Will this change your mind on Battlefield 3?

August 8th, 2011

It's official, everyone. The highly-anticipated Battlefield 3 will not be playable from Steam, the largest PC gaming store in America, when it releases this October.

The reason: "Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content," EA said on its official forums over the weekend.

It's unclear what exactly that entails, but Gaming Blend surmises it has something to do with EA digital's strict terms of service, in which the company reserves the right to "cancel or close" access to a game that hasn't been played in at least two years. 

"I like to think of (the news) more-so as 'Valve won't let us screw PC gamers over, so Battlefield 3 won't be on Steam,'" writes William Usher. 

Unlike EA's own terms of service, Steam let's players access their games indefinitely, regardless of activity. 

Reacted one gamer, "Will be passing until I see this on the Steam front page. I dont want my library spread across multiple distributors (especially not EA's Origin)."

No mind, said another. "I couldn't care less. Steam, Origin, whatever... As long as I can get the game... Even if it means having to order a physical dvd, or even more crazy, driving to the store."

The news comes as EA has increasingly pulled its games, including pre-orders of Battlefield 3, from the popular Steam catalog in recent months. Nevertheless, EA says they "hope to work out an agreement" where Steam might someday carry Battlefield 3.

What do you think of the news?

Comments

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I'm fine with the idea. I'm not a fan of getting virtual games anyway, I just love going to the store to buy my physical copy and then go home where I keep the game. It's just a good feeling that Steam can never deliver even though it may be much cheaper.

Anything worth having is worth working hard for.

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
Sever1ty
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If it's not on Steam, I'll definitely pass it up. Steam is a great place to hold all my library of games. I hate having physical copies of stuff, they are not portable and I can't bring them around. If I have to re-install, I can easily do it on Steam. Steam's set of terms is not restrictive at all. "Steam lets players access their games indefinitely, regardless of activity." Isn't that good? I paid for a game, I expect to play it a few years after no one plays it anymore. EA is lame with its digital terms: "...the company reserves the right to "cancel or close" access to a game that hasn't been played in at least two years." Complete nonsense.

New forums... Soon™

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
definewikipedia
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Is the cancel or close statement just EA or do other companies have that in their terms of agreement as well? I would be pissed if they discontinued my access to a game after a few years of inactivity.

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
Addice
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To not put it on a platform like Steam is absurdly retarded on their part. The people who QQ about steam generally mismanage their own computers and fuck up their own shit and that's the reason they have problems. No matter what system I'm on with steam I never have any big issues. Owning so many games I wish I had lot of my games on steam because over time I've lost all those cds and keys. I expect a huge loss in PC gaming market without BF3 being on Steam.

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
kyhotox
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crazy stuff man.

but no, I'll still be buying it regardless. just a pain to reinstall.

perhaps EA could make up for it by having accounts with download links..? or do they already do that.

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
saguanau
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Just because you have a physical copy doesnt mean it will last forever either. With Tiger Woods Golf EA required a digital liscense. If you bought a used copy you still had to pay $15 to activate it for your system. I can see the same thing happening with 2 year inactive accounts requiring a fee to reactivate.

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
Ogrewax
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Ogrewax said: Just because you have a physical copy doesnt mean it will last forever either. With Tiger Woods Golf EA required a digital liscense. If you bought a used copy you still had to pay $15 to activate it for your system. I can see the same thing happening with 2 year inactive accounts requiring a fee to reactivate.


I doubt that would happen, besides, what's the big deal when you can get the files and put them on a flash drive?

Anything worth having is worth working hard for.

7
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
Sever1ty
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I was not planning on buying this through Steam anyway. I had a couple of gift cards to Gamestop that I planned on using for it. I can always add it to Steam as a non steam game, and still connect with my friends, I think.

8
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
Canin
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doesn't matter.

"What is the music of life?" "Silence, my brother."

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
alienpup
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Sever1ty said: I doubt that would happen, besides, what's the big deal when you can get the files and put them on a flash drive?


If the game is huge, you're gonna need a huge flash drive for it. Also, it's a hassle knowing that one flash drive has a game on it or something.

