EA Joins Steam

[DigiQ8]

Publisher Electronic Arts today officially joined Valve's Steam service today, with titles such as:

• Spore + Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack ($69.98)
• Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning ($49.99)
• Mass Effect ($29.99)
• Need for Speed Undercover ($39.99)
• FIFA Manager 2009 ($39.99)

Those titles above are available now to gamers in North America.

"EA is one of the industry's largest publishers," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "The EA titles coming to Steam this holiday include some this year's top PC titles."

"We are pleased to extend our holiday titles to gamers worldwide via Steam -- a revolutionary technology that is one of the game industry's most successful digital distribution services," said John Pleasants, President, Global Publishing & Chief Operating Officer.

That's not all, more titles are coming soon on Steam like: Mirror's Edge , Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, and Dead Space. Why don't you visit EA's page on Steam for more info?

 

[Top Secret]

Damnit, I shouldn't have bought Mass Effect on Newegg.

I just never thought EA would go to Steam. FFFFUUUUUUuuuuuuuu

 

[Barnz]

Make L4D discount for holiday already.

Also lol @ every game being NA only.

 

[ríomhaire]

So EA admits its own download service sucks?

 

[ajezard]

yay! time to play more steam games! ... hurry up and load! i dont care if the servers are too busy! what has that got to do with me playing an offline, single player game! damnit!

 

[Diesel_Power]

So EA admits its own download service sucks?

Probably costing them money to run the servers.

 

[Evo]

US only, tutut EA

 

[hool10]

I bought a BF2: Armored Fury over that EA Download. I hope they move that over as well. That expansion blew too.

 

[-Psy-]

This is the beginning of the end. The prophecy has come true. OH SHI-

 

[fix-cz]

So Steam for NA and torrents for RoW then? Very well EA, that's a deal!

 

[DarkDamo]

Region restrictions

****

 

[ajezard]

dammit! stupid EA, no i am not from us, can i download your games please? WHAT DO U MEAN NO! I SAID PLEASE!

 

[Jintor]

Ruined Forever!

 

[DreamThrall]

So is there a way I can register a store-bought copy of Spore in Steam?

 

[xbolt]

Does the Steam version of these games come with SecuROM like the retail versions do? That's really the make or break on this deal for me.

 

[Lizardizzle]

So is there a way I can register a store-bought copy of Spore in Steam?

same with me, it'd be nice to have it on steam.

 

[Evo]

There may be a bit of an Editorial piece on this issue soon!

 

[Eejit]

By Editorial you mean Evo Blog?

 

[Wang Tang]

Mass Effect for 30$ is a steal!

 

[Evo]

By Editorial you mean Evo Blog?

No

It will likely go here and on The Reticule

 

[cool_myll]

Why don't you visit EA's page on Steam for more info?

Why not? America only and also $ not equal to euro.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

EA you have been defeated by Valve and are now grovelling at the kingdom of Gabe.

 

[Watchtower]

It's Official:

Valve has taken over the PC gaming world.

I knew EA would eventually give in. There was just no way they can compete in the digital download era with retail sales, and they probably took a hard look at how much their software is being pirated and figured they can retain some software sales through Steam.

I'm sure plenty of customers have been clamoring for this enough as well, but I figure that slumping sales, piracy and a bad US economy has got EA looking for another source of income where ever they can find it. Considering their recent layoffs and a cut of a several franchises, I am not surprised one bit of this move.

I'm actually pretty sure this is going to help EA's bottom line and actually boost their sales, especially in their back catalog where they can offer a lot of titles for 9.99 and such. Steam is a sure bet to sell games at this point and the bundle deals have been awesome.

I own at least 6 EA titles on PC, ranging from Battlefield 1942, BF2, Medal of Honor to Need for Speed to Red Alert, and I'm pretty damn sick of looking for patches for their games online, having to wait on Fileplanet's public service for an hour for a patch.

Outstanding customer service would be to register my valid, legit CD-keys for my previously purchased software and be able to automatically download and update them on the fly. I doubt this would happen but, it would be very very nice.

 

[sAnt@]

Does the Steam version of these games come with SecuROM like the retail versions do? That's really the make or break on this deal for me.

