Battlefield 3 won't be on Steam

EA's big holiday release, Battlefield 3, apparently won't be available via Valve's ubiquitous PC game download service, Steam, as previously hinted. Taking to Twitter and its own forums, EA announced as much with some interesting, if not inflammatory, claims. "BF3 will not be available on Steam as the service restricts our ability to directly support players," the Twitter account says.

The forum post goes a bit further in explaining the publisher's position, though it doesn't go so far as to explicitly explain the schism. "Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content," the forum post reads. "No other download service has adopted these practices." As with Dragon Age 2, this is in reference to one specific part of Steam's Terms of Service agreement, which forces games to deliver DLC and patches through Steam rather than through a game-specific client. EA claims this to be restrictive, and thus refuses to sell some titles through the service.

It remains unclear why EA -- who, in the past, has offered a variety of games through Steam, regardless of the Terms of Service -- refuses to offer DLC and patches through Steam suddenly, but it certainly appears to be a stance the company is staying firm on. The forum post also notes EA's inclination towards resolving the issue with Valve, saying, "We hope to work out an agreement where Steam can carry Battlefield 3; meanwhile, gamers can pick from the more than 100 digital retailers."

Source: Battlefield 3 won't be sold on Steam; EA claims service 'restricts our ability to directly support players' | Joystiq

what's with this?

I mean, Valve kicked out Crysis 2 from Steam. Someone had told me there was some issue of Crysis 2 DLC being only available through Direct2Drive. Now, Dragon Age II has been taken off too.

Its not Valve who is kicking out the games. Its EA's fault, Steam's policy about DLCs and patches is not a new thing. EA know about this, EA is just taking a fight with Steam to get in distribution market through Origin. Now when they just launched Origin they are suddenly have problems with this policy. ME 1&2 and DAO had a lot of DLC and they were on Steam but now EA is saying that they'll sell DLCs through the game itself which conflicts with Steam's Policy and so games are going out. No publisher except EA have any problem with Steam's policy except EA what does that conclude. I sincerely hope that BF3's sales go down a lot so that EA learns a lesson from it. I love BF but this is totally unacceptable from EA. :-x

^^ I don't like EA much, but I appreciate the fact that they are launching Origin as Valve/Steam currently has a monopoly over Digital Distribution market. However, they should have been conforming to Steam's regulations. I mean first launching the game on Steam and then not accepting to conform is wrong.

ico said:
^^ I don't like EA much, but I appreciate the fact that they are launching Origin as Valve/Steam currently has a monopoly over Digital Distribution market. However, they should have been conforming to Steam's regulations. I mean first launching the game on Steam and then not accepting to conform is wrong.

OK even if they have monopoly then also they serves pretty well IMO. No DRM and no nothing crap like EA and others. I bet that EA's Origin will have DRM. And also they do summer camps and other. I guess you know these more than me.

Whats my point is that Steam is doing good thing even they are only in digital distributer. Now Origin will only have EA's title. If someone make 2 accounts his collection will be unorganized. Like say he have a lot of games and he want a game so he'll be like wait where is my game on Steam or Origin.Also they are giving comments like they are innocent and Steam is evil. This thing pisses me off. If you knew you'll launch DLC of the game and you already know about Steam's policy on DLC then why the hell you launched that game on Steam in first place. And like you said if they did then they must do that both way their way and Steam's way.

gameranand said:
OK even if they have monopoly then also they serves pretty well IMO. No DRM and no nothing crap like EA and others. I bet that EA's Origin will have DRM.

Steam has DRM. It's not DRM free.

And also they do summer camps and other. I guess you know these more than me. Whats my point is that Steam is doing good thing even they are only in digital distributer. Now Origin will only have EA's title.

I agree with that. Steam's summer/christmas sales, having keys available for special packages like Humble Bundle, etc. as well as being dual platform give it a huge edge over any other competitior. Not to mention, Steam is almost the only choice to get Indie games.

