Status EA Games on Steam?

[lart]

Have there been any updates, (besides the old information*) about the possibility that EA games will be available on Steam in the future?

* Something like...
EA: Steam terms do not let us communicate directly with our customers and unless something changes...
Steam: We are working closely to resolve this issue and try to show how it's beneficial for EA to have their games on Steam

[tmwfte]

No.

[Rhoarke]

EA has Origin which. Seeing as a lot of players will want to play EA's games anyway, every sale they do goes through either a retailer or their Origin shop. In short, they don't have to pay money to Valve anymore when a sale happens through Steam.

So no, knowing EA, the chance of them getting on Steam is pretty much nonexistant. Sorry mate.

[Mivo]

Originally posted by Rhoarke:

EA has Origin which. Seeing as a lot of players will want to play EA's games anyway, every sale they do goes through either a retailer or their Origin shop. In short, they don't have to pay money to Valve anymore when a sale happens through Steam.

Well, they have numbers, we don't. Valve takes about 30% from each sale, if the figures that float around are correct, so the crucial question is how many people do not buy EA games because they can't buy them on Steam, and how many people say, "I don't care." and buy them from Origin or in a retail store instead.

Considering how much pull some of EA's franchises have, and how few people usually put their money to where their mouth is, I would speculate that EA is probably not making less money. And as long as they don't make less money, and instead have a growing digital platform (is it growing?) of their own, I doubt we will see big EA releases on Steam.

Personally, I have not bought an EA game since Dragon Age 2, since that was the last one they offered on Steam. (Actually, I did get SW:TOR, but that was not tied to Origin). I don't want or need another digital distribution platform that uses a client (Steam and Desura work for me, plus GG, GMG and GoG). Resisting SimCity is pretty hard, though. :)

[ChrisW]

Originally posted by lart:

EA: Steam terms do not let us communicate directly with our customers and unless something changes...

That is just an excuse they invented in order to justify pulling their games from Steam. They never had any problem with that before that time. Do you really want Valve to share your personal information with EA so they can spam you? I don't.

[Sleeplessgamer]

EA was offering downloads via in game services, valve wanted a piece of that actiobn as well. ea said i dont think so. the end.

[ChrisW]

Originally posted by khellus:

EA was offering downloads via in game services, valve wanted a piece of that actiobn as well. ea said i dont think so. the end.

No, EA wanted to sell games on Steam and never offer Steam customers a way to ever get any DLCs for the game. They then allowed Steam customers to blame Valve for their customers not being able to purchase DLCs since people thought these games were being sold by Valve. They then wanted to tell their Steam customers they could register their games on Origin and be able to purchase DLCs, thus stealing Steam customers.

[ KARR™]

No. EA wanted to sell DLC *directly* to people for their steam purchased games - that isn't allowed on Steam. Crysis2 for an example was straight back on Steam, once the DLC was all released and was available as a one pack purchase.

They already HAD origin as a sort, its been through several names since it was created back in the days of Battlefield2 its just that it was given a big polish and update to bring it up to date and offer games and in-game services on it.

Of course you can register EA games on Origin. They are EA games, EA know which keys are valid and can offer them on their platform. It can't go the other way without EA releasing the complete catalogue of cd keys to Valve.

These days, because they are building games around Origin (eg: Battlefield 3) it's even more difficult to bring them to Steam, because they require Origin to run (like Steam is needed to run TF2/L4D, etc.). It'll only get more complicated as UbiSoft update their uPlay service, etc.

[Joscco]

I'm definitely disappointed that Crysis 3 and Dead Space 3 won't be available on Steam at launch, but I understand why EA is doing it financially. I have an Origin account, but I own all my PC games on Steam, and wouldn't really like to have games on Origin, games on UPlay, then a whole bunch on Steam, but that's just my preference.

[Power of Seven]

The short answer is that EA will never allow Valve to sell their games unless Valve gives them a special exception on their DLC policy. It's about money. In all likelihood, neither side is going to give because the amount of money at stake is huge.

For those that don't get why EA won't do it, here's the details:

Valve's new policy on Steam is that any game on Steam must also agree to sell their DLC on the Steam page. Anybody can sell the DLC elsewhere, but you have to sell it on Steam also. This is a smart move on Valve's part because it means fans of Steam can one-stop shop for games, and it also means that Valve gets a sweet cut of DLC money too. With Steam Wallet and gift cards, games and DLC are even easier to purchase on Steam. It makes no sense for Valve to back down from ths policy when it benefits them and their fans.

EA knows that the real profit in video games isn't the game itself but the DLC that follows it. Gaming is a tough (and occasionally dirty) business and EA wants to get as much money as possible. EA knows that once DLC is offered on Steam then fans won't buy it elsewhere, and Valve ends up with a rather large cut of money for their distribution. This means they can lose millions of dollars by putting DLC on Steam and they won't do it. Finally, EA really wants Origin to become a major rival so helping Steam does them no favors.

[lart]

Originally posted by ad3pt7:

I'm definitely disappointed that Crysis 3 and Dead Space 3 won't be available on Steam at launch, but I understand why EA is doing it financially. I have an Origin account, but I own all my PC games on Steam, and wouldn't really like to have games on Origin, games on UPlay, then a whole bunch on Steam, but that's just my preference.

It's less of my concern that these titles won't be available at launch, more the fact that I get the impression these and any published game by EA in the future won't be available at all on Steam.
I got the impression that the status quo is now set and talks are over as I couldn't find any updates on this issue at all, just facts put into stone. Reading this thread only reassures this feeling:(

[Chowder7116]

ETA: Never

[Τhe Rolling Cheese Wheel]

Why would you want to play Dead Space 3 anyways? It's a money grubbing pseudo f2p mmo with pay 2 win micro-transactions.

I imagine Crysis 3 will end up the same way.

[Keonyn ♣]

Originally posted by lart:

It's less of my concern that these titles won't be available at launch, more the fact that I get the impression these and any published game by EA in the future won't be available at all on Steam.
I got the impression that the status quo is now set and talks are over as I couldn't find any updates on this issue at all, just facts put into stone. Reading this thread only reassures this feeling:(

Well that just means I won't be buying EA games, no big deal. I'm certainly not going to be signing up for Origin. Besides, EA seems to be doing everything they can to neuter every franchise they've got in to the most obvious cash grab generic crap games imaginable. So in other words, EA is still just EA.

[alejandro]

What? EA is still publishing games?!
Jokes aside, for me it is as it stopped publishing games. I won't buy through Origin: They charge me with European prices (and in Euros) when I actually live in South America... They believe that we are still a Spanish colony, lol!

[lart]

Originally posted by Keonyn:

Well that just means I won't be buying EA games, no big deal. I'm certainly not going to be signing up for Origin. Besides, EA seems to be doing everything they can to neuter every franchise they've got in to the most obvious cash grab generic crap games imaginable. So in other words, EA is still just EA.

I don't agree that it's no big deal, they still have some great franchises, like i.e. DA/ME/SimCity/FIFA/BF .
On the other hand you're absolutly correct, since they went the Origin way they also came to the conclusion to release dumbed down/crappy games and burn each franchise they have left, which seems to be also true for new SimCity. So it's maybe more a fear what will happpen if they manage to release a great game:)