Electronic Arts 'Appreciates Steam's Decision' to Put Alice: Madness Returns Back on Steam

EA, Valve.  Quick thing.
 
I love you both; one of you makes stuff consistantly, the other is reliable.  Please don't mess with that balance. 

@RVonE: Valve's silence is more than enough proof for me.

@benjaebe said:

@Binarynova: There are no games that require Origin. None. Those were just lies and misunderstandings that people continue to say as if they were true. They may be exclusive to Origin as a digital distribution service i.e. The Old Republic, but if you get the box copy there's no need for Origin to even be on your computer.

Could have fooled me. My copy* of Alice told me explicitly that it was connecting to the Origin server to validate my license key and decrypt code game files before it would let me play. Before installing Origin (I skipped it at first 'cuz I thought I wouldn't need it), it told me I had to do so before I could play the game. Am I missing something?

EDIT: * that's a retail PC disc copy, installed on a Win 7 box.

If BF3 isn't available on Steam I'll just buy it on a disc. Muddling the download scene further doesn't help anyone.

@Enigma777 said:

@RVonE: Valve's silence is more than enough proof for me.

Your willingness to convict an organization based on their silence is akin to the fanboys' willingness to defend an organization based on their silence.

While it's not "more than enough proof" for me, I have to say that Valve is the most suspect party in this exchange. If this was LA Noire and I was interviewing Valve, I'd choose 'doubt'.

I'll be pretty upset if I have to buy Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3 on Origin.

Duders.. if Valve doesn't even want to acknowledge anything it it's weird.. but in my book Steam is the evil-doer now and EA was getting fucked, come on Valve, say something?

Does the steam version also require the ea background process to operate? Limited activations etc? Every game should have a DRM bullet list right next to the system requiremets. I'm sick of this shit.

@umdesch4: The game may activate through Origin, but to the best of my knowledge doesn't require Origin to run. It's not the worst way to do things, since to my knowledge activating it on Origin means you get a digital copy as well as your retail box copy.

Steam and EA should go in the back alley and fight.

@benjaebe said:

@umdesch4: The game may activate through Origin, but to the best of my knowledge doesn't require Origin to run. It's not the worst way to do things, since to my knowledge activating it on Origin means you get a digital copy as well as your retail box copy.

Point taken. I'm just a little miffed because for some reason on Tuesday evening when I first got home with my copy of Alice, I couldn't get the validation to work, and after checking around online forums and stuff, the advice was "just keep trying", so I did, every few minutes for 2 hours, and eventually it worked...but I lost 2 hours of play time. Just a bit annoying, IMHO.

I wish these two would just fuck and get it over with.

Did EA not publish the Orange Box on consoles? Why are they getting into fights?

Ok, here's something in confused about. Is origin a client you can download like Steam? Or is it just a stupid website that just lets you buy the games directly off EA. Like say I had to buy BF3 through Origin, could I have origin friends lists or instant messaging between friends?

I looked on the website and I went through almost the whole precoess of buying something but it never prompted me to download anything in advance. If anyone knows I'd love for you to tell me. Because honestly if they're trying to compete with Steam but can even offer bsaic services, then fuck that.

@Rufi91 said:

Did EA not publish the Orange Box on consoles? Why are they getting into fights?

Most likely because EA is trying to push for Origin and one could guess that that platform isn't included in whatever deals they have with Valve yet. Neither EA or Valve want the deal to go sour, because it's still a huge income for both parties.

@Rufi91 said:

Did EA not publish the Orange Box on consoles? Why are they getting into fights?

They're not fighting out of some personal hatred or anything. The simple fact is that EA want to start growing their share of the PC digital distribution market and Valve is the big dog they need to compete with. EA are going to use their software library to do that.

I love how Patrick is still trying to spin this story.

@Forsythia said:

Am I the only one who hasn't seen a listing for Madness Returns at all on Steam until today, when it's on sale? So what is EA saying, they're "glad Valve put Alice: Madness Returns back"?

You aren't the only one. Kotaku Klepek over here also tried to say BF3 was taken off Steam in another article, when it was never there to begin with.

