Steam not listed among Battlefield 3 digital retailers
EA's list of digital retailers for Battlefield 3 omitted Steam over the weekend, raising questions of whether the anticipated shooter will appear on Valve's service.
A round-up of digital retailers for Battlefield 3 (via Joystiq) curiously left Steam off of the guest list before being unceremoniously pulled from EA's Web site. This has caused a fresh controversy regarding whether the anticipated shooter will be available on Steam, but no announcement has been made.
EA's Origin exclusives have already caused some consternation among fans of Valve's digital sales portal, as Star Wars: The Old Republic was announced as an Origin-exclusive. The company previously stated that Origin would get an exclusive "limited edition" of Battlefield 3, but didn't imply that Steam wouldn't carry the standard version.
For its part, EA has claimed they want to give players choice in where they buy their products. "We want our products available to as many players as possible, which means we make them available in all the places that gamers go to download games and services," said general manager David DeMartini. "To be very clear, except under extremely special circumstances we offer our games to every major download service including Amazon, Gamestop, and Steam." Steam currently does not offer some EA games, notably Crysis 2, due to a conflict over DLC.
This could be a mix-up, of course, so we've inquired with EA. We'll report back with any new information.
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Shacknews
replySteve Watts posted a new article, Steam not listed among Battlefield 3 digital retailers.
EA's list of digital retailers for Battlefield 3 omitted Steam over the weekend, raising questions of whether the anticipated shooter will appear on Valve's service.-
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I, too, side with GabeN on this issue
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Valve pulled Crysis 2 due to an exclusive DLC deal with another digital distrubutor
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Like BF:BC2? I bought it not in steam, and i couldn't buy cheapy cheap vietnam from the steam sale :(. Shitty, its the same fuckin game! What gives EA!
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I do find it ironic though. Valve have long battled with Microsoft that DLC should be free. This time valve didn't get at the revenue stream other distributors were getting. Looks like EA served Gabe up some humble pie, lol. I wholly agree with valve about DLC. But, before they were arguing as a content developer with Microsoft as the cost requiring distributor... Now EA is the developer and valve the distributor...
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Interesting post in the Crysis 2 thread: http://www.shacknews.com/article/69194/ea-crysis-2-pulled-from?id=26272499#itemanchor_26272499
So using in-game storefronts to deliver content (which presumably would work no matter where you bought it from) was possibly what violated the new terms? If that's the case (not sure if it is or isn't, citations needed, etc) Then it seems more about revenue than allowing people to get content.-
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I would think one of the major reasons for an in-game storefront would be to guarantee content compliance?
I don't think the revenue angle is "ludicrous" especially when the new terms help Valve close loopholes like someone selling a game on there for $5, but you have to use their in-game store (thus circumventing Steam's share) to buy the actual $40 campaign or something. I think if every major publisher decided to go this route it wouldn't be an insignificant amount of revenue either.-
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It depends on the implementation.
And yes, all of those cases involve base games on Steam. Steam games are different from retail games on a base level because of the Steam integration. If EA is unwilling to release (or have signed agreements that prevent them from doing so) the DLC to be Steam compatible, I don't see why Steam needs to bear the brunt of the unhappy consumers. -
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What content was to be made unavailable? It was my understanding that valve would see no revenue from the online store while the game would also be sold on the publishers competing service... Literally screwing valve from a good deal of revenue. I whole heartedly agree EA was screwing Valve and they should have responded; but, at least call it what it is.
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I thought it was because the DLC was only available on a rival store.
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I am hoping for this as well. If steam doesn't offer it, I will just hold off buying it. The last thing I need is yet another online service to juggle my games. Add to that, I am happy with steam and the way it operates.
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this post is ridiculous
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Didn't you get the memo, competition is bad, cd cracks are good.
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You two are misunderstanding completely. Of course competion is good, i love competion.. its how things improve for us as gamers and consumers.
But it needs to be on a even playing field. Origin with its unfairly gained exclusives is not playing fair and bringing nothing else to the table
If EA want to fight Steam they should do it with good features or agressive pricing, that is how things improve.
And that is not Origin.
And the CD crack thing was clearly just a dig, notice i said id be buying retail.... dont go insinuating im a friggin pirate!!!
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Since BF2 you've been required to login to a "EA" player-database server. Why would they NOT integrate that with Origin? It's speculation, but it makes perfect sense. Friends lists, server browser, and anti-hack / security will likely all be tied together. Have you seen anything from EA that says opposite? How much stuff has changed in BF3 press release material since it was originally announced? EA / DICE is handling this just as badly as Activision / IW and their IW.NET service debacle on the PC.
