EA removing its games from Steam

ShaneU

http://exophase.com/23486/ea-pulls-crysis-2-from-steam-store-now-only-on-origin/

Looks like this is the start of EA removing their games from other digital distribution services and having their games exclusive to the new origin store. Old Republic is definitely going to be an origin download exclusive, I'm assuming Battlefield 3 will be the same.

I don't like it, they can basically charge whatever they like now. I prefer having all my games on steam and don't want another client for games.

Iceboy

Such a dumb move by EA, they are going to lose alot of sales by not putting the likes of BF3 on steam and many people will just end up pirating the game.

Typical EA..

ShadowHearth

They will still sell alot. Just EA will have new fancy pants to show off and hope everyone will jump to theyr ship.


I ****ing hate that. I already need 3 accounts for my games: steam, EA, ubisoft.

I so like to have all my games on steam and see my library... Not it will be all on bits.

What do they want to prove with this move... We already know EA is a bunch of bastords. No need rubbing it in.

Nody

I'd guess it is part of EA's attempt to set up a "one place to go" gaming portal were they can try to sell micro transaction items as well...

pixelburp

I hope my existing EA games on STeam don't mysteriously disappear.

Hmm if they're pulling out of Steam completely, then I suspect they might be missing the point of the Steam service in the first place. Steam has effectively become the iTunes for digital game purchases, a fairly insurmountable giant, and lately has been getting peoples attention by supporting smaller, indie developers, not just the big AAA titles. Don't see how even EA's money can go toe to toe with Steam.

Having said that, it might force Steam to re-jig some of its pricing, because let's face it: as awesome as Steam is, it is NOT the cheapest.

wayne040576

pixelburp wrote: »

I hope my existing EA games on STeam don't mysteriously disappear.


Having said that, it might force Steam to re-jig some of its pricing, because let's face it: as awesome as Steam is, it is NOT the cheapest.

But the prices on Steam are set by the publishers not by valve.

Chairman Meow

wayne040576 wrote: »

But the prices on Steam are set by the publishers not by valve.

Which is why steam versions always cost about 10 euro more than a boxed retail copy.

wayne040576

It's the same on most of the online providers.
The publishers keep the prices at their recommended retail value 49.99. The retailers undercut this.

They won't go below the retail box prices because they're afraid of pissing off the retail stores. There was an article about this by Brad Wardell a couple of years ago when he still owned Impulse. They had a lot of problems getting the prices down especially in Europe because the European retailers would refuse to stock the boxed copies if the online version was cheaper.

They had to fight get Demigod released at the same price worldwide.

Fnz

That's really annoying. I was willing to pay the Steam tax for Battlefield 3; just for the ease of access to my Steam friends list.

I hope this does not come to pass. :mad:

cherryghost

I kinda understand it tbh. Doesn't Steam have something like 85% of digitial PC sales? EA would love a slice of that.

Oh, and you don't lose your EA games on Steam. However, you can add your EA Steam keys to the Origin platform, so you have double the choice (I emailed them a few days ago as I already have an EA Store account)

Antar Bolaeisk

Any game that's an exclusive game to Origin will be a lost sale for me. I also can't see too many other publishers wanting to sell their games on Origin considering EA is a competing business unlike Valve.

cherryghost wrote: »

Oh, and you don't lose your EA games on Steam. However, you can add your EA Steam keys to the Origin platform, so you have double the choice (I emailed them a few days ago as I already have an EA Store account)

That's interesting! One of the things I hated most about GFWL, apart from the interface, the shoddy updating and the general uselessness of it was the fact that it didn't allow me to download games purchased on the shelf.

cherryghost

The older EA Downloader system allowed you to add keys to your account and download them too. Very handy but the interface was awful. Haven't tried EA Origin yet.

Overheal

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Any game that's an exclusive game to Origin will be a lost sale for me.

For me as well. This stinks of Spore.

This of course also means I won't get to finish Mass Effect Trilogy

edit: oh wait, piracy. i forgot about piracy. lol

Elmidena

wayne040576 wrote: »

But the prices on Steam are set by the publishers not by valve.

