DA2 now also gone from Steam

[Echo35]

For those who don't know, EA stuff has been slowly disappearing from Steam, and it seems DA2 is the latest. Everyone keeps saying it's because EA wants to distribute things through Origin and in game stores (As is the case with DA2) which violates the Steam agreements, but there HAS to be something else going on here. I can think of plenty of other games that sell expansions and DLC either in game or through a different service (Pretty much every game that uses G4W sells extra content exclusively through xbox.com) so why just EA? What else do you think is going on?

[KingIsaacLinksr]

DA2 grabs its DLC via an in-game downloader, rather than via Steam itself. This seems relevant to earlier EA comments that ‘changed’ terms and conditions in Steam were causing some of its other games, most notably Crysis 2, to be booted off by Valve. Essentially, the claim is that if a game downloads and/or sells downloads via another medium or service, it’s violating its Steam arrangement. While previous EA/Steam argy-bargies have been related to EA’s rival service Origin, DA2 uses its own built-in launcher. As Destructoid observe, if the DLC is indeed the cause of the vanishing, fixing things would require actually altering the game. D’toid also alleges sources have told ‘em that DA2?s vanishing is indeed down to the Legacy being available from an in-game store rather than via Steam.

(From Rock paper shotgun blog). http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/07/27/the-fade-dragon-age-ii-gone-from-steam/#more-67783

King

[Elukka]

What's going on is that Origin can't really compete with Steam, so they make their games exclusive to Origin so that their customers are forced to use it.

[Cyborg]

Between this and taking down multiplayer servers, I just can't bring myself to buy from them anymore. They need to start using cloud computing to share server resources among the games people want to play, even if it draws players from their more current games.

[eRe4s3r]

Steam has a REALLY valid reason for doing this though

1) Download game from steam - steam now knows what version of the game this is, what DLC is installed
2) Suddenly, you skip steam and install DLC 2
3) Steam does not know that DLC 2 is legit and thinks its a crc mismatch, repatches (actually, redownloads all files that fail check
4) When you install and reinstall you would expect DLC 2 to be installed as well, but Steam can not know about DLC 2 if its not sold via Steam. Therefor you suddenly have to mess around with your steam install every time a patch for the game is released (because that patch would break the DLC when steam applies it without knowledge of the DLC)

[Echo35]

DA2 grabs its DLC via an in-game downloader, rather than via Steam itself. This seems relevant to earlier EA comments that ‘changed’ terms and conditions in Steam were causing some of its other games, most notably Crysis 2, to be booted off by Valve.

I've heard this tossed around but I honestly can't believe that's the case. There are PLENTY of other games on Steam that use DLC through a 3rd party site (Anything that uses G4W Live uses Microsoft for it's DLC. I had to buy my Section 8: Prejudice map packs through xbox.com, not through Steam) so I think there's something else going on here.

What's going on is that Origin can't really compete with Steam, so they make their games exclusive to Origin so that their customers are forced to use it.

And this is exactly my theory. EA shows up to the party 7 years late and has to compete somehow. I mean really, between GamersGate, Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse, Good Old Games, OnLive, etc. they're just a drop in the bucket without doing something. It reminds me a lot of this - http://www.xkcd.com/927/ Only with more idiocy involved.

Steam has a REALLY valid reason for doing this though

1) Download game from steam - steam now knows what version of the game this is, what DLC is installed
2) Suddenly, you skip steam and install DLC 2
3) Steam does not know that DLC 2 is legit and thinks its a crc mismatch, repatches (actually, redownloads all files that fail check
4) When you install and reinstall you would expect DLC 2 to be installed as well, but Steam can not know about DLC 2 if its not sold via Steam. Therefor you suddenly have to mess around with your steam install every time a patch for the game is released (because that patch would break the DLC when steam applies it without knowledge of the DLC)

This too. Especially with how their new downloader works, all the customer support calls they would get with people raging at them for "losing" DLC they didn't ven get through Steam in the first place would be a nightmare. Also, what if when DLC2 comes out, the game has a patch a little while later? How would Steam be able to automatically patch your game with the right patch if it didn't know what you even had installed?