Of course this is all speculation, but based on the history of the parties involved, it's a safe bet that we'll be required to install Origin. Our serial numbers will be tied to our account, and we'll be able to press a combination of key strokes to bring up everything that the steam overlay has in BF3: browser, store front, community, friends list, and server browser (where applicable).
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Anyone feel that EA is doing this on purpose to hurt PC sales so they can claim that low sales/piracy etc no longer favor supporting the PC market, which is on average only 10-20% of sales for a given title? I'm sure they would be thrilled to only have to develop for 3 fixed platforms (360, PS3, Wii/WiiU) and not have to be bothered with the infinite combination of PC parts/drivers/OSes etc...
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No. They're trying to capitalize on their own IPs.
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Not at all. EA's run by a very different type of investor that looks at raw profit. They don't care about how we buy our games, just that the company is making money. So when the call from the higher ups as for the rest of the company to start printing money, stupid middle management looks around for a method to accomplish this. Steam is popular, and other companies think they can replicate its success with ease, so now us, the gamers must prepare for failure.
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I'm curious though to know how much additional profit there is in making a title available on PC in addition to console(s). If it's only 5% more dev cost yet yields 10% more profits, I can see how that works out, but it seems to really be on the margin, since the bulk of all games sales is on console these days. And given the vast amount of console exclusives, it seems clear that some devs/pubs either don't think the profit is there, or they don't have the means to port/support something on PC. And obviously I'm not talking about pure exclusives (the Halos and Uncharteds, etc...) but games like Red Dead Redemption or Shadow Complex. Stuff that could fare just as well on PC.
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When steam started they did the exact same thing. Sales of their games had to install steam and then it became popular. Steam when it first game out was complete garbage too.
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That's rediculous. If they didn't want to support the pc platform they would just stop supporting the pc platform. There's no need to jump through hoops to "prove" that they didn't want to support it anymore, they would just say "were not doing this, eot".
Moreover, it's a terrible business decision to sabotage your own sales of your own product. -
No, that would be utterly ridiculous, not to mention financial suicide for a company to pull a stunt like that.
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hasn't this already been covered to death? since EA wants to deliver all content themselves and Steam doesn't want that this seems kind of obvious to me
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This is a front page article. Just because there are 3 chatty posts about it over the weekend doesnt mean the news arm of the shack cant write an article about it.
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But lately, chatty posts have effectively been the best, most timely news source on Shacknews. Sure, there's fact checking, but this specific story broke last Thursday.
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it was posted about fifty times as per usual shacknews style, I didn't check the comments I just picked one
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I want this game. On Steam. If it's not on Steam, I'm not sure what I'll do. Probably buy it boxed, but this kind of stupid shit is making it more difficult for me to buy their product than it should be.
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only because you're irrationally avoiding using Origin because you're a steam fanboy
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Hasn't this aleady been covered to death? - Dravenport.
I want to buy it where i want to buy it. I don't buy shit from best buy because they fucked me over on a computer purchase once. Does that make me an Amazon fanboy?-
what has origin done to you then?
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and if there was nowhere else to buy what you wanted, would you simply go without so as not to give best buy the business?
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Absolutely nothing, which is the problem. They bring nothing new to the table that me, the consumer, desires to switch from using a product I love, steam.
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The lack of patching is my issue. It doesn't keep the games patched and updated. It's not worth buying a game from them if it won't keep it updated.
How hard will it be in 5 years to get patches for it vs the theoretical Steam version (or better, GOG version).-
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That's the Crysis patcher, not Origin. Origin does not support patching games. It's the same thing with The Sims 3 and Spore. They have launchers that will attempt to patch games, but they cannot repair broken game files or do auto-patching like Steam does.
See: http://support.ea.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2232/~/problems-patching-the-sims-3
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^^ this. Plainly put, I trust Valve a whole hell of a lot more than I trust EA.
Er, okay let me put it even plainer. I DON'T trust EA.
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While I won't call anyone out on it, but buying retail is excuse to go out and do something. Plus when I'm out, I usually think of something else to do as well.
But I do realize that transportation can be an issue, or that there isn't a store close enough to just head out to for some people. -
Whoa buddy. Check the unneeded rage at the door. I'm not some fat lonely nerd who buys from steam because i hate social interaction. I like a store. End of fucking story. The whole reason EA is fucking over steam is because steam is trying to STOP the stupid DLC fragmentation issue.
And not everyone has a best buy down the street. My closest one happens to be 40 minutes away. The closest gamestop is 30. I could hope my local Target has the big budget games, but who the fuck buys boxed PC games at Target. They've got 3 copies of wow and 8 boxes of windows 95 poker.