If someone make 2 accounts his collection will be unorganized. Like say he have a lot of games and he want a game so he'll be like wait where is my game on Steam or Origin.

Having multiple accounts can be a bit of a pain but there is less vendor lock in involved. Only thing I need is the freedom of buying once, and then being able to play the game in any of the devices, if Origin offers that, then I don't have a problem.

Liverpool_fan said:
Steam has DRM. It's not DRM free.

Yes but you can play offline right??? While DRM issues with Ubisoft don't let me. Not sure about EA though.

gameranand said:
Yes but you can play offline right??? While DRM issues with Ubisoft don't let me. Not sure about EA though.

Yeah Steam has an offline mode but for that you have to go Online First and then choose offline mode. And you can't depend on the offline mode for a long time.

I dont like STEAM. I hate the downloading the entire game from STEAM especially even after buying a DVD.
It defeats the whole purpose of the DVD in bandwidth poor country like India

I hate Steam and EA equally.

With the launch of Origin, it's no surprise EA is pulling their heavyweight titles from Steam. Even Valve would have done the same.

Non-issue for those who wants to play offline.

Sad news for Steam Users...

I love Steam.

And you can start games in offline mode too in Steam...

Guess, big publishers one day all will have their own digital distribution platform. That will make a hell of managing our games.

I see no problem with EA starting their own Digital Distribution platform. One more client, not a pain in the a$$ is it?
Strange, PC gamers complaining about these kinda stuff like console gamers :\
wee'll just adapt, and those 'I wont buy bf3, coz its not on steam' comments are downright stupid!

gameranand said:
Its not Valve who is kicking out the games. Its EA's fault, Steam's policy about DLCs and patches is not a new thing. EA know about this, EA is just taking a fight with Steam to get in distribution market through Origin. Now when they just launched Origin they are suddenly have problems with this policy. ME 1&2 and DAO had a lot of DLC and they were on Steam but now EA is saying that they'll sell DLCs through the game itself which conflicts with Steam's Policy and so games are going out. No publisher except EA have any problem with Steam's policy except EA what does that conclude. I sincerely hope that BF3's sales go down a lot so that EA learns a lesson from it. I love BF but this is totally unacceptable from EA.

Are you related to steam anyway? Its like, you like burgers from KFC and saying 'Mcdonalds shoud'nt sell burgers, and its unacceptable *lol*'...
Like I said in the Battlefield 3 thread, just set up both Steam and Origin clients to auto launch as soon as windows boots up. We spend time on mods, adjusting the graphics settings, testing the fps, searching for solutions online to fix any bugs...but now we have problem with such a small thing. EA just wants to make business, whats wrong with it? Look at the bright side, may be they'll open up some better discounts and bonuses, you never know.

From what I'd heard, the only thing EA Origin does wrong is that they'll delete the games from your account if you dont open them for two years. Steam also has such kind of stupid rules, probably not similar. Remember Steam deleting some guy's account coz he sold it someone else? His entire collection and all the money he put on those games..just gone! I dont see anything wrong with selling ur game to someone else.

I don't have any problem with Origin. But I don't like the idea that EA is just pulling off the titles from Steam just like that.

gameranand said:
I don't have any problem with Origin. But I don't like the idea that EA is just pulling off the titles from Steam just like that.

Well..may be you could ditch battlefield 3

and go for modern warfare 3

Nah I ain't doing that as I'll be playing offline only.

gameranand said:
I don't have any problem with Origin. But I don't like the idea that EA is just pulling off the titles from Steam just like that.

What do you have to do with steam?
Both the companies are in it for their business.People will buy the game if it is good,no matter which platform it is on.

cyborg47 said it all.

I have nothing to do with Steam I just like Steam so favor it.

It's only natural that EA would support Origin. That they have not moved all they top end titles from Steam and elsewhere is a surprise in itself.

As long as they are not forcing the users to install Origin and stay connected in order to just install a game from DVD, they are better than Valve in my opinion.

