What the fuck is going on?

I don't know what to make of this...

Update: The Valve titles offered by Origin are, in fact, boxed retail copies, rather than downloadable versions as indicated. Seeing as EA has published Valve titles at retail for years, this is less world-shattering than originally thought.

(That little nugget of info wasn't there when the story was first posted...)

So they just give you a Steam code?  
Because they are unplayable without Steam?

Not surprising.

I hope this isn't enough to make people freak out over it.

Doesn't EA publish Valve games on consoles or something? This seems like a somewhat logical extension of that.

Hooray, more gaming, less trivial bullshit.

@Slaker117 said:

Doesn't EA publish Valve games on consoles or something? This seems like a somewhat logical extension of that.

Ah ok, now that makes sense. I think they also publish the physical copies of the PC game too. Still though, with all the "omg EA vas valve" nonsense as of late, it's kind of surprising that Valve would be first in line to offer their games on Origin. Though with this realization, it's arguably much less surprising.

click the link and read the update. 
 
it's boxed retail copies that theyre selling.

They are boxed copies, not digital.

@Slaker117 said:

Doesn't EA publish Valve games on consoles or something? This seems like a somewhat logical extension of that.

Yep.

Origin is the name of EA's store. EA distributes the boxed copies of Valve games. I don't see this as any surprise whatsoever. You buy Counter Strike, they mail you the box, you enter the code and download the game on Steam. 
 
Why is this a story again?

They're retail, boxed copies. Which EA publish. Nothing unusual or surprising about them selling games which they publish on Origin.

They're retail, boxed copies. Which EA publish. Nothing unusual or surprising about them selling games which they publish on Origin.

@MattyFTM said:

They're retail, boxed copies. Which EA publish. Nothing unusual or surprising about them selling games which they publish on Origin.

Had to find my physical copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to prove you wrong, but couldn't find it. So I looked online and I guess you're right. DAMN YOU MODS!!  Either way, Origin is still a digital distributor. EA never published the digital version.

@ch13696 said:

@MattyFTM said:

They're retail, boxed copies. Which EA publish. Nothing unusual or surprising about them selling games which they publish on Origin.

Had to find my physical copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to prove you wrong, but couldn't find it. So I looked online and I guess you're right. DAMN YOU MODS!! Either way, Origin is still a digital distributor. EA never published the digital version.

Origin isn't just their digital store. Origin is EA. EA have re-branded virtually all of their services Origin. Your EA account? That's now an Origin account. The EA Download Manager? That's now Origin. The EA store? That's now Origin. The EA store (now called Origin) sells both digital games that are downloaded via the download manager (which is now called Origin) and boxed copies, which are delivered. The Valve games they are selling are physical copies, not digital copies.