EA blames Steam's “restrictive terms of service” for Battlefield 3 no-show

I don't see it happening. EA wants to bypass Steam and sell their DLC in-game. That's goes against Steam's rules. Simple as that. EA isn't going to back down and sell their DLC through Steam, and Steam isn't going to change their rules for one selfish brat.
 
EA wants to have exclusive distribution rights over their games. I believe they wanted to get rid of their games off of Steam and 'move' them exclusively to Origin.

I think they tested Valve and purposefully released Crysis' DLC exclusively to D2D. Now they trying to make out as if Valve is the 'bad guy'. This is a lot easier than pulling the plug themselves with less "PR" consequence. If they really wanted to remain on Steam, I doubt they would have made the same "mistake" twice (DA2)?
 
Yeah, they're just looking for an easy way to make their games Origin exclusive. As far as I know, most other digital distributors don't incorporate the games into their service like Steam does, so if BF3 is on Steam, it means it won't work with Origin. If it's on, say, Gamersgate, you'd still have to install Origin to play the game, because gamersgate merely lets you download the game, not play it through their service.
 
Mighty convenient how EA is suddenly bothered by the steam restrictions shortly after launching its own online distribution service...
 
There there is also this to consider (taken from Origin TOS):

We do not guarantee that any Content or Entitlement will be available at all times or at any given time or that we will continue to offer particular Content or Entitlements for any particular length of time. We reserve the right to change and update Content and Entitlements without notice to you. If you have not used your Entitlements or Account for twenty four (24) months or more and your Account has associated Entitlements, your Entitlements will expire and your Account may be cancelled for non-use. Once you have redeemed your Entitlements, that content is not returnable, exchangeable, or refundable for other Entitlements or for cash, or other goods or services.
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http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=348846
 
As an outsider its kind of hard to say who is to blame for what until either Valve or EA makes public exactly what it is they are disagreeing on, which is not going to happen.

"Unfortunately, Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content. No other download service has adopted these practices.". That's still quite vague. In what way does the way EA delivers "patches and other downloadable content" conflict with Valve's terms of service. As outsiders all we can do is speculate really.

It could be EA trying to be "evil", or Valve's TOS might have an unnecessary hoop to jump through that they may need to re-evaluate.
 
Blackhand said:
It could be EA trying to be "evil", or Valve's TOS might have an unnecessary hoop to jump through that they may need to re-evaluate.
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Nah, Valve's ToS merely state that content for games hosted on Steam has to be delivered through Steam. Steam then takes 30% of the money made from the sale for themselves, which I think is fair, because they have to pay for bandwidth used when players download the games. EA tried to bypass this by rule by selling DLC for their games in-game, therefore bypassing Steam entirely. This means Steam would host content they don't get any money for, which is unfair towards Steam. EA has to sell their DLC through Steam so Steam can take their 30% cut. EA was very much aware of this when they started selling their DLC in-game, which leads me to think it's a purposeful move on EA's part, so that they don't have to outright pull their games from Steam.

It's also funny that EA never had issues with this rule until after they launched Origin.
 
Thing is there have been plenty of games hosted on Steam which didn't sell their DLC through Steam, namely many of the GFWL games like Bioshock 2 and Fallout 3. Even Dragon Age Origins didn't and still doesn't have it's DLC available for purchase through Steam.
 
The whole steam system if flawed.. Call me old fashioned, but I do not enjoy paying for a game three times.
 
Pr⊕phet said:
Wow where did you pull that one out?
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Yeah don't you know, Steam always makes you buy the game 3 times before you can actually play it, sesh common everyone knows that. "whistling:

I've heard this argument before but last time it was only paying twice, I guess it must be inflation or something.
 
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KoosGP said:
The whole steam system if flawed.. Call me old fashioned, but I do not enjoy paying for a game three times.
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Pr⊕phet said:
Wow where did you pull that one out?
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MOnk said:
Yeah don't you know, Steam always makes you buy the game 3 times before you can actually play it, sesh common everyone knows that. "whistling:

I've heard this argument before but last time it was only paying twice, I guess it must be inflation or something.
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Pay 3 times? Never heard of that one before...

Anyway EA should just bite down and give it to steam they will make WAY more if it was on steam than if it was not. (money is what they want at the end of the day)

Other than that I don't care much as long as I get to play my Battlefield 3 DAMMIT!!
 
Neither system is perfect. Steam is kak annoying at times when you want to play and it tells you, Steam is unavailable, please try again later. And I can guarentee Origin is also going to have some major issues at startup. I just hope they test run it before they release BF3.
 
Graal said:
Nah, Valve's ToS merely state that content for games hosted on Steam has to be delivered through Steam. Steam then takes 30% of the money made from the sale for themselves, which I think is fair, because they have to pay for bandwidth used when players download the games. EA tried to bypass this by rule by selling DLC for their games in-game, therefore bypassing Steam entirely. This means Steam would host content they don't get any money for, which is unfair towards Steam. EA has to sell their DLC through Steam so Steam can take their 30% cut. EA was very much aware of this when they started selling their DLC in-game, which leads me to think it's a purposeful move on EA's part, so that they don't have to outright pull their games from Steam.

It's also funny that EA never had issues with this rule until after they launched Origin.
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Its not because of in-game DLC's, but rather because EA offered Direct-2-Drive an exclusive DLC.


Update: DeMartini told Gamasutra today that Crysis 2's removal from Steam was due to DLC being available through Direct2Drive, but not Steam.
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http://www.1up.com/news/ea-desire-stay-in-touch-keeping-games-off-steam
 
You have to wonder, why exactly would you want to create content and then only sell it on a minor partner in the digital distribution space.
 
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