[KingIsaacLinksr]

All I know is, Mass Effect 3 could possibly be the last game I buy from them, though it looks like I'll have to trot over to the local retail shop to pick up a copy...

I'm getting tired of EA's attitude about its customers...which is why I prefer Indie devs

King

[Echo35]

All I know is, Mass Effect 3 could possibly be the last game I buy from them, though it looks like I'll have to trot over to the local retail shop to pick up a copy...

I'm not even sure I'll buy that. I mean, I love ME to death, don't get me wrong, but 2 was so-so and with what they're saying about 3 (Making it 'more accessible' and the like) and all this BS going on lately, it may very well be a no-buy.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

All I know is, Mass Effect 3 could possibly be the last game I buy from them, though it looks like I'll have to trot over to the local retail shop to pick up a copy...

I'm not even sure I'll buy that. I mean, I love ME to death, don't get me wrong, but 2 was so-so and with what they're saying about 3 (Making it 'more accessible' and the like) and all this BS going on lately, it may very well be a no-buy.

So far of what I've heard, they are overhauling the combat to be more interesting so that's something .  Melee, no more needing to be crouched behind stuff, etc.  As for the "more accessible" thing, well, some parts of the game weren't exactly fun now where they?  *planet scanning*

So idk, we'll see. 

King

[Echo35]

o far of what I've heard, they are overhauling the combat to be more interesting so that's something .

By whose standards? Fans or twitch generation CoD players?

[KingIsaacLinksr]

o far of what I've heard, they are overhauling the combat to be more interesting so that's something .

By whose standards? Fans or twitch generation CoD players?

Knew that response was coming
-Fans  .  Was not a terribly big fan of the combat system in either game, it was...adequate at best.  But I'm no COD player so they will have to say if it was terrible or not. 

King

[Nalgas]

I don't even really care why they're doing it anymore (unless it's something evil on Valve's part, but that seems unlikely considering that it's only EA that's pulling stuff), only that they stop.  Well, I'm curious what's going on, but at this point whatever.

It's great that they want their own store and everything, but I don't want that to be at the expense of things being available elsewhere.  I dread the thought of every publisher having their own online store some day, with nowhere else you can get their stuff from.  Considering how badly EA screwed up the previous incarnation of the EA Store/EA Download Manager and the BioWare Social Network and the DLC for DAO and ME2, I have very little hope for Origin not sucking.

On the plus side, I seem to be losing interest in more and more of their games over time, even BioWare's (we'll see if I can work up the interest/effort to finish ME2), so maybe it won't even matter for me.  Heh.

[Nalgas]

And hilarity ensues as EA embarks on what's apparently the Origin equivalent of the Steam summer sale:

"Get ready for a huge summer game sale from Origin Powered by EA. For three days only select PCDD games will be available for only $4.99. That's not all though, Origin Powered by EA is also offering 40% off select console games plus free Need for Speed Shift. Trust us; this is one sale you do not want to miss!"

Somehow a single page of games on sale, half of which is padded out with Sims 2 stuff, does not strike me as terribly compelling after the 1300+ Steam had.  Hell, it's not even terribly compelling next to Civ5 being on sale for $12 right now, which is kind of sad if that's the best they can do.  Heh.

[zoutzakje]

I honestly hope EA isn't removing everything from steam. I'm not a really big fan of most of their games, but if they ever make a Dead Space 3, I MUST have it.

[Nalgas]

The thing with Valve is that at least Steam carries a ton of stuff other than their own games, and it has plenty of reasons to use it beyond just DRM, so it's won a lot of people over.  It sure would be nice if you could use their games without it as an option, though.  As much as I tolerate or even like Steam, there are still a lot of things that could go wrong with it at any time...

With Blizzard's and now EA's options, they only have their own games.  Blizzard does have a bunch of potentially neat features (and some potentially evil ones) they've included or been trying out, but when they only affect a couple games, they're kind of pointless in the grand scheme of things.  EA has more games to work with, but they don't seem to have any grasp of the concept of adding features that make the customers want to use their service because it's good instead of because they have no choice.

Edit: And apparently the post I was replying to just mysteriously vanished before I hit the button to post this...