just using any of the other half a dozen Digital Distributors out there it will appear on like Direct2Drive or GamersGate will do the trick just fine.

It won't take any of your experience away as Battlefield has always had Stat Tracking/Achievements/Friends List/Clan Support/Voice and a lot of other things packaged directly with the game for a while. What you would do by buying it on Steam is just adding another DRM on top of it you would have to run whenever you want to play the game...

Hell if you are such a ... "fan" of Steam, you can even use the "Add a Non-Steam Game" feature and you'll be able to use the Overlay and talk to your friends and do everything else you always do anyway... ffs...

Why the hell am I not reading News about "Diablo 3 not on Steam" or "Minecraft not on Steam" (or any of the other dozen/hundred of games out there that don't appear on Steam) which should be getting the same kind of baseless vitriol as this?

The concern is more that Steam is the biggest digital distributor by a mile, and thusly they are alienating a big portion of the online community. Sure, you could use another online distributor but seriously, who wants to have to log into 5 different programs to play different games? It's a waste of time.

Another thing is that Steam is well known for the fact that it patches automatically; as a PC gamer I know how annoying it is to hunt down patch after patch after patch from sources whose reliability is dubious.

It's convenience. EA's meddling, incidentally, is inconvenient.

Also, anyone else find it funny that EA of all people are the guys complaining about a publisher being a money-grubbing scumbag?

 

[Covarr]

They say it's too restrictive, but what they mean is it's a serious competitor to Origin. The reason they're not pulling it from other distribution channels is that they don't take them seriously.

Why the hell am I not reading News about "Diablo 3 not on Steam" or "Minecraft not on Steam" (or any of the other dozen/hundred of games out there that don't appear on Steam) which should be getting the same kind of baseless vitriol as this?

It may have something to do with the fact that they're not bragging about it, and it's not a significant change. Blizzard's games have never been on Steam, and neither have Mojang's. EA, on the other hand, seems to be going out of their way to say "nyeh nyeh, we're better than Valve".

Not to mention, it IS a poor decision. A lot of people buy all their PC games from Steam for one reason or another. I usually buy thing's when they're on sale, and Steam tends to put games on sale a LOT more often than some of its competitors.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Macgyvercas]

Can we all just say "Fuck you, EA" enough to drive them out of business?

 

[Wuggy]

Wuggy Confirms: No Battlefield 3 purchase will be made.

Seriously, I wasn't that interested to begin with, but this is just another nail in the coffin. This is not a good move on EA's part, which I'm somewhat happy for.

 

[Alphakirby]

Now that it's not on Steam,I officially don't give a shit about it. Because I am not downloading EA's stupid ass attempt to trump Valve just to play a first person shooter.

Congratulations for not reading the article.

Thank you,I take pride in my ignorance. =P

 

[LiquidGrape]

So, let me get this straight. EA want to release the game on Origin, a few other DD services, and on Steam. Steam says no, only on our platform or not at all. And EAs pulling the dick move here? Right.

But let me guess, you didnt read the article, checked the comments section and saw that all the cool kids were hating on EA so you decided to do the same. Yep, that must be it. Because if you actually had read the article before making a reply, you would have noticed that BF3 does not need Origin installed to run.

You realise that isn't at all what Valve's policies denote, right? This is a matter of Steam demanding that all DLC and such content be compatible with, and available directly via Steam.
Whether or not one agrees with that decision is naturally up to each individual person, but for being someone who accuses others of not reading up on the subject matter, you do seem a tad ill-informed.

 

[esplode]

"Battlefield 3 will not be available on Steam as the service restricts our ability to directly support players," a rep said. "The service limits our ability to deliver patches and downloadable content directly to players. No other download service has adopted these practices. At EA, supporting our players is a top priority, and we are happy to partner with any download service that does not restrict our ability to connect directly with our own consumers."

Anyone who played the older games remember how well EA 'supported' their players with updates and DLC for previous Battlefield games. Support for them seems to mean incredibly slow first party downloads that can't be done conveniently ingame.

 

[Alphakirby]

Can we all just say "Fuck you, EA" enough to drive them out of business?

Maybe if we had megaphones?
Or a giant blimp with a screen on it...
or a monster truck!

 

[Titan Buttons]

I only want one online gaming account that has my personal details, and it is already steam. EA just lost a customer

So before all the steam lovers start bashing EA. This is not EA's fault as the article says the game will be available on many different on-line services, just not steam. So it is not like EA are trying to make it exclusive so they can put others out of business. The real issue is Steam's terms being more restrictive than other on-line services.

The fact it seems to only be excluding steam from selling the game makes it seem like EA is saying "Hey steam using, up your"

 

[NicoDK]

Doesn't bother me. why pay 50 euro when i can get it on D2D way cheaper?

 

[Nikolaz72]

You don't need to use Origin to play Battlefield 3.
Getting a Retail copy or just using any of the other half a dozen Digital Distributors out there it will appear on like Direct2Drive or GamersGate will do the trick just fine.

It won't take any of your experience away as Battlefield has always had Stat Tracking/Achievements/Friends List/Clan Support/Voice and a lot of other things packaged directly with the game for a while. What you would do by buying it on Steam is just adding another DRM on top of it you would have to run whenever you want to play the game...

Hell if you are such a ... "fan" of Steam, you can even use the "Add a Non-Steam Game" feature and you'll be able to use the Overlay and talk to your friends and do everything else you always do anyway... ffs...

Why the hell am I not reading News about "Diablo 3 not on Steam" or "Minecraft not on Steam" which should be getting the same kind of baseless vitriol as this?

QFT.

I'm not super familiar with Steam's internal workings, but I do know that Torchlight has tools to make mods for the game, and if you have the steam version, your mod has to support some changes made in the steam version of the game. Yeah, I think EA is blowing this out of proportion, but I am glad to see someone standing up to Steam.

Yes I have games on Steam. Do I try to avoid that whenever possible? also yes.

Ehemn. I can use ALL torchlight mods from the modDB. So either all copies of Torchlight or on steam, in which case it makes sense that they have to work with steam. Or what you heard is BS

 

[Odlus]

So, let me get this straight. EA want to release the game on Origin, a few other DD services, and on Steam. Steam says no, only on our platform or not at all. And EAs pulling the dick move here? Right.

But let me guess, you didnt read the article, checked the comments section and saw that all the cool kids were hating on EA so you decided to do the same. Yep, that must be it. Because if you actually had read the article before making a reply, you would have noticed that BF3 does not need Origin installed to run.

I'm guessing you didn't read the article too well yourself, because the reason BF3 isn't showing up on Steam is not because Steam said "our platform or not at all." It's because of issues regarding how they get DLC to customers. Or, as another poster explained quite well, Steam now has a requirement that all DLC offered for games must also be purchasable through Steam as well. This is likely because of a previous issue with Mirror's Edge (an EA game) where the DLC didn't work with Steam versions of the game.

Other online retailers may be offering the game because they don't have this restriction, but looking back on the history of this particular issue between EA and Steam I'd be weary of buying BF3 on these other stores and expecting the DLC to be compatible with any non-Origins version.

Really, your "steam said just our service or it won't be on ours at all" comment made no sense. You do realize that Steam if full of games that are available on other online services as well, right? It doesn't even match up with what EA said the reason was; if Steam said "only our service or none at all" then EA would have said that, not "The service limits our ability to deliver patches and downloadable content directly to players."