I preordered portal 2 for €25 on gamestop, whereas Steam charged €44 for preordering. Effectively, I bought two copies of the game (one for me, one for my partner) at what would have cost me one game on Steam.

Since Valve made Portal 2, I don't really see how your argument works here. Retailers wouldn't be giving games away at a 50% loss. And digital versions are meant to cost LESS as you have no disc, leaflet, packaging etc...

cherryghost

Activating Steam keys on Origin is hit and miss. Got my Bad Company 2 key activated but Crysis was a no-go.

Origin in Beta, and it looks like an alpha tbh. Very basic. A few plus sides is that you can link your Facebook, Xbox Live and PSN usernames to the account to link friends, and the downloading is full speed (probably because nobody is on it :rolleyes:).

Seems the Securom has completely gone off some games too. I reached my limit on Burnout Paradise but am able to get through the install process as I speak. Probably no longer needed as Origin tries to copy the Steam process

Antar Bolaeisk

Just tried it out there now and I'm already sick of that circle thing spinning around. The client seems to take an age to do anything!

On the plus side I was able to add some of my boxed games to my account, namely Dead Space and Mass Effect 2 although I couldn't add Crysis or Mass Effect 1. For some stupid reason though you need to restart the client for the games to appear in your "My Games" section. I also need to have the cd in for Mass Effect 2 but this could be because it picked up on the game having been previously installed so a re-download might fix that.

You can add friends straight away from Facebook, PSN and xBox/GFWL which is a nice feature though it didn't add any for me.

For some odd reason the website has a tab for special offers but this doesn't seem to be available in the client even though the offers really only include DLC at the moment. They could have done with a killer offer to get people excited, even Microsoft got this right with the GFWL marketplace.

I can't have a space in my name and I can't choose my own avatar, these are basic things, get them right please.

The in-game overlay is very snappy and has the basics, friends and a web browesr, nothing new here either.

It's still in beta and while I may have been a little bit rash to proclaim the lost sale thing earlier I'm not very impressed at the moment. There's nothing here which would make me want to use it, Steam does all this for me already and better.

Overheal

Sunshine! wrote: »

I preordered portal 2 for €25 on gamestop, whereas Steam charged €44 for preordering. Effectively, I bought two copies of the game (one for me, one for my partner) at what would have cost me one game on Steam.

Since Valve made Portal 2, I don't really see how your argument works here. Retailers wouldn't be giving games away at a 50% loss. And digital versions are meant to cost LESS as you have no disc, leaflet, packaging etc...

But do you know who their physical distributor was? Check your Portal 2 box...

I'll try and but My C&C first decade on there, only because the stupid thing never worked right in the first place. Not that I think theyve fixed anything. Of course not. When has EA ever supported it's older titles? Hmmm, neeeever.

kearneybobs

cherryghost wrote: »

The older EA Downloader system allowed you to add keys to your account and download them too. Very handy but the interface was awful. Haven't tried EA Origin yet.

It's pretty much the exact same as before. The only difference is that you can now add friends to the client. I tried to add my PSN friend sot the client and it said that I had no friends! :eek::(
Actually it says that none of your PSN friends are using Origin. I wonder why!

EA can remove their games from Steam till the cows come home. I wont be buying them via Origin, ever! At least on Steam they had chance of me buying it digitally. I have three DD services that I'm will and happy to buy from, Gamersgate, D2D and Steam. No more, no less. If I'm going to be buying an EA game I'll buy the boxed copy.

Sierra Oscar

cherryghost wrote: »

I kinda understand it tbh. Doesn't Steam have something like 85% of digitial PC sales? EA would love a slice of that.

I think EA realize how lucrative the digital distribution market is! They want to change the market, they want to make Origin the first stop shop for online games instead of Steam.

Its not going to happen though - I feel too many people are already using Steam and will not want to have the hassle of using two or more clients at once. So they will stick to the client they know well and have their games on.

pixelburp wrote: »

I hope my existing EA games on STeam don't mysteriously disappear.