Canin said: I was not planning on buying this through Steam anyway. I had a couple of gift cards to Gamestop that I planned on using for it. I can always add it to Steam as a non steam game, and still connect with my friends, I think.


Haha you definitely can do that.

New forums... Soon™

10
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
definewikipedia
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If I could play it, I would've gotten it through Steam, now that its on Origin if I ever decide to upgrade my comp, I find it more of a burden to be having so many programs similiar to Steam. I'd prefer having everything on Steam and was hoping for a promotional tf2 hat or something :3

11
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
lozz21
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ill buy it ither way it goes. i love steam for having a database of all ur games but when i got my aurora in it took me 5 days to download all my games again. my other games that havent been bought or imported to steam pop in the disk and away i go.

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
holeyguy66
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ya this is a bit of a disappointment :/ but i will still definitely get the game.

B-RAD-G

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
dudley03420
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I won't be getting it until it comes out for Steam, if it even does. I don't want to be forced to use their client when I already have one. If I could buy the game from a store and not have to install the client, then I may end up getting it.

youtube.com/playertwogaming

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
ODS_GHOST
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This suck's, but I will probably still buy this game.

GOD is a Superstition.

15
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
ApocalypseWarrior
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I'm not changing my mind about the games I'm gonna get so I don't even care if steam goes down for good. I am going to get my game!

It takes 47 muscles to frown,and 17 to smile.. It only takes 3 to end a life.. One shot, one kill.

16
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
dantheman221
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They are just stupid if that is the real reason. They cannot cut off access to the game for the players which have a hard copy of the game (DVD copy). The only thing they can cut off for those players is MP access, and that can be cut-off even if the game is available on Steam, because I don't think Steam will host their servers. They can simply restrict your access from their own login servers too even if you play the game from Steam.
That being said leads us to the only rational conclusion: They want players to populate their own Digital Distribution Platform.
For those that said they will wait until it comes out on Steam... Buy it from Origin or a local Store. Otherwise you will die waiting.

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
rollandb
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SO BAD

invite me to friends!

18
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
julia_d
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EA do really want to screw ppl :(

19
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
iwe
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you guys also have to think from ea's point of view there doing this for sales just like how movies vs on demand work a lot of cable companies want movies to hit netflix or on demand faster. But if that happens the movie theatres make no money so thats the same thing ea is doing with there new origin launcher to help sales and improve there new service

but once the games out and there satisfied it should be released on steam eventually...

but personally i like disc better digital is better but it can't be refunded or sold to get cash for a newer game

my time has come.

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
kinglonewolf
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Steam has never worked correctly with any of BF Games, most time requiring you to turn their crappy coded overlay off.. I've often times boughten on steam just to have a backup account, but in reality enter the key into the EA downloader so I can experience the game without the Steam garbage.

I for one already preordered my copy prior to the announcement from the EA store, way before they changed it to Origin..

That being said I probably have the highest valued Steam Account here, I enjoy the ability to be able to have my games stored there to pick and choose when I like, Ideally I'd like to be able to have my game stored wherever I choose since I bought it.. (Ie have it stored at Orign and Steam, and even gamersgate if I chose)

Don't know what your steam account is valued at? you can check it out at http://www.steamcalculator.com

Knowledge is Power

21
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
Slackin
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kyhotox said: To not put it on a platform like Steam is absurdly retarded on their part. The people who QQ about steam generally mismanage their own computers and fuck up their own shit and that's the reason they have problems. No matter what system I'm on with steam I never have any big issues. Owning so many games I wish I had lot of my games on steam because over time I've lost all those cds and keys. I expect a huge loss in PC gaming market without BF3 being on Steam.


Doubt you've ever played BF2 then, known issues with the overlay

Knowledge is Power

22
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
Slackin
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It's more like a good news for me.

23
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
Ronan_Berthelot
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stupid move on EA's part, makes us unhappy and is missing out on the largest distributor. I'm not going to buy it on origin, I would prefer to buy it on steam but I guess I'll just buy a physical copy

24
Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
cjunky2
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I'd prefer a physical copy. Whether digital or physical, I will still settle for it.

Press any key to continue...

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Posted Monday, August 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
RDemon15
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