EA Explains Why Crysis 2 Was Pulled from Steam

A few weeks ago, EA re-launched its online store as "Origin" and announced that digital PC versions of Star Wars: The Old Republic and Battlefield 3 would be exclusive titles. Shortly thereafter, Crysis 2 disappeared from Valve's Steam digital distribution platform and then re-appeared on Origin, also slated as an exclusive.

At first it appeared as if EA was planning to move all of its high-profile PC games over to Origin, but it was later discovered that GamersGate and Direct2Drive still carried Crysis 2 in their libraries. Speculation thus followed, questioning whether there was some kind of turmoil going on between EA and Valve. Eventually that was indeed proven to be the case: Valve booted Crysis 2 right off of Steam in one swift kick.

"It's unfortunate that Steam has removed Crysis 2 from their service," an EA representative clarified. "This was not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA. Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers hoping to sell content on that service - many of which are not imposed by other online game services. Unfortunately, Crytek has an agreement with another download service which violates the new rules from Steam and resulted in its expulsion of Crysis 2 from Steam. Crysis 2 continues to be available on several other download services including GameStop, Amazon, Origin.com and more."

EA's head of global e-commerce David DeMartini gave a more thorough explanation on Wednesday, saying that EA authorizes all of its games to be served up on digital distribution platforms, but only on certain conditions. "We take direct responsibility for providing patches, updates, additional content and other services to our players," he said. "You are connecting to our servers, and we want to establish an ongoing relationship with you, to continue to give you the best possible gaming experience. This works well for our partnership with Gamestop, Amazon and other online retailers."

"Unfortunately, if we’re not allowed to manage this experience directly and establish a relationship with you, it disrupts our ability to provide the support you expect and deserve," he added. "At present, there is only one download service that will not allow this relationship (aka Steam). This is not our choice, and unfortunately it is their customer base that is most impacted by this decision. We are working diligently to find a mutually agreeable solution."

​DeMartini said that, going forward, EA will continue offering its games to all major download sites. So far, Valve has yet to respond to DeMartini's explanation.

  • I Would like to know what happened to the crysis 2 players on steam though. Are they still able to play their game? Were they refunded? or were they left out..
    Reply
  • memadmax
    Let the "games" begin!

    ROFL
    Reply
  • mrmoo500
    moonshireI Would like to know what happened to the crysis 2 players on steam though. Are they still able to play their game? Were they refunded? or were they left out..
    I have Crysis 2 through steam and nothing has appeared to change. I still get the updates, online access, and everything else. If I hadn't seen the news articles I would of never known it was pulled.
    Reply
  • mortifera142
    look EA....I love what you guys did with the published series battlefield and the works on bf3, but listen if you want bf3 to available to the pc market, valve/steam owns the pc market and your going to have to get over that and allow us gamers to enjoy the full extent of bf3, and no we will not use origin.
    Reply
  • toxxel
    This article doesn't clearly cover what the disagreement was over. Steam wants to manage DLC on their own, but EA/Crytek did something different with Crysis 2 and wanted to manage the DLC themselves. This went aaginst Steams agreement they have with supported tittles and pulled the plug over this decision.
    Reply
  • robochump
    Crysis pissed off allot of players because of their lack of PC support so no biggie regarding steam. Perhaps an EA pushing out the game too soon but either way it was not ready for PC at launch and required a huge separate patch to get the game PC worthy.
    Reply
  • hoofhearted
    I bet EA does not have the consumers best interest at heart, whereas Steam does. Steam saves, and provides users with a dialog to past the CD key and provides description when there are other limitations (install limits, monthly or ingame fees, etc). I am betting that there is some inherent DRM limitation (via patches and such). Somehow, I trust Steam to be more open, where there has to be more to what this EA PR representative is saying.
    Reply
  • I dont get it, what limitations? Lots of text, but nothing is really said. We can buy GFWL games on steam (for example bioshock2), and updates/DLCs are handled seperately from steam (via live client). So this magical Valve control over steam games seams like a big fat lie.
    Reply
  • madbiker
    Cloud computing is gonna soak the life out of your wallet, security & Identity and that is where this is all headed
    Reply
  • coupe
    Still can't connect to multiplayer. No support.
    Reply