Skud said:
As long as they are not forcing the users to install Origin and stay connected in order to just install a game from DVD, they are better than Valve in my opinion.

I hardly think this would happen.

Yet to happen, at least.

thetechfreak said:
I dont like STEAM. I hate the downloading the entire game from STEAM especially even after buying a DVD.
It defeats the whole purpose of the DVD in bandwidth poor country like India

No one told you to use Steam. No one told you to play Valve games.

ico said:
No one told you to use Steam. No one told you to play Valve games.

yes...if u hate it dont play it...simple thumb rule :-|

Even I could not find the utility of the DVD when I have to download the entire game from internet.

hmm? I got Portal 2. I had to only download updates worth 300 MB. You don't have to download the 'entire' game.

If you'll get something like Orange Box which was manufactured in like 2008, you'll have to download hefty updates. This is pretty obvious as the games and the engine have seen heavy changes.

I don't even know what's the fuss about 'downloading.' I know people don't buy every game they want to play. Some basically 'download' them. Anything wrong if you download through Steam? Nope.

If you are talking about forced updates then you have a point.

The whole point of Steam is you don't have to mess with physical media. You can access your games from any part of the world.

thetechfreak said:
I dont like STEAM. I hate the downloading the entire game from STEAM especially even after buying a DVD.
It defeats the whole purpose of the DVD in bandwidth poor country like India

You've played MW2 and Black Ops, right? The only way to play these games is through Steam. If you haven't used Steam, you have 'downloaded' these games nevertheless.

T

Well, one thing I hate about Steam is that it's not exactly region free. I bought a retail (i.e boxed) copy of Left for Dead 2. After installing it , I later moved out to Saudi Arabia. On trying to launch the game from my PC there , Steam said that I could only run it if I was in the region (i.e India) where I originally purchased it from -_-

If you bought a game via the Steam store though , it's region-free.

It's sad that Battlefield 3 won't be coming to Steam. Steam's servers have always given me good download speeds , and now I have to use the Evil Arts Download manager for this

^^ yup, that's true. You see, retail games are cheaper here. I'm pretty sure same is going to be the case with Origin.

I bought L4D2 for $5 through Steam anyways.

ico said:
You've played MW2 and Black Ops, right? The only way to play these games is through Steam. If you haven't used Steam, you have 'downloaded' these games nevertheless.

Well, I dont have MW2. Played at a friends PC. and yeah it was offline mode.I don't have MW2. I dont think he has Steam :wink:

ico said:
No one told you to use Steam. No one told you to play Valve games.

Well, no one will ask you to play games because its "Steam" its not Steam etc
There is no way to play some thing like TF2 other than getting it via Steam. But yes man I would have prefered it a lot more if the purchased DVD had the game rather than Get a file which starts download from Steam.

I am gone from this thread anyway

T

pre-ordered it at Flipkart @ 1499 rupees using COD(cash on delivery)

^ i dont think bf3 will be on steam at the time of release, i wondered why steam was silent when EA was bashing about some DLC issues so they wont release on steam but now i got the "real" reason behind it ! greed !

tejaslok said:
pre-ordered it at Flipkart @ 1499 rupees using COD(cash on delivery)

^ i dont think bf3 will be on steam at the time of release, i wondered why steam was silent when EA was bashing about some DLC issues so they wont release on steam but now i got the "real" reason behind it ! greed !

I like steam as they don't babble about anything here and there like EA. They provide what they are meant to provide and remain silent unless they need to speak. I like that attitude of Steam.

Well said man. Steam don't need to say anything. The will beat Origin hands down anyway.

tejaslok said:
now i got the "real" reason behind it ! greed !

Funny, Valve forced PC users to use steam to play half life 2.
Then I got the real reason..Greed!

Sounds stupid isnt it?
Its just business.

Valve speaks up, finally:

Valve boss: "We want EA's games on Steam" - TechSpot News

No love lost.

Well their statement is really really polite at this point IMO.