EA explains Steam store absences

@Rjs01007 gotta disagree, Activision is more vile then EA, but not by much

@Mkherkzen maybe i gave my soul to Valve but they have proven they are worthy of it.

So EA is mad they can't completely oversee and dictate their products when sold though a 3rd party service? hey EA, QQ MOAR

@ DoomZaW Gosh, another one. Just tell me - how will they get more of my money for delivering their own patches to their own games via their own DLC platform and not the oh-so-marvelous "other download service"? Lots and lots of you people miss the point here. I'm defending EA because I can't agree with blaming them for what they didn't do. While they are a company, and their main aim is to earn more cash, don't forget that Valve is aimed at exactly the same thing.

In completely standard english language: We just want more of your money.

@ Hilamonsta Oh, how small is your knowledge about who's bigger here. EA may be the #2 game publisher in the world, but it's obviously Valve that keeps the majority of the PC DLC business and is harvesting poor souls like mad. Your sould included. I'm not even mentioning companies like Zynga, who are earning way more than both of these companies and controling more people than you can possibly imagine. I'm all for EA gaining more market share here, because monopoly never was and will never be a good thing. @ DanielL5583 Does the decission to leave out the middle man to be able to patch your own games by yourself mean they will own you or me? I guess not. And mind you, while you Steam-enthusiasts have so much problem with "EA wanting to buy your souls" you seem to forget that you gave them for free to Valve a long time ago.

EA, they may be your games, and that you own them... But know this. You will never own us gamers. Ever. No matter what.

I'm pretty sure EA's desire to buy and own every part of the videogame industry, including our souls, is what is interfering with their "ability to provide the support you expect and deserve".... not Valve's D2D service

@ Rjs01007 Correction - the infamous title of "most hated name in gaming" belongs to Mr Kotick from Activision :P @ Giga_Surfer You're mostly right, but keep in mind that it's not Valve who keeps servers for EA games, patches them and makes new content for them - it's all done by EA. Steam may be fantastic in delivering all that to the end customer, but it doesn't mean EA needs a middle man for doing this. Basically, the problem is that Valve didn't allow EA to patch their own games because they want everything to go through their DLC platform; EA disagreed and Valve has taken those games off Steam. They should make an agreement about their updaters and end this discussion before more people will chastise EA for something that was in fact done by Valve and not them.

This is BS mainly because I own a good amount of EA games, and their suport is simply bad, I'v seen worse but EA Customer Suport is pretty bad, id prefer Steam Support over EA Suport anyday, and I'm pretty sure EA is gonna give in, since steam is one of the main sources in PC sales, EA can't afford not having their games there.

They want to push their Origin. I buy my games on Steam Period!!! On the other end. The freaking mass effect2 cerberus is a little pain in the ass. Never remember my adress anymore.

An open comment to EA: Contrary to what you may think, we DON'T want to "build a relation" with you. In point of fact, EA is the most hated name in gaming, and that is because you pull crap like this.

@Doomling Awww nuts I never even thought of that....I really hope I can just play it without

Did anybody actually read the full statement, its Steam that have taken the games off, not EA. I had Crysis 2 in my wishlist for ages then went to buy it and it was gone. So I want to buy an EA Game If I play online I play on EA Servers If I need it updated I get patched from EA(through steam of course) If I get new download content it comes for EA(if I choose to purchase it) And I have to have the game activated through EA to play it! Cant see what the problem is, give them my email address(they already have it anyway) so they can say go on steam and buy x for y game, and while your there spend a small fortune on steam specials and get Crysis 2 back on steam. Or I may have to goto the shop and get it for a fraction on the advertised price(and I hate giving my money to GAME UK.

@ Kastigador Well, maybe it's because...it's EA and not Microsoft who hosts servers for their Xbox games? :P They have an agreement with MS thanks to which they control their own server infrastructure for their games on Live. They should make a similar agreement with Valve, so that people would be able to choose which updater they want to use and that's all. I can understand they want to control their games more closely, but this situation causes their already-not-so-fine reputation to get even lower.

This is a power play by EA saying "Fine, we're pulling the plug" to make Steam feel the pain. This will resolve itself when Steam caves.

Its a shame that Battlefield 3 is with EA.

The customers don't want that relationship though. We want to buy a game and simply be able to play it. Steam is perfect for that. Why does EA have to be difficult...

The gaming updates are always visible at the game news inside steam..

EA doesn't have a problem with Xbox Live handling patch delivery, DLC's, marketing emails, etc... but they have a problem with Steam? This is definitely just an excuse to build support inside their company for Origin which is their attempt to remove the middle man from the digital sales channel so they can make more money on a meager sales platform PC. Wonder what this "protest over principal" will cost them in the mean time though.

ya sure whatever man...

It's pretty obvious that EA is trying to use Origin to take some market share away from Steam. I don't think they'll succeed.

@ HeftySmurf Agreed on what you wrote, but I wouldn't say it's about "sharing the toy". From what I gather EA wants to patch their games on their own and it creates a conflict with the Steam's auto-update feature. Both companies should ASAP enable their customers to choose which (EA's or Steam's) updater they want to use and end this stupid discussion.

