News Steam not listed in Battlefield 3 release plans

Where did you hear that Steam was not sufficient to push patches out ?

Never had any problems with Steam updates, found it very satisfying actually.

I would also surmise EA wants you info, and a direct tie to sell you more of their stuff.
Bet they don't do special offers as good and as often as on Steam

 

Exactly I've been doing this with all my alternative game digi download services, & theres me thinking we're getting lazy by not wanting to mess around with discs quite glad I broke out of the must only buy on steam way a while ago, great games being held away from steam until the hype completely died & then they get it on steam is what nudged me elsewhere especially region locking BS .

 

Maybe not, I agree with that but retail EA games you can input the cd key to get the digi download version so retail games go way cheaper than steam & direct from EA so it's all good .

 

Come on guys - your missing the point - this is the largest release for EA this year, there will be no better opportunity for EA than to leverage the anticipation and interest in BF3 towards increasing it's DL Platform user base. They started this push when they offered exclusive content for pre-ordering from EA, it's a tough business and everyone wants a piece of Steam's action.
Unfortunately none of the other offerings comes close to Steam's breadth of service offering (I've tried most of them), EA are covering this market grab opportunity with PR about providing the best service for their customers to hide their inability to directly compete with Steam...
I'm fairly sure the top bods at large publishers like EA and Activision are looking at Steam and wondering how they're going to make up all that lost ground. For EA the answer seems easy, remove their customers ability to choose platform (statistically Steam is the largest and you would anticipate should retain this share of BF3 DL's) and give them a choice of woeful alternatives of which only one has access to exclusive content (EA store).
Remember people - EA cares about it's shareholders BEFORE it cares about YOU the customer.. and before anyone argues that point - they are LEGALLY obliged to consider shareholders first as are all publicly limited companies. So don't be surprised if they make decisions that don't make sense to you the customer, they're not supposed to - they're to make the shareholders and senior management richer people. (we're all capitalists baby)
So if you don't like the idea of EA excluding Steam from it's distribution network but you do think EA will make a ton of money - then don't buy BF3, buy some EA shares ( trading at 24.50 - so you might be able to buy 2 instead fo the game).
Although if everyone did that - you'd all lose your money... !!!!

 

I'd buy retail as long as it used Steam services such as friends lists (i.e Black Ops), I can't stand having to maintain multiple friend lists across games...with each having an new and separate account login, Jeez! I
call BS on the patch excuse, and using Direct2Drive is a joke. D2D installs will not let you use retail patches
on games bought from them, you have to use the D2D version...WHEN they decide to put it out...AND downloaded FROM them! Also, my steam games are updated faster than my none steam friends most of the time. This is disappointing at the least...

 

Well if it's not on steam then I probably won't be buying it.

 

While I really like steam, the amount of steam love on this forum is ridiculous, the fact this is/isn't available on steam doesn't matter to me really, just price.
If it were on steam for 20 and origin for 15, I'd go origin, I've not had any problems with other peoples steam like applications, makes sense for them to do it this way, exclusives are a big incentive.

 

This is just another example of EA trying to upset the balance at the moment. Can't blame them, they're a big name and want to make a decent go of their games platform and BF3 is the best way to do it.

But unfortunately at the same time this is another example of a big game dev not listening to it's fanbase. Like CoD with what they did with dedi servers. At the end of the day I'll be buying it no matter what, but if a game is on steam or Origin, I'll buy it on steam. That way a trusted source has all my games and I know they're there. Valve continue to reward their fanbase (look at how portal 2 was released and don't talk about episode 3..) and as such have my trust.

Either way the big games companies seem to be restricting exactly what the users can do with the game. I don't look at it in a bad way, look how well minecraft is doing at the moment, as well as other independant games.

 

If it was out on Steam I'd have probably got it on release as I would not have been able to help myself, now I'll just wait a few months and grab a retail version half price. I should imagine I'm not the only one that would do this either, so dunno if EA are gonna get the most from BF3 avoiding Steam.

 

EA has burned me too many times, as it has many others. Why would I put my faith in a download service which my purchased games would be tied to when I KNOW it will be buggy as hell, and backed by incompetent support staff. EA literally has the worst support/reliability of any company I have encountered.

Besides, most of us have decent sized steam catalogs already. I don't want to have to subscribe to several different services just to have access to one or two games not available on steam. Valve is a trusted and reliable company where as EA is not.

 

But on the flip side of things, Valve don't release their own games on other download clients.

 

I only used steam once and never again. But I'm a stubborn old man. I just something controlling everything and not giving you a choice hence I have never had an Apple product

 

If only Valve could compete on the publishing side of things ... minus the shareholders ... with their dedication to story and gameplay ...

 

It's a bummer but I'll still buy the game, regardless of its format. Those who say EA lost a sale weren't really interested by the game in the first place.

 

You buttholes are going to buy it regardless of what format it comes on. You say you won't buy it but once you see some game play and your one friend talk about it you'll buy it and praise it to high heaven

 

'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.'

Pass me the barf bag. Oh well just expect the shelf price to be practically the same in 1-2 years time...
My butthole needs some o' that FrostBite 2 goodness

 

I just have one problem.

I don't want several "services" running constantly, new friends lists, another login, another program to spy on what I do.

and this:

If anything ever made my alarm bells ring this is it,

 

I do agree with this but unfortunately there's no way things will stay the way they are now. Steam does need competition and it's going to happen whether we like it or not. I wouldn't want more than two of those digital distribution services at one on my PC, though

 

Solution:
1) get off my arse
2) drive to local game shop
3) pay cash for preorder/game
4) drive home with physical disc
5) install in under 30 mins instead of 2days to DL from steam OR origin.

Don't care where updates come from, as long as I get them!

 

Please explain how EA pulling their games from Steam and selling them EXCLUSIVELY on Origin is competition.