EA Confirms No Battlefield 3 on Steam

[Vigormortis]

Deceptive half-truths aside, both parties can claim customer convenience as their motive.

Steam wants to sell the whole "experience", not half products, so that you can purchase, auto-install and manage DLC and patches, etc, through Steamworks functionality, one place, without having to exit the game and run off to a separate web site, with its own billing system and then install manually - something that players of recent Bioware titles should be familiar with.

Origin wants to provide the same. You may not (yet) need Origin to just run your vanilla retail (...or other digital download service) copy, but if you care for patches and/or DLC, cloud syncing, etc, then Origin (with new Steamworks-like functionality) it is (regardless of where you bought the base game).


I very very much doubt Steam has any we-monopoly-you-obey clause - they just tightened terms to carrot-and-whip developers into providing a service that isn't fragmented. EDIT: ...and, of course, they want their cut of sales.

Throwing off Steam, on EA's part, means they lose the middle man, both concerning profit shares and access to customers - the latter since with a patching service of their own, they don't have to check their content changes with the third party that is Steam, but can reach you directly and develop new services at will. Also; by not providing Steamworks services, they only have to support one service framework, which just so happens to be their own.
Mostly, though, I'm sure it's the 100% profit cut they are interested in.


The problem is that EA doesn't just outright say this, openly and honestly, instead trying to make statements aimed at the right angle to reality, in order to smear their competitor.
This doesn't do any good for their already dubious reputation and kind of makes you wonder just what they /really/ intend to do with all that new direct customer accessibility...

What's this? I completely logical, reasonable stance on the whole affair? Shenanigans!! Shenanigans, I say!

Joking aside, what you wrote here sums up my stance on the whole thing. EA trying to split off and do it's own thing with digital distribution services is fine. Even admirable. (though past and current experiences, even with Origin, have been less than ideal) And, in that regard, I'd normally have no issue at all with Battlefield 3 not being on Steam. Even when I consider how much better it'd be on Steam with the added feature sets Steam has. I'd still have no qualms buying the game and using something else to get my updates.

However, this blatant smear campaign EA has going is downright obnoxious. They are doing everything they can to put Valve in a tight spot, screwing them no matter what they do, and then using Valve's decisions as a way to paint them as the bad guys and EA as the victim. It's disgusting. Even more disgusting is the naive drones on the net that have been defending EA in all of this.

Whatever your stance on Steam, Valve, EA, Battlefield, or DD services, defending EA's actions in all of this is just downright stupid. It's juvenile, arrogant, and does nothing but hurt the consumers. Which is ironic as EA claims much of it's actions as of late have been in the best interest of the consumers.

 

[Comando96]

Well I have Battlefield Bad Company 2... whats its not like this is gonna be better >.>

I rufuse to buy this is it requires origin.

Hopefully this will be steams victory over EA as the game mysteriously flops on PC.

 

[sunpop]

"At EA, Milking our players is a top priority" There fixed that little typo for you.

If ea were to release dungeon keeper 3 maybe I'd give a shit but even then it would probably suck and be nowhere near as fun as 1 and 2.

 

[sunpop]

OH NOES!!!

I can't play my generic modern war shooter on Steam. What shall I ever do?

Dude; EA is behind Battlefield 3. Not Call Of Generic: Modern Blandfare 3

But Modern Blandfare 3 is looking rather attractive now because it's on steam...

Fun fact the new battlefield games are pretty much just call of duty reskinned a little. Much like most modern day shooters.

 

[robert01]

I keep seeing people saying buy retail, but retail = Origin. A lot of the games that you buy at retail are just the data, and a key you plug into Origins. If you want to avoid Origins hop on D2D or something.

I still don't see why Steam has such a HUGE fanbase. I get that people don't want to install a thousand different clients to play their games, but why stick up for a company that is slowly going to the greed dog.

 

[harvz]

i think that this is one game i should buy preowned, just to be as big of a dick to EA as they are being to me.

seriously, i was going to buy on xbox on launch day and steam when it goes on sale, purely so i can play with all my friends, whether or 360 or pc. but now i am seriously considering waiting a few days for the preowned.

 

[II2]

I find this very frustrating, as a Steam user; were it not Battlefield 3 (or other *highly* desired title), I wouldn't bother getting it.

Ahh well, I suppose I'll get an impulse account and pick up some of the Stardock game bundles... GalCiv, Sins o Solar Empire... Try and make silver lining for myself.

 

[synobal]

Eh I'm not buying it at this point. I'm not sure if it will require origin or not but I've a feeling it will, if not for the game itself than for any expansions. I've used origin and I was not impressed it's not as stable, it kept loosing my settings and I had issues downloading my games.

 

[jawakiller]

So wait... Fuck you EA? I mean it already sounds like they're fucking themselves but hey, I don't judge. Noooo.

-I got it! Lets blacklist steam and not let them sell OUR game!
-Yes, it all makes so much sense now that you say it out loud!

Ya dumb fucks.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Oh, well. I'm kind of over Battlefield anyway. Not enough hats.

 

[Marmooset]

I'm afraid that if the two sides don't come to terms soon, online game services will risk losing their triple A credit rating.

 

[Strazdas]

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?

bravo. i applaud you for this comment. couldnt have said it better.

