Crysis 2 pulled out from Steam

[somini]

So aparently Crysis 2 is no longer available on Steam.
According to their site http://www.ea.com/crysis-2/pc-download it says "Only on Origin", althought it's stll available in D2D,Impulse, etc.

Unconfirmed sources tell us that EA is in the process of making Origin the only digital distributor that sells EA games, and BF3,ME3 and TOR will be the "killer-apps". Another interesting information is that EA publishes Valve's games in retail.
Cue the flamewars...
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=433987
http://forums.steampowered.com/forum....php?t=1930418

[Cooper]

Gonna be getting ME3 in a box like the olden days then I guess...

[Wizardry]

So what happens if you own an EA game on Steam and the they pull it? Does that only mean you can't purchase it from then on, or does it mean you can't download it again if you uninstall it?

[Kodeen]

So what happens if you own an EA game on Steam and the they pull it? Does that only mean you can't purchase it from then on, or does it mean you can't download it again if you uninstall it?

I think the way it has worked, for the majority of games that have had this situation, is that the games are redownloadable for people who have already purchased it, but new purchases are not allowed. There may have been a game or two that were not redownloadable, not sure, so don't quote me on that.

[soldant]

Either that or they'll pull it entirely and give people access to it using Origin. Being Australian I'm used to getting absolutely shafted by digital distribution systems like Steam so pretty much nothing surprises me, but this one seems particularly ridiculous. Not that I own Crysis 2. No way in hell I'd be using Origin though if I can avoid it. They'll probably charge the same price as the retail box here in Australia (or even more if I get it from ozgameshop or something) so why would I bother?

Another interesting information is that EA publishes Valve's games in retail.

This I think is the most interesting issue of the lot. I don't think it'll matter in the long run though, worst that happens is Valve don't choose EA or EA refuses to publish a Valve game expecting it can throw its weight around. Valve probably won't care either way, they can find someone else to publish their games on actual discs. It might prompt Valve to release Episode 3 only on digital distribution channels though.

Wait, what am I saying? Valve release Episode 3? Those words don't belong in the same sentence.

[Dirtyboy]

I don't doubt that EA would try to move its games to Origin (at least its AAA titles), but probably should wait for an official response from either company before too much is read into it. If EA truly wants to build a competitive digital store they need to offer better prices and support and not just pull a Madden style brute force attack on customers.

[pkt-zer0]

This illustrates the problem I have with people defending GfWL/whatever simply because it's giving Steam "competition". The problem being that it's not really competition if all you're trying to do is cripple the other guy. The thought process here wasn't "how can we do something better than Steam?", but "how can we make Steam worse?".

[Rakysh]

I predict horrific digital sales for those games, followed by EA coming crawling back. Crawling back on their bellies like the snakes they are.

[Kablooie]

http://blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/738...origin-service

Competition is usually good for us consumers, but I'm hoping Origin goes down in flames, too.

[Mohorovicic]

"Competition is good as long as it's not against my favourite company"?

Hahaha.

[TheApologist]

Agreed this is not competition that is in any sense useful to the consumer.

But also, it just seems likely to lead to the latest piece of flawed, circular logic that will get the PC declared dead as a platform, and thus a dumb way to do business i.e. EA don't sell 3 upcoming AAA titles on Steam. PC sales for those titles fall sharply. EA looks at PC sales when commissioning games on different platforms. Sales have fallen. Ergo PC is dead and they stop releasing AAA games on PC. Which hurts PC etc. etc.

[TheApologist]

Mohorovicic - that's not what pkt-zer0 said though, is it? What was said was more like: "forms of competition that artificially reduce the purchasing choices of the consumer are not useful forms of competition for the consumer". Which is totally reasonable. I can understand you wanting choices in addition to Steam. But why is it good that a publisher denies you the choice of Steam or any other download platform in order to force you to use their one?

[Kadayi]

EA are clearly attempting to establish Origin as a viable DD platform. From their perspective as one of the biggest game publishers going with a large back catalogue of IPs it makes sense on paper to maximize their profitability, but I think that the reality is with Steam already the major market player in the DD space they are going to struggle to make much headway and in fact boycotting Steam is probably going to damage them greatly in terms of digital sales. Plus the pricing for digital downloads on origin is actually noticeably higher that buying retail.

http://store.origin.com/store/eaemea...00/ccRef.en_US

BF3 £39.99 where as you can get it for around £29.99 via play, game, amazon, etc etc

Sims medieval £39.99 where as at retail it's again around the £30 mark

There is no point launching a DD service with a view to it becoming a sales platform if your pricing isn't actually competitive against retail.

[Rossignol]

Yes, EA have such a big PC catalogue that they're clearly trying to get some inertia behind Origin. They are thinking that they can do with BF3 what Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike did for Steam. Good luck to them, I guess.

[Ice-Fyre]

I predict horrific digital sales for those games, followed by EA coming crawling back. Crawling back on their bellies like the snakes they are.

Don't be silly, they wont admit they were wrong to do it, they will say people downloaded it instead lol

[Icarus]

Gonna be getting ME3 in a box like the olden days then I guess...

Pretty much this, yes. I can't especially be bothered with a whole second client on my PC. Steam serves me just fine.

[Kadayi]

Yes, EA have such a big PC catalogue that they're clearly trying to get some inertia behind Origin. They are thinking that they can do with BF3 what Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike did for Steam. Good luck to them, I guess.

Well they need to make their pricing competitive with Retail/E-retail for a start if they remotely intend to become viable. Sure I suspect the majority of people are going to buy BF3 regardless, but unless EA realistically match retailer pricing all they are go is end up losing that 3rd Steam would of cost them to Retail/E-Retail instead. There is no gain made and they significantly reduce their digital presence at the same time.

Origin (presently) lacks for a majority of the community features that Steam possesses and unless EA are going to add those in, all Origins is destined to become is another background application people don't want running.

[riadsala]

Didn't gog.com just acquire permission to sell a load of EA games? Seems odd timing, even if the golden oldies are worth very little in terms of profit.

[Hocevar]

I don't see how it's competition if you remove your game from being sold in the biggest store in the digital sales market, it's just plain dumb, trying to force down our throat this "Origin" thing.

Also, everytime I hear "Origin" it makes me fucking angry since I remember how EA destroyed Origin Systems.

And how they DON'T FUCKING RELEASE SYSTEM SHOCK ON GOG, EVER


fuckers...

[soldant]

Plus the pricing for digital downloads on origin is actually noticeably higher that buying retail.

Come to Australia and check out the Steam prices. Digital distribution only remained cheap until people actually started using it.