And im fucking tanned like a dark skinned god. I get kissed by the sun every day during my morning run. Its like im the fuckin old spice guy up in this bitch. You wish you could taste this ass. :: flex ::-
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Both of those things are true and that's not the point. They want us to buy the game, why not make that as easy as possible? I like having my games in one place under one service so they're as easy as possible to get to - Steam happens to be that service, but it could have been anything. I would very much prefer to not have to deal with a physical copy, either.
In the end, I'll probably end up with a physical copy if they don't release it on Steam though.-
I don't see why EA should bend over backwards to Steam's demands
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*wary
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My avoidance of Origin is perfectly rational - I'm heavily invested in the Steam library and Steam community features. I don't want my game collection to be fragmented across multiple services. If BF3 isn't on Steam at launch, I'll wait until it is. And if it never is, I won't buy it because EA are assholes.
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I want this game because I want this game. Don't really care what platform it's on, I'm pretty sure the gameplay will be exactly the same.
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Activation code for Origin. Much like Valve did with Half Life and Left 4 Dead.
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YAY!!!!!!
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I was surprised to see id's stuff on there honestly. id is like the cool kid on the block that just does awesome things for everyone's benefit and quietly continue to crank out amazing tech.
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Impulse was the first service to put Amnesia on sale so i used it and I haven't had much of an issue with it, so Impulse it is for me. Or whatever has the best content deal. Sucks ass. But it's BF3. I am playing this bitch no matter how I have to get it.
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I'm getting a 404 when I try to view the list, so either there was an error or they're doing damage control.
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D2D has it http://www.direct2drive.com/2/10557/product/Buy-Battlefield-3-Limited-Edition-Download?hph I can vouch for them I have been loyal for years with them. Plus they are Shack now, Gamefly(us) owns it.
Sucks its not on Steam, but in this case its just a EA game so really it does not matter what platform its on, the EA loader has built in auto updates so it doesn't matter just like ME2, DA1, DA2 etc.-
Also if you buy it from here you can usual register the key code with Origin (just like Steamworks games on Steam) so you can try downloading it from either. Nice option to be able to down load through either if the servers are running slow.
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It's also about $15 dollars cheaper than anywhere else with the discount codes.
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Try this link: http://direct2drive.tellapal.com/a/clk/cT7wz
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Still shows as $53.95. I'd love to have a coupon code. I'd purchase it today.
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I'm very interested in seeing these codes. :)
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+1 for this.
D2D is a great service to buy downloadable games through, I've used it a lot.
The nice thing is, they don't enforce any kind of wrapper service on you. Once you get your files, you install them and you can run the game whenever you want, no signing into Steam or other networks necessary. it's just like buying it from a brick and mortar. And their download servers are wicked fast.
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so tired of reading these stupid posts. people won't "cave"
no one is boycotting the game, but a lot of us aren't going to buy the game on Origin, no matter how much EA wishes it were so. buying the game from Best Buy or Amazon or Direct2Drive isn't "caving". i am not participating in EA's stupid service, but I am certainly going to play the game.-
Pretty much this. I am definitely getting the game, but I'm not going to buy this or anything from Origin.
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Im assuming BF3 will install origin like Valve made games install Steam. Could be wrong..
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I certainly won't be buying it day 1 if it's not on Steam. I'd probably be willing to wait a month for EA to cave.
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I dunno. EA has a *LOT* riding on this - if it fucks up, EA will have to cave.
BF3 is going to be a huge launch and the forced Origin client stuff is going to unleash PC support hell. imagine the forums when it goes live... and no steam forum whining will do any good! I wonder if the external forums will get shut down like when treyarch botched blops... people could only go to steam forums for help.
EA could shit on themselves in epic fashion.-
So, it will be like the Half Life 2 launch?
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I don't think anyone is boycotting. Personally, I think if EA wants Battlefield to be taken seriously as a rival to Call of Duty then they have to release on Steam. They're gonna get crushed otherwise. Call of Duty has been going all-in with Steam since MW2 and it worked out great for them. Not saying EA has to do the same, but making your game available on the biggest digital retailer is just smart business. Say what you will about Activision and some of the choices they've made, but going Steam-in-a-box for Call of Duty was the best decision they've made in recent times.
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I have too much invested in Steam. I like Steam. I like using Steam. They have games from all kinds of publishers, excellent sales, and is considered the shining city on the hill.
There's no EA game I can imagine needing to play so much that I'd use Origin. Hell, the Steam sale this last week knocked me down to another 8 or 9 games I haven't finished on top of what I had before.-
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Nope, not interested. Tried it before with a GFWL game and it never worked right, and was just another layer in the onion to get to my game. So I removed it.
