News EA: 'Dragon Age 2 DLC caused removal from Steam'

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/07/29/ea-dragon-age-2-dlc-caused-removal-from-ste/1

 

There are plenty of games on steam that sell extra DLC.
It would seem to me that EA wants to do it another way, and Steam said, "No Way, what makes you special ?".

 

Certainly sounds like BS to me.

EA want to push Origin, and sadly, Origin will never take off.

 

Die in a fire Origin.

 

What he said.

 

I am wondering if it is because for mass effect and dragon age you do not buy DLC via steam, instead you buy "bioware" points and then get the DLC from a third party source. Whilst this has been done for years, maybe something has changed. I bet it is origin related though.

At this rate it looks like mass effect 3 will not be on steam. Screw origin, I'll just buy the game from Amazon

 

Wondr how long till EA, gives up on origin and just goes and buys valve and steam.

 

afaik, steam has a problem with DLC that isnt sold through steam (i.e. valve doesnt get a cut of the price) and thats pretty much the root of the problem. EA wants the whole price for the DLC content and valve wants a cut... IMO Valve should suck it up as they are already making tons of money from EA titles and losing out of some DLC profits will be better in the long run. If another publisher also offer DLC directly through them then those games will also get removed from steam.

 

Will I still be able to redownload my copy of DA2 from steam?

 

NFS Shift 2's free DLC is on Origin only
Crysis 2 was pulled from steam
Now DA2

....

I think it's clear what they're doing is pushing their Origin platform pretexting BS to make steam look mysteriously evil.

 

Rumour has it the new Steam Terms of Service that were implemented this year state that any DLC released after the ToS start for a base game that is on Steam must be sold through Steam also, rather than in-game or through any seperate store or website. So any pre-existing Bioware/GFWL (etc) DLC is fine, but new DLC must be sold through Steam. As & when new DLC is released that doesn't conform to this new ToS, the "offending" base game is removed from Steam.
I see both sides of the argument & both parties seem to be being stubborn & potentially losing out as a result & hurting their fan-bases, but in the long run, there is potential gain for them if they stick to their guns. So I think they'll play it out for some time before anyone buckles... if at all.
EA would seem to be in the weaker position... but they're big & strong enough to weather a rough transition, especially with Battlefield 3 & Mass Effect 3 under their belt (possibly the biggest PC games of this & next year?)

It's a bit of a bugger as I'd like to keep all my games in one place & at the moment that place is Steam. I don't intend to invest any money in Origin until I know it'll stick around & even then it'll have to play a few aces to get me, personally, to choose it over Steam & the bulk of my "library" for any potential purchase. But it might do good for a while if it creates some competion for Steam that consumers benefit from.

But I'm getting bored of all the drawn out positioning & fact-less press releases now.

 

I don't see what the big issue is, it's not unreasonable for EA to want to get all of the money for their products, they've got stuff people want, and they've got a distribution service they want to push, and people are surprised they are going to release stuff on their own thing, rather than a rivals?

 

soon it will be the other way round. but i think Valve have too much sense.

It strikes me as odd that for years EA havent had a problem with how Valve is run, then all of a sudden they are too restrictive. Just when Origin is about to launch.

Someone get the scooby snacks, this ones a puzzler...

 

As you said, the other way round.

Valve didn't have a problem with how EA/Bioware DLC was run (look at Mass Effect (1+2), Dragon Age and their DLC). Suddenly they now want a slice of the DLC Pie and are throwing EA out of the metaphorical pram until they get it.

 

I don't care who's at fault here, I just wish both companies would grow up and start acting like adults for the good of the consumer.

 

Valve is completely privately owned, they have no shareholders or investors outside of the company. Valve employees own Valve, so EA wouldn't just be able to buy them like that.

 

I don't think that is what's happening. It looks like Valve aren't happy with EA making DLC "Origin" only, not that they're selling outside of Steam.

 

I think it is a fair point that Valve make. Why would anyone buy a game through steam, if they can only get the DLC through Origin? Especially if there is the potential that Origin based DLC doesn't work on a Steam base game.

If the expansion isn't available to buy through Steam, will Valve even be sent a version of it to make compatible with their base version and overlay etc? Will it be updatable(sp?) through Steam?

 

It's been done before, the Mass Effect PC DLC ("Pinnacle Station" and "Bring Down the Sky" - before the latter went free) was only available via the EADM store and nowhere else.

Also, all the ME2 DLC and DA DLC are (and have always been) only available via the "Bioware Points" system.

It's just that Steam changed their T&Cs between the release of them and DA2/Crysis 2 that has caused them to be removed.

As for making DLC "Origin" only... i personally can't find the "Legacy" DLC on the Origin site, only via Bioware's own DLC store.

 

There's a lot of talk of Origin being the main reason for this... yet the only DLC i can find on the Origin site is the Shift 2 "Free DLC". This means i have to make the assumption that all the DLC in question which violates Steam's TOS is through their own ingame store.

As for not working with Steam... i've personally had no issues with any of my DLCs (namely the ME1 DLCs and Bad Company 2: Vietnam). I've also successfully integrated the Steam version of ArmA 2 and a shop-bought copy of Operation Arrowhead... incompatibility so far for me is personally a moot point.

Also, i just get the feeling if perceptions of the companies' were the other way round, this would labelled as a marketing ploy by Valve to get negative press for Origin... simply because it's been released just before this incident, yet doesn't seem to have anything to do with it (see above for Origin+DLC comments).