Yes I have difficulty taking this seriously. Steam is a stable, reliable platform and has a fantastic record when it comes to patching. I still register my games with individual companies and get support through them, and get patches when issued once released through the Steam platform. I can see where EA is coming from - establishing and building that relationship with the customer is very important for multiple reasons - but this sort of seems like "If I have to share the toy, I don't want it" behaviour. It's possibly also a front for their desire to build market share through their own distribution service, but this article doesn't provide enough evidence to support any conjecture in that regard.

@ diesellion9985 ROFL, how did you came to that conclusion? Has Valve paid you to post such "wise" thoughts? Both EA and Valve are big companies who have their DLC platforms and want to profit from their products. EA just wants to keep their games and gamers for themselves - why would they want others to gain cash for what's theirs? Even on Xbox Live EA has their own server infrastructure and they won't let Microsoft host their online content. I can understand their strategy and have no problems with buying EA games from EA, and not Steam. No offence, but insinuating that EA wants you to pay for just using their DLC platform is just plain dumb. @ kargion I'm with you on this one bro. Business is buisness, so they don't want others to handle their games - that's one. And EA has their own auto-update feature, so the one offered by Steam is just complicating things for their games - that's two.

im thinking that EA wants to charge for DLC or maybe even want people to pay subscriptions to be able to even buy the games and get updates via origin...and valve was like "nah nucca go f yourself!" that makes more sense seeing as EA loves money.

So, is this why Battlefield 3 pre-order is unavailable at Steam? I don't care really, because I don't use Steam or Origin and I buy boxed versions, but I can hear lots of people moaning about this :| And, if we're talking about Steam, I understand they may have a great offer, but I'm against one company having like 90% share of the whole PC DLC business. Steam stinks with monopoly, and I'm afraid they'll stop having good offers as soon as they kill off Origin, GOG, or whoever is still struggling to compete with Valve on that front. Beside, you people should first check other offers before you start booing at them. So, in a nutshell - Steam stinks, GOG & Origin FTW*! :P * - nah, I'm just joking ;)

99% of you didn't read the article or understand it. Basically if your game is on steam they want it updated through steam. So all patches and everything needs to go through them. EA wants to do this outside of steam and inform you of patches. This way if for some reason the update doesn't work they know its them not steam. This is a good thing. Please read guys.

Sounds to me like steam wasn't too happy with EAs constant obsession with sending advertisements and other spam to consumers.

Lol, as if they care about their customers.

EA = TOSSERS.

well you can say goodbye to my money then EA, especially because you're excuse sounds like a lie and steam has always been fantastic

I am still with steam on this, they have so many good offers and they even gave one of their best games for free(Team Fortress 2). What more could a gamer ask? EA i am disappoint, Steam FTW!!!!

we know truth it's enough for us there are more greedy companies there also :D

Now this seems to be a very odd statement. Since Steam auto-applies patches, why should we care about whether or not we're 'told' about them? If EA are concerned about games being 'stealth patched', they could include a splash page of update notes as part of the patch that displays on launch. Likewise, there seems to be no reason why they couldn't code the game itself to check for DLC updates and plug them (like MK9 does on the consoles, for example) No. Sorry EA, but I call shenanigans again.

Several of the new free to play games are updated through the game's launcher, and not automatically through Steam, so this is just a poorly veiled attempt to make more money.

I have a feeling that the only reason that there is an issue here is because EA likes to charge for useless updates, downloadable content, etc., while valve supports their player with content free of charge. So, in short, EA are greedy bastards, and Valve aren't! Valve/Steam wins!

Sounds like an excuse to mask the real reason to me.

@pewbert I remember too. It is grievous how EA does not really make games out of their own interest. Rather, it's just all about the money and whatever is lucrative, you can definitely expect EA to be there killing the crap out of that particular market/game/genre/etc... EDIT: Thank you Steam for deliverying us out of the evil clutches of EA

Firstly: EA is jealous; Secondly: Steam rocks; thirdly: Always bet on Steam.

There wont be a mutual agreement solution cuz EA wants to promote their own download platform...

EA Fails. Remember the days when they used to publish good games? E.g Medal of Honor Allied Assault, BF1942,bf2

Sounds like EA found a loophole to remove some games, trying to make Valve look bad in the process. If this was anything but, why would this happen right after EA revealed Origin?

So Steam protects me from being annoyed by publishers trying to get another buck from me? Awesome. Steam gets better and better.

This just doesn't seem like a valid reason. users don't care for that kind of stuff. I actually DON'T want EA contacting me by mails for any reason other than giving me a reciep for a purchase I made. And if I pruchase on steam, EA has no business emailing me. This actually put a dent on my usual habits as I won't be purchasing EA games for a while (I don't want to have accounts on too many platforms other than steam for security reasons) namely Battlefield 3. But that's too bad, go for it steam !

nice try, but it's all crap... if this is the case, how come all of EAs' games haven't been removed then? and i wouldn't feel 'impacted' by EAs' abscence.

Remember back in the day when we could play our games without having to be connected to the internet(or steam)? Those were the days.

Remember back in the early 90's when EA were a great company making awesome games. :(

STEAM>EA why would i believe EA if i know Steam and Steam provides info.and support more than EA ever did or will....EA = consolization Steam still supports the PC and MAC community , and i hope Steam will win the hearts of console players to (i think they have ps3 support or something)

Hahaha, that's the best joke I've ever heard! So seriously, why did EA pull those games from Steam again?