Rumor: Battlefield 3 May Arrive on Steam After All
EA and Valve are supposedly ironing out their differences so that Battlefield 3 can be added to Steam.
BF3Blog reports that Electronic Arts and Valve Software are in late-stage talks to get Battlefield 3 on the Steam digital distribution platform. The two are supposedly very close to reaching an agreement over sales of the game's DLC content -- the very factor that has kept Battlefield 3 off Steam thus far. But if all goes well and the details are ironed out, the highly-anticipated shooter should be available on Valve's platform in time for its October 25 launch.
Earlier this year Electronic Arts pulled several games off Steam after it launched its own rival digital distribution platform, Origin. The company stated that the games were removed due to some restrictive Steam rules concerning updates and DLC sales: EA wants to do business directly with the gamer, and Valve wants it done through Steam. Unable to reach an agreement, EA said its PC games would be available on other platforms, but certain titles and special editions would in fact remain as Origin exclusives, including Battlefield 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
"We want to be able to support our customer directly," said COO Peter Moore at Gamescom. "If there are opportunities to do that, then we'll do that. If Valve, through Steam are willing to allow us to do that, then there are no issues whatsoever. In the instances where you're not seeing a game on Steam, it's primarily because we can't deal directly with our consumer to resolve issues and do things we want to be able to do."
Earlier this week EA Europe's Jens Uwe Intat said that EA and Valve still have a good working relationship despite the dispute, a relationship that will likely see Valve continuing to choose EA as publisher and distributor of its boxed products.
"Valve is run by very clever people, and I would say that's also true for Electronic Arts, we're all good business people," Intat told GamesIndustry.biz. "So, Valve, when they're looking for distribution for their products, looking at which publisher could actually do that, then I think we're the best publisher on the planet, both in Europe and North America. We have a long history of distributing Valve products and I think for every title they will look for who will do the best job. There's no strain on that relationship because we're competing in one space."
Intat points out that every first party manufacturer is a partner of EA when it comes to distributing their product, but they're also a competitor when it comes to their own software. "I think, as an industry, we're pretty good at competing and co-operating at the same time," he added.
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Fuck yeah!
About time.. I don't want to bother with Origin. I like Steam, I trust Steam.
i wudnt be surprised if a lot of people came over from the origin camp... theyre preorders must be weakkk
OMG... THEY DO THIS AFTER I PREORDER FROM EA... WTF.
hahaha i knew waiting was a good idea XD
Good thing I didn't buy it off Origin yet. I'm sorry EA, I will not have you snoop through my HDD for personal info to sell. I hope it doesn't require an Origin account to play. That would suck.
OMG... THEY DO THIS AFTER I PREORDER FROM EA... WTF.
Yea for real....now wtf do I do, get a refund before it's to late and hope BF3 comes on steam??
Yea for real....now wtf do I do, get a refund before it's to late and hope BF3 comes on steam??
just get a refund, purchase again later if you have to
I wonder what will happen for those of us who preordered via Origin
I pre-ordered from Best Buy, would I be able to play it through Steam or is Origin still required to play it?
I don't mind origin...
I pre-ordered from Best Buy, would I be able to play it through Steam or is Origin still required to play it?
as of now, origin is required for all purchases on the PC. wouldn't be surprised if even the STEAM version required origin, something like gfwl on steam. it would be annoying, but i'd still choose that over just origin only. i'm a weirdo.
"We want to be able to support our customer directly"
that should be read as:
"We want to be able to snoop our customer's PC directly"
I am sure all BF3 keys will work on Steam if they make this deal. So those who bought it on Origin will no doubt be able to activate it on steam.
I just cancelled my origin order. The guy on the other end said that if you ordered it through origin, you will play it through origin just like any other game, it will not be a steamworks game that will have interchangeable keys . He also said that they've had tons of cancellations today and had heard the rumor.
Now if they could just put back Crysis 2 support.
At last! some sense is coming back to EA...
i dont care. Physical copy here. i have a few games on EA store before Origin, all of them got ported. pretty nice to have all my physical copies ported over to digital copies.
I like the fact EA changed their term of service agreement. It no longer does those things like what steam still does. Strange that NO FUCKING NEWS MEDIA COVER IT.
Wow, I may buy it after all
I understand a company wants control its own distribution methods, but there's nothing to be hurt by being on Steam.
so now you will launch BF3 from steam, it will open origin, then it will open battlelog on your browser and then it will open the game.
Strange that NO FUCKING NEWS MEDIA COVER IT.
Didn't you hear? Steve Jobs is dieded. That's way more important than everything.
as of now, origin is required for all purchases on the PC. wouldn't be surprised if even the STEAM version required origin, something like gfwl on steam. it would be annoying, but i'd still choose that over just origin only. i'm a weirdo.
Yea, I'm betting on this more than anything.
LOL Long live fail steam =(
I would just like to let everyone know that Steam collects the same info that Orgin does pretty much.
For anyone interested, look it up, but in that EULA that most people just click "Yes" on, Steam is basically allowed to collect any information it pleases, just like Orgin. Not that [enter company here] will, but you give them the OK once you accept that EULA.
Good thing I didn't buy it off Origin yet. I'm sorry EA, I will not have you snoop through my HDD for personal info to sell. I hope it doesn't require an Origin account to play. That would suck.
Considering Battlefield 3 uses Battlelog to play the game, and Battlelog requires a EA/Origin account, and since an EA Account is the same thing as a Origin account; yes, it will require Origin.
Luckily for you, if you played BFBC2, you already have an Origin account.
As for Origin vs Steam, both do the same thing, haven't found one better than the other yet. The only thing Steam has going for them is their Steam store is MUCH bigger.
Ragnar-Kon hit the nail on the head. The only difference is that you'll click the BF3 icon in Steams window instead of Origin. Once you click the icon you'll be taken to the Battlelog Webpage where you have to log in using your Origin account name/PW. So in the end, it's the same damn thing lol.
Battlelog is a little buggy atm, but it's group/clan/friend/stats features are much better then steam's friend list. Don't get me wrong, I like steam, but Battlelog combined with BF3 is a lot of fun.
it better not. and if it does i better be able to activate on steam.
God this is BS, after I fricken was basically forced to pre order from ea because they said NO STEAM SUPPORT... I hope they have it up before the game drops.. I WILL CANCEL MY EA PRE-ORDER IN A HEART BEAT AND SWITCH TO STEAM! Origin is garbage...
Noob question here- seems almost every damn game in existence comes with software that snoops now days. From Securom, Origin, Steam, ect.
How feasible would it be to run these in some sort of virtual box to keep them from looking around? Is it even possible and if so how much of a performance hit would you be looking at?
I hope they just do away with origin.Not just let us purchase it on steam but also play through it as well.If they have that you can purchase but still have to log in and use origin then I don't see the point.
I think EA has woke up and knows most of us PC gamers want nothing to do with their Origin (STEAM Copycat) service. PC gamers are also more savvy than your run of the mill kiddie console player.
STEAM is not too bad and it works in offline mode, hear that Acti-Blizzard/Diablo, FU Blizzard. Not buying any of your shit.