And the most burning questions for me:

Will there be achievements and stat tracking in Steam for this?

If so, will they be somehow retroactively applied for people who have already bought, installed, and started playing this game via Origin?

@Hef said:

Ok, here's something in confused about. Is origin a client you can download like Steam? Or is it just a stupid website that just lets you buy the games directly off EA. Like say I had to buy BF3 through Origin, could I have origin friends lists or instant messaging between friends?

I looked on the website and I went through almost the whole precoess of buying something but it never prompted me to download anything in advance. If anyone knows I'd love for you to tell me. Because honestly if they're trying to compete with Steam but can even offer bsaic services, then fuck that.

I just wrote a blog on that subject actually. I wouldn't really be too concerned about having to buy BF3 through Origin though, since The Old Republic is the only confirmed Origin exclusive so far and BF3 is still available for preorder off other digital distribution sites.

@Hef said:

Ok, here's something in confused about. Is origin a client you can download like Steam? Or is it just a stupid website that just lets you buy the games directly off EA. Like say I had to buy BF3 through Origin, could I have origin friends lists or instant messaging between friends?

I looked on the website and I went through almost the whole precoess of buying something but it never prompted me to download anything in advance. If anyone knows I'd love for you to tell me. Because honestly if they're trying to compete with Steam but can even offer bsaic services, then fuck that.

Someone posted a blog describing what exactly Origin is. I suggest anyone confused to read it.

Edit: Beaten to the punch by the man himself!

What the hell is this with EA and Steam :/

Why does there have to be a wrong-doer in this scenario? It's very possible that Valve changed some ToS thing completely unaware of it conflicting with Crytek's deal, and when EA noticed this they took the game down as a routine measure. There doesn't have to be a war between EA and Valve just because a game disappeared.

Still waiting on someone to fold on battlefield.

I bet a lot of this has to do with Valve insisting on steamworks features and EA refusing to fold.

These two companies have a really awkward relationship, doesn't EA publish valve's physical copies of games? They seem oddly at odds at times.

I personally don't buy into the whole BF3 boycott, but I would only buy that game on PC, and if it's not on Steam, I may need to skip it.

if BF3 is not on steam I'll simply buy it from amazon instead as a phyisal copy. I'm fine with that but no way do I want x games on this software and x games on this one. I want them all on steam because steam does it the best.

The Mafia totally runs the video game industry. It's gotta be more profitable than drugs right? Well I guess they do the drugs thing too...

I think the real questions should be going towards Crytek, did they not have a plan in place to sell DLC on steam.  Were they trying to circumvent that by just selling it straight through their digital store in game which violates steam protocol?

I'm not splitting my games through two services if that's what Origin is trying to do. It took me long enough to warm up to Steam. I'll just get a physical BF3 box and activate it on Steam if I can do that to bypass Origin. Let's face it, Steam has been around long enough to iron out kinks and polish features that round it out to a satisfactory service. Origin would be doomed to a game of eternal catch up. 
 
TL;DR: EA needs a punch to the ovaries.

@Skogen said:

This translates to "it wasn't selling well enough on the PC platform"

Bingo.

The only weird thing was that the Complete Edition was a timed offer. Makes no sense. Unless they are going to sell it separately?

I love how Patrick is still trying to spin this story.

@Forsythia said:

Am I the only one who hasn't seen a listing for Madness Returns at all on Steam until today, when it's on sale? So what is EA saying, they're "glad Valve put Alice: Madness Returns back"?

You aren't the only one. Kotaku Klepek over here also tried to say BF3 was taken off Steam in another article, when it was never there to begin with.

I just want to know if my Steam version of Crysis 2 will still be supported with patches.

My assumption would be that these games were pulled due to origin.
EA is trying to establish it's own digital gaming service and what better way to get people to sign up and buy games from your service than be the only service offering your games digitally.
 
My guess would be Crysis 2 has already sold the majority of its early sales so they can expirement with that title a bit but only having alice on origin could be a big mistake and I am sure the developers were not too happy about it either.
 
Steam is very well established now and I doubt EA will ever will ever match them simply because they will probably only offer EA games.
 
