I've been just as frustrated as you about the lack of clarity from Electronic Arts and Valve over Crysis 2's removal from Steam. Then, when EA said it "appreciates Steam's decision" to allow Alice: Madness Returns on Steam, things became more confusing.
I have some answers.
Alice: Madness Returns was not pulled down from Steam--it wasn't there to start. As others pointed out to me, EA has a habit of placing its games on Steam at the last second. Alice: Madness Returns was the latest, but there was a similar situation with Dragon Age II.
As for why Crysis 2 is no longer on Steam, an EA spokesperson explained to me that Crytek had brokered a deal for another digital distributor to host the game's downloadable content. Because Steam could not distribute the content, Steam took the game down. It's still not available.
"EA had nothing to do with Steam's decision to drop Crysis 2," said the company in a statement.
EA did not make that point completely clear in its previous statement about Crysis 2's removal.
"Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers hoping to sell content on that service," it said last week, "many of which are not imposed by other online game services."
The reasons for suspicion over EA's relationship with Steam come from the launch of Origin, EA's new distribution platform revealed at E3. Origin will be the exclusive home to the digital version of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The question that lingers: what about Battlefield 3?
"No new information on BF3 or what Steam will decide to do with other EA titles," said the company. "We are glad they chose to post Alice on Steam."
Steam does list some upcoming releases, but not many. While Battlefield 3 is not listed, Rage, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, and Dead Island are, and can be added to a Steam wishlist.
Edit: Nice. Now, did EA realize that Crysis 2 was bound by such terms or did they broker another deal with the intent of it being kind of a "fuck you" to Valve? This could either be an innocent misunderstanding, or a fight between the two companies. Hopefully not the latter.
So it was Cryteks fault?
Maybe I'm just tired but I still don't get why they haven't put it back up...
They were quick to associate the blame with Steam in the first place though.
By which I mean that without the clear up today, the previous statements sounded like passive aggressive snipes at Steam.
"While Battlefield 3 is not listed, Rage, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, and Dead Island are"
Yeah, because Rage, Warhammer and Dead Island aren't EA, while BF3 is. EA seems reluctant to put their stuff on Steam, hoping people will pre-order it from them out of desperation first.
I wish Valve would make a statement.
So is it that EA want's all the pie when it comes to DLC revenue?
Makes sense. Of course, I'm sure somehow this will be slanted as EA's fault or as if there's some kind of malicious intent even though Steam took it down as a result of some kind of DLC terms.
I have no doubt BF3 will be coming to Steam. People are kind of over exaggerating the situation between the two companies.
And in Battlefield Bad Company 2, you can buy a code for DLC and then just type it in from within game to unlock it. You can completely avoid a Steam purchase there.
This story never gets easier to understand.
Negotiating a deal that keeps you off the largest PC storefront doesn't happen by accident.
Could this be a toe in the water before releasing BF3 to see if not posting on steam will affect sales of a high profile PC shooter? If the audience follows the game off steam then an origin exclusive might be more likely.
I heard you can learn more about why it was dropped at Origin.com.
Brink vanished from Steam in the UK the moment it was released (pre-orders were ok) and still hasn't returned.
Naturally, it's the users that end up suffering.
This also really confuses me, because games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and The Sims 3 all use an external source to buy all the DLC with.
I R CONFUZZELED!
This is why DLC and DRM is bullshit. There's nothing enjoyable or beneficial to me as a customer ot have to deal with going through fucking hoops and various registrations and accounts and logins and processes just to buy and download and install and access additional DLC shit for your fucking game, like the bullshit you have to deal with for Dragon Age games on Steam, not to mention the uncertainty of "how long can I still have access to this before you take it away?".
As for EA games appearing on Steam - you can bet they'll appear only after they've milked everything they can out of pre-orders for physical stores and their shitting "Origin/EA Download" bullshit. Once they've done that, they'll make it available for Steam. Probably without all of the game-changing "bonuses" that will be timelocked for Steam players, no doubt.