A post on the Steam Users' Forums by one of the moderators states the EA games on Steam will have no third-party DRM (i.e., SecuROM). Thanks nin. We have asked Valve for official word on this as well as whether there are plans to open this up outside of North America. Steam has been listing third-party DRM on game pages lately, and their page for Spore does not mention SecuROM.

http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewstory&threadid=94257

 

[Laivasse]

A post on the Steam Users' Forums by one of the moderators states the EA games on Steam will have no third-party DRM (i.e., SecuROM). Thanks nin. We have asked Valve for official word on this as well as whether there are plans to open this up outside of North America. Steam has been listing third-party DRM on game pages lately, and their page for Spore does not mention SecuROM.

Maybe this is true, but if so it's a first. In every example I've seen of a game with its own DRM, it has been included superfluously in the Steam version too. A fair few titles with extra DRM have come to Steam without the DRM details appearing on the store page until right up to the release date, or just after, so the Spore page doesn't mean much just yet.

Anyone who is concerned about extra DRM should give it about a week and wait for feedback/an official Valve statement in order to be sure.

 

[AtomicSpark]

Yes. Spore (and possibly others) lost their SecuROM. Source: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/20/0052247

Also, if you were witty, you would of checked the Game Details section on the Steam store page. Valve always lists 3rd-party DRM.

 

[McGooTheWise]

Publisher Electronic Arts today officially joined Valve's Steam service today...

Am I the only one to catch this grammar error? Today they joined today... Hah

Anyway... Me wunts deadspace.

 

[Laivasse]

Also, if you were witty, you would of checked the Game Details section on the Steam store page.

If you were witty you would of - whatever that sentence fragment means - checked and discovered that there is no Steam store page for anyone connecting from outside NA, due to stupid regional restrictions.

Valve always lists 3rd-party DRM.

A fair few titles with extra DRM have come to Steam without the DRM details appearing on the store page until right up to the release date, or just after, so the Spore page doesn't mean much just yet.

I dealt with that. Valve always lists 3rd party DRM, but not always in a timely fashion. If people are now purchasing/downloading it en masse and there still isn't a peep about 3rd party DRM then fine. Otherwise it's just one moderator's word.

 

[Asuka]

Valve wins!

 

[DEATHMASTER]

damnit, I want NFS:MW, they only have undercover apparently. Guess it'll just be a while.

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Eheh, EA failed in it's DRM and distributing system and now want that Valve takes care of it. Great!

 

[Dr.Freeman]

Publisher Electronic Arts today officially joined Valve's Steam service today, with titles such as:

• Spore + Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack ($69.98)
• Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning ($49.99)
• Mass Effect ($29.99)
• Need for Speed Undercover ($39.99)
• FIFA Manager 2009 ($39.99)

Those titles above are available now to gamers in North America.

"EA is one of the industry's largest publishers," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "The EA titles coming to Steam this holiday include some this year's top PC titles."

"We are pleased to extend our holiday titles to gamers worldwide via Steam -- a revolutionary technology that is one of the game industry's most successful digital distribution services," said John Pleasants, President, Global Publishing & Chief Operating Officer.

That's not all, more titles are coming soon on Steam like: Mirror's Edge , Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, and Dead Space. Why don't you visit EA's page on Steam for more info?

North America?! What about EU?!?!

 

[And1]

"We are pleased to extend our holiday titles to gamers worldwide via Steam -- a revolutionary technology that is one of the game industry's most successful digital distribution services," said John Pleasants, President, Global Publishing & Chief Operating Officer.

The world would be really small if it was only North America.

 

[Barnz]

I lol'd.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

No it wouldn't, there'd just be more ocean.

 

[Xendance]

So is there a way I can register a store-bought copy of Spore in Steam?

Why, when a new publisher comes to Steam, do people ask this question?

 

[Mutley]

This is huge for PC gaming.

 

[Monkwarrior]

Lol, EA forgets the biggest game market: the EU.
Ah well, time to get an other marketing managert I suppose.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Valve are playing that good old board game, monopoly. It makes me laugh, I do love it.

Anyway, nice to see EA have fallen to their knees and pleaded with Valve to put their games on Steam. Before EA were skimming off the retail profits, and can't touch Steam sales. They refused to recognise Steam in the past with their EA downloader & treating Valve as another one of their small time 'clients'. Now Valve have EA by the genitals, round and round we go!

 

[G(ordon)-man]

This is the end of DRM. Ship has turned.