 

[MuroKhan]

I said it on Blistered Thumbs, and I'll say it here:

"Oh no! Battlefield 3 isn't on Steam?! Whatever will I do with my freetime now?!"
*Goes and plays Team Fortress 2 for a few hours, then plays Left 4 Dead for another hour, good to bed, wake up, shower, then go and play Fallout: New Vegas."

Seriously, it needs to be a better game than Battlefield to make me care. If they decided not to put Mass Effect 3 on Steam, then I think the following would happen:

Shit would hit fans, lines would be drawn, dust would be kicked up, and corpses would be spinning in graves.

Although... if EA thought about it, Mass Effect 1 and 2 has been patched up before, and DLC has been provided through Steam. ... I think someone in marketing had a Derp sandwich for lunch.

 

[Bobbity]

Battlefield 3 will not be available on Steam as the service restricts our ability to directly support players," a rep said.

Hahahahahahaha, hahahaha, haha, ha. Do they honestly think that we're going to believe this, or is it more a matter of our being expected to pretend that it's true? Either way, kind of disappointing. They could tell us the truth, in that they're going to try - and probably fail - to crush Steam, and screw the niceties.

"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."

I noticed the word DLC mentioned in there, although they tried to make it sound like nothing. Does this mean that Battlefield 3 is going to be forcing metric tons of DLC down our throats? I know that Activision is bad for that, but EA can be a lot worse...

All in all, I predict that this can only hurt EA. I can't see their DLC/micromanagement plan gaining any real traction, or, more important, popularity, and it's going to be difficult to try and steal business from a fast, generally reliable and bloody well established online vendor like Steam. If anything, I see this hurting EA's sales - specifically those of Origin specific games - more than anything else, however much new business the platform gets them.

The one thing that, I believe, might make a difference, in terms of Origin's success or failure, would be vision. Steam is well established, true, but a massive company like EA could have some serious pull if they really make an effort to keep Origin fresh, and to make it feel slightly unique. Unfortunately, this is EA that we're talking about, and you'd only mention them in the same sentence as vision if you were making a bad joke, or lamenting their lack of it.

TL;DR: Origin is doomed thanks to EA's lack of vision and short term, profit driven goals, and it's only going to hurt the games that are set to be exclusive for it.

 

[WickedSkin]

Does everyone have to turn all Activision on us? EA you were better then them... for a short while. Well you still are, this isn't even close to being as dicky as charging about $17 more then anyone else for everything (even things worth almost nothing). XD

I'll just use Origin, D2D or Gamestop then I guess.

 

[Zenode]

Im waiting for the EA IS JUST MONEY GOUGING RAWR comments

.....wait those happened already

If EA is money gouging, why the hell would they strip one of the most popular games they have from the biggest Digital Distributor without a valid reason....

 

[gmacarthur81]

Just wait till EA announces that "Sorry, Mass Effect 3 will not be available on STEAM."

And the internet explodes.

 

[Aprilgold]

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.

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....
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How? Thats my question? And OTHER online services, you mean the ones that operate like the holy hand grenade, the WEBSITE ones that take ages to download, and even LONGER to update and hard to operate? I hear this every single time, "Steam's RESTRICTIVE" then they don't say HOW its restrictive, by restrictive you mean take a SMALL cut of the sales because you used their client? And yeah, this is EA confirming that they will eye fuck the PC crowd until they cum and burst out of the room, crying in agony. Basically, this is just EA wanting to try and be dicks to more people instead of just console owners. How is Steam restrictive, it allows indie games, instantly updates games FOR you, instantly installs updates while you install the base game, can buy packs, can send packs to friends, can gift games, can gift X number of games, can do a HELL of a lot more then Origin.... And yeah, thats what their going to EXCLUSIVELY put it on anyways, Origin, that broken piece of shit.

I keep seeing people saying buy retail, but retail = Origin. A lot of the games that you buy at retail are just the data, and a key you plug into Origins. If you want to avoid Origins hop on D2D or something.

I still don't see why Steam has such a HUGE fanbase. I get that people don't want to install a thousand different clients to play their games, but why stick up for a company that is slowly going to the greed dog.

Its one client, one, and its not a website, theres PLENTY of reasons people like Steam, why people hate it is just them throwing a hissy fit all OVER the place. Again, if Steam were greedy, they wouldn't put games on sale and sell them lower for retail, they wouldn't allow indie or F2P mmo's and turn their most popular shooter F2P, now would they?

 

[Aprilgold]

I'm just
The problem EA has is it seems to me that from the moment they announced origin a large number of steam users wont even give it the time of day even if it is good just because its EA so by forcing people to use it to get there games might make people removing the blinkers they all seem to be wearing and realise origin isn't that bad.

Or of course EA are telling the truth and this is Valve's fault I doubt this is true but if it was the reaction from Valve's fanboys would be fantastic in trying to defend that lol

Or we COULD watch EA fan boys trying to show that their broken service works fight their own stupidity and the company be the stupid king on top. Its sad, but really, watching EA fans trying to defend EA about them being full of shit is just AS priceless as Steam fans trying to defend something, just read some of the comments in Steams favor, you have a risk of dying laughing.

The various responses to this article show a) how narrow minded some people are around here and b) how few people have actually tried Origin. Its no longer that hideously bloated thing that the EA Download Manager was.

I didn't try it because I heard accounts went missing, you have to pay to reinstall a game, and the caker, your settings get lost somewhere. Why TRY when it already SEEMS broken.