I personally see no reasons to switch from steam to any other service.

Until yesterday Alice had an "Only on Origin" badge over on EAs store, by yesterday evening (GMT) it was gone.

Perhaps they decided to go Origin exclusive to promote the store rebrand and backtracked when sales where substantially less than what they could project from Steam?

@Binarynova said:

How many username/password combinations do I need just to be a PC gamer? :\

LOL. Those that live by the mouse and keyboard shall die by the mouse and keyboard. ;)

@Haze said:

Until yesterday Alice had an "Only on Origin" badge over on EAs store, by yesterday evening (GMT) it was gone.

Perhaps they decided to go Origin exclusive to promote the store rebrand and backtracked when sales where substantially less than what they could project from Steam?

It always said Origin exclusive until Friday, it has nothing to do with sales. They were trying to get as many Origin purchases as they could before putting it on Steam. They want you to buy it direct from them because they get 40% more profit.

Think about that. Of the $50 you pay $20 goes to Valve on Steam. On Origin EA get the whole $50. If the game sells let's say 200,000 copies on Steam that is four million dollars EA loses.

There definitely seems to be some marketing stuff going on. As of this writing, Direct2Drive.co.uk still shows Brink, Hunted: The Demon's Forge and Alice: Madness Returns prominently as "not available on Steam". Never mind that all of those games are readily available on Steam. 
 
My advice to anyone trying to get some of the digital distribution pie that Steam currently owns: first deliver the goods, and then write your press releases. I still remember a Microsoft  press release that said that "Games for Windows Live is going to show our strong support for the PC platform".

Also the fact that Origin is expensive, Alice is £34.99 on origin and £29.99 on steam, Dragon age 2 is £34.99 and £29.99 on steam, you see where I am going.
 
Why on earth they would think to charge more than the top service is beyond me, really they should be charging a few pounds less than steam to draw people in, Why would I choose to pay more from a new service when my old service is cheaper.
 
One thing thats really annoying me about digital distribution is the fact games are more expensive at release than boxed copies, Alice is £24.99 at amazon and £29.99 on steam and £34.99 on origin and because of this reason I still buy the majority of new pc titles from Amazon or Play, I love steam because of the great offers they put on but untill they atleast come inline with retail boxed copies I will continue to purchase physical copies.
 
Publishers should be passing on the savings they get from digital sales, No production costs no shipping costs and they still charge more, Yes they have servers to run but I am betting the amount they save on not having to produce disks,boxes,manuals and the shipping costs far out weighs the server costs.

Since when did steam turn into this evil thing? Steam was released as a pile of trash and has been reconstructed into the last bastion of Future PC gaming. Damn, I hate missing all the twist and turns of the "what thing do we hate this month even though nothing has really changed about it"

LOL I love this. EA very clearly had stated on Origin that Alice was going to be an exclusive on that service until the 17th. Now the assholes are trying to make it look like Valve prevented it from being distributed on Steam? Man, I thought EA had changed.

I'm not a Steam user (or an Origins user for that matter) but I have to wonder...in regards to those Steam users that bought Crysis 2, what kind of support will they see?

@Evilsbane said:

Since when did steam turn into this evil thing? Steam was released as a pile of trash and has been reconstructed into the last bastion of Future PC gaming. Damn, I hate missing all the twist and turns of the "what thing do we hate this month even though nothing has really changed about it"

Who here is hating on Steam? Most of the vitriol I have seen is for EA's Origin system.

EA should just absorb steam, that should solve things. they have enough money right?

Jeez, I hope it doesn't have anything to do with Valve saying you can't sell the games digitally on your own if you want to be on Steam. That would be super dickish and not at all Valve-like.

EA better get there shit together by the time BF 3 comes out.

It's pretty simple for me. No Steam version, no sale. 
 
Your move EA.

@Evilsbane said:

Since when did steam turn into this evil thing? Steam was released as a pile of trash and has been reconstructed into the last bastion of Future PC gaming. Damn, I hate missing all the twist and turns of the "what thing do we hate this month even though nothing has really changed about it"

Who here is hating on Steam? Most of the vitriol I have seen is for EA's Origin system.