If it's not on Steam, I don't own it.-
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Gears of War PC.
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I'll buy it full price day 1 on Steam. If it's not on Steam, I'll buy a retail boxed copy at $40 or less. If that doesn't happen immediately, then so be it.
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I prefer Steam because it works well and I pretty much love anything Valve. This won't stop me from getting BF3 though. I already have a games list built up on the old EA Download Manager and those games were just moved over to Origin. It is much nicer to have all you games in one area though.
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BF3 is a better game , thus doesn't need steam
PC gamers don't like steam , consoletards are using steam so much , but thanks for helping PC platfomr nontheless ;)
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time for BF3 ?
That's a silly statement , stop playing the other game when BF3 comes out and launch the game , there's no such thing as no time for it , are you playing games 24/7 or what ? I bet you're 14y old.
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I will buy it somehow then 2 weeks later it will be on steam, and I'll be pissed
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You can still add it to steam
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That's not really the point of Steam.
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The point of steam is to have all your games installed FROM steam so all you have to do on a new computer is copy them, or download them again, and have them installed, patched up, your save games, and settings all imported over.
You don't even need to reinstall Steam games. Origin games (when you swap computers) have to be reinstalled, you cannot copy them. In addition there's a (time-limited) limitation to the number of times you can do that.
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Steam is Xbox Live for the PC but better. My game library is there and my friends list and groups are there. I don't want another client/account to manage. BF3 is the only killer app EA has that would make me consider using Origin but not at full price and not even at half price. If there's no Steam version then it's a 1-2 year wait for me. I'll make do with other games like Skyrim on PC and MW3 + Halo on console. EA is about 4 years too late to this party of carving out your own platform in the PC space. Making a play like this now only harms/fragments the platform.
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This. Battlefield 3 trailers look amazing but I was on the fence with the other games coming out this year. If it is not on Steam, then it makes it easier to say I'll skip it. I've already got Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Rage pre-ordered. I'll be picking up Gears 3 (probably pre-order as well).
Given that EA let me buy Dead Space 2 on PC waiting until the day of release to say they wouldn't support the PC version with the DLC that was coming to consoles, any abnormality like this around one of their releases will probably delay, at a minimum, my purchase.
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I'm worried EA is just trying to control me. Anything they say could change. They could charge me per download, they could pull the product in favor of marketing something newer (BF:BC3?) they could have an outage because they're idiots with a new system, they could ban me from some forum or online entirely depending on who I offend. I really don't trust them. I feel like they're out to get me, honestly, and that they would rather make a profit and lose a customer than maintain a good business relationship. They have a hundred ways they can fuck me, and every year it seems like someone thinks of more. EA can make any business decision they want but they have presented a horrible image to me and most of my gamer friends.
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They just don't get, that no matter how many times they try to change it, we just don't like the 'EA Downloader/EA Download Manager.
Most people don't like using multiple tools/programs/downloaders to play their games though.
Origin will likely suffer the same fate. -
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Pretty much.
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"www.origin.com is your new destination for browsing, buying, downloading and playing your favorite games. You’ll get the best content from EA – on a PC or a mobile device – directly from Origin. At launch, you’ll be able to set up an Origin account and immediately connect with your friends. "
I guess I should I have made my statement clear that it was a thought based on the origin's own website. I would imagine that all EA game's, including all their famous sports games, would require Origin. It doesn't come out and say it, however, I am wagering it will.-
I doubt it will, otherwise they would've pushed it starting with titles released since the "relaunch" like Alice. It's not even required for SWTOR. Here's a quote from Stephen Reid, community manager for SWTOR:
Q: Will we have to install Origin and run it in order to play the game, get updates, etc. even if we purchase a boxed copy?
A: No, you won't.
While Origin will be the exclusive digital retailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic (in other words, if you want to buy it online and download it, you’ll do so through Origin) that does not mean that Origin is required for you to access or play The Old Republic.
Origin is a digital storefront, and the desktop application is there to give you quick access to Origin exclusives and deals.
However, you won’t need to launch the Origin application to run The Old Republic, nor will you patch the game via Origin. Once the game is on your hard disk, you’ll be connecting to our servers to patch and launch the game, and Origin does not have to be running to do that.
I really don't see EA making Origin a true competitor to steam. They know they're too far behind and that it's going to be an impossible sell for people who are already heavily invested in steam. They can however, make their own publisher-branded version of something like D2D.
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I am not going to give EA my money for the way they are acting.
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No steam = No buy for me.
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