Don't worry that will most certainly not occur! There is sort of a limbo in terms of whether EA will still actively provide support for their games on Steam, it seems they are obliged to. That should be clarified soon .

Anyway I think EA have started off on a bad note with Origin. There are already download limits and the like - http://support.ea.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2085/~/origin-lifetime-download-limit-error-message

Overheal

Sierra Oscar wrote: »

Don't worry that will most certainly not occur! There is sort of a limbo in terms of whether EA will still actively provide support for their games on Steam, it seems they are obliged to. That should be clarified soon .

Anyway I think EA have started off on a bad note with Origin. There are already download limits and the like - http://support.ea.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2085/~/origin-lifetime-download-limit-error-message

Overheal wrote:

This stinks of Spore.

pixelburp

Are Steam still doing their 1:1 conversion rate on US/Euro prices?

kearneybobs

pixelburp wrote: »

Are Steam still doing their 1:1 conversion rate on US/Euro prices?

Yup. They've even gotten into the habit of doing 1:1 on £/$ occasionally. :eek:

CramCycle

Sunshine! wrote: »

I preordered portal 2 for €25 on gamestop, whereas Steam charged €44 for preordering. Effectively, I bought two copies of the game (one for me, one for my partner) at what would have cost me one game on Steam.

Since Valve made Portal 2, I don't really see how your argument works here. Retailers wouldn't be giving games away at a 50% loss. And digital versions are meant to cost LESS as you have no disc, leaflet, packaging etc...

Does this mean that you will have to sign upto Origin to play future EA releases like you have to with certain games and steam?

kearneybobs

CramCycle wrote: »

Does this mean that you will have to sign upto Origin to play future EA releases like you have to with certain games and steam?

Although it hasn't been confirmed, I doubt it very highly if that wasn't going to be the norm with future EA games.

the_syco

Hrm.. once I can still add them as a non-steam game, I'll be happy...

Br4tPr1nc3

theyre games used to always be mainly on their own digital distribution store,
which used to be ea downloader, and ea link?

im sure they will be in shops also, which have actually been selling games a lot cheaper than steam lately.

steam has gotten too big and popular, that they are beginning to charge whatever they like also.

Black ops was something like 60 quid on steam, while it was 40/50 in shops at release.

Nollog

None of their games are must-have for me so far, so I'll just be sticking with Valve.

the_syco

Br4tPr1nc3 wrote: »

Black ops was something like 60 quid on steam, while it was 40/50 in shops at release.

Steam does it's own exchange rate at a set point in time, and the game comes out as that. The shops seem to go by a different exchange rate, which allows them to sell it cheaper, it would seem.

ProjectColossus

I've been looking forward to buying and playing Crysis 2 for a while, and I would have gotten it on Steam. I'm not getting it on Origin, so I guess it will have to be retail. I haven't pirated a game in nearly 3 years (before which I pirated a fair bit) but damn, I'm so very tempted to pirate it now just to say "up yours, EA".

It's annoying me that they've pulled it, that was an option available to me as a consumer, but now it's been taken away from me. If it had never been on Steam, I'd probably be fine with that. Having said that, I think preventing new and future games from being available on Steam (Alice for example and probably Battlefield) is a really bad idea. I don't think Origin is going to be able to compete with Steam, users will be reluctant to move to an additional DD platform. But then what do I know, except that I don't want it.

CramCycle

ProjectColossus wrote: »

I've been looking forward to buying and playing Crysis 2 for a while, and I would have gotten it on Steam. I'm not getting it on Origin, so I guess it will have to be retail. I haven't pirated a game in nearly 3 years (before which I pirated a fair bit) but damn, I'm so very tempted to pirate it now just to say "up yours, EA".

But is there a possibility that you will have to sign up to Origin regardless to activate it?

Gunmonkey

pixelburp wrote: »

Are Steam still doing their 1:1 conversion rate on US/Euro prices?

Australian site but you can compare prices with the €, $ and £.

It doesnt work out well for the € on most counts