Crysis 2 Pulled from Steam, Now Origin Exclusive

[Guest]

So.... whenever I get a new PC / reformat and I go to download my Steam games, Crysis 2 will no longer be available?

If that's the case, consider me extremely pissed off.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]nisallik[/nom]It is about time EA started doing this. One of the biggest video game publishers and they've stuck with their mediocre EA Download Manager for such a long time. Though many may hate the idea of SW:TOR, Crysis 2, and other EA games being offered not appearing on Steam... I find it an intelligent move, since just offering the game on Steam costs as much as having Gamestop, Amazon, Wal-Mart, etc. selling it. At least now all digital sales will now be sucked up by the EA corporation. ;p[/citation]

you don't understand how money gets distributed with online sales, and i don't either, but i do know how it works with retail. steam probably took a % cut instead of a hard $ value, and probably gives breaks to indie devs.

ea taking control just means that more money is going to ea corporate and not to ea devs.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]bygbyron3[/nom]The issue is that Origin like EA Download Manager is absolutely horrible and unreliable software along with Games for Window Live. I have yet to find any distribution even remotely as good as Steam. Keep the ball on Valve's court; a lot of gamers don't want to go to the kiddies’ court with broken rims and no nets.[/citation]

gog, but thats personal preference, and only one game, witcher.

steam is drm, and thats the only thing that holds it back a bit compared to gog, where i have to install absolutely nothing but the game. its the closest thing to pirateing a game with drm stripped that you can get. and thats why i like it.

if steam did the auto download in a way that was exactly like the normal install path, i would side with it instead out of the conveyance. but things like betas and free game weekends, are a pain in the a## to uninstall after because they are hidden.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]NuclearShadow[/nom]Many commenters seem to fail to realize that there is a big possible financial gain for EA by opening their own service. Valve gets a % of the sales with each purchase on Steam. Even if that % is extremely tiny when your considering large amount of sales it becomes a sizable amount of money even from a single game title. There is nothing stopping any publisher or even independent developers from making their own and keeping a larger part of the profits. It only makes sense in the end to do it on their side of the fence. Sure for the consumers it is not a positive thing having to get separate programs for many of their games but be honest if it was the only way to get and play those games chances are you will go along with it anyways.Also let us not forget that Valve is a game developer as well, and a damn popular one at that for good reason. They are competition does it sound like a good practice to help fund the competition? Remember when Steam was new and only had Valve titles? Valve themselves did was EA is planning to do, notice how everyone of their games is Steam required now?Notice how other services like D2D don't even sell Valve games?So why shouldn't EA or any other publisher/developer do what Valve has done? It's smart and profitable.[/citation]

ea is a publisher, as in they fun other studios to make games, they sell them, and they recupe their investment that way.

valve is a developer that also became a distributer. ea failed miserably as a distributer. but valve isnt a publisher yet (i beleive)

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]dinosauriac[/nom]So.... whenever I get a new PC / reformat and I go to download my Steam games, Crysis 2 will no longer be available? If that's the case, consider me extremely pissed off.[/citation]

when a game is dropped from steam, you get the full amount you payed for it back

 

[lost_in]

wasn't steam horrible when it started? it got better over time.. people are just overreacting. its just not EA who has strict rules on amout of times u can install a game or requies Internet option to play offline. If i recall STarcraft II has the same crappy thing (internet to play offline) utter BS on theri part and lets not forget its 1/3 of game...so yeah..all game devs. publishers are greedy these days

 

[Guest]

lost_in, starcraft II is not 1/3 of a game. you don't know what you're talking about, so just stop.

anyway, found this on one of the comments on giantbomb:

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3333/1308102784038.jpg

DEFINITELY sticking with steam...

 

[spellbinder2050]

Where is the Crysis 2 Direct X 11 patch? That's what I wanna know.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

EA attempting suicide? Maybe they'll avoid being hacked if they just mangle themselves enough.

 

[Benihana]

[citation][nom]lost_in[/nom]wasn't steam horrible when it started? it got better over time.. people are just overreacting. its just not EA who has strict rules on amout of times u can install a game or requies Internet option to play offline. If i recall STarcraft II has the same crappy thing (internet to play offline) utter BS on theri part and lets not forget its 1/3 of game...so yeah..all game devs. publishers are greedy these days[/citation]
Much of the "over-reaction" is due to EA announcing that it will be on Steam, and then pulling the game out. I don't care if EA wants to launch their own platform. Rockstar did that with their "Rockstar Social Club" and failed, who cares. What I do have a problem with is what another user mentioned up above, the douchebaggery of pulling the game after setting up expectations that it will be on Steam. (see reference)

Reference:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1299316

[citation][nom]edeawillrule[/nom]Um that's why you run the EA Game Deauthorization tool before reformatting, it gives you your slot(s) back. Mirror's Edge is included. http://activate.ea.com/deauthorize/Next time use google.[/citation]
That's kind of his point. With iTunes, you can de-authorize all computers after a fresh install and start anew. With Steam, you can de-authorize all Steam logins and start anew. Consider me a moron, and I don't want to have to de-authorize my games when I re-install my OS. I have 267 games on Steam alone, and I do have ALL of them installed. Having to go through each one and think "hmm... which one's need to be de-authorized?" is a pain I'd rather not suffer. Hell, I may just want to throw my harddrive out the window and put in a fresh new one. Point is, the task of having to remember to de-authorize my games before a reformat makes their platform already undesirable. So using their download manager and whatnot is not appealing at all.

 

[Guest]

Apparently, most of you who commented only read part of the article. EA did not pull the game from Steam. Steam dumped the game because of a violation of rules they impose. "Crytek has an agreement with another download service which violates the new rules from Steam and resulted in the expulsion of Crysis 2 from Steam".
Basically if a software company has an agreement to distribute to other download vendors Steam refuses to carry that product.

I too have the same opinion as amk-aka-phantom...

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

So nobody answered my question: is it possible to buy an offline version of a game in US/Europe or not? Steam has become somewhat of a standard during the last few years... why? Is it really that great having to launch Steam and Internet connection every time you want to play a game? What the hell is the advantage of all that?

My friend had a compatibility issue with Steam on his G73Jh. Reinstalled Win7 a few times, different versions, every time - BSOD on Steam launch. He switched to pirated games. I can understand him - he wants to play the game, not deal with third-party crapware.

So is just the case that you can't get anything except online-DRM-tied stuff, or is everyone too lazy to get their a$$ up from the chair and get a DVD? Or is there some "magical" advantage in using Steam games?

 

[schmich]

Wow, some people here are pathetic. First people yell at EA for pulling the game out of Steam. Then when the article gets updated where it says it's not EA's action, people yell that Steam did a good job to take that bad game out.

Valve is never in the wrong huh?

 

[zak_mckraken]

The problem here is that everyone have the "me too" syndrom. Valve have a highly popular digital distribution service and every company wants a piece of the pie. That's normal, I guess, but people DON'T want to manage multiple services. They're going to alienate gamers and fragment the communities, which are the reason these services were successful to begin with.

 

[thrasher32]

Are they really that stupid? I'm sorry EA, but I ONLY buy games from Steam now, too bad for you, cuz I really like some of your titles. Oh well.

 

[ellarpc]

Everyone should go to steams Facebook page and boycot this stupidity

 

[gm0n3y]

Maybe its just me, but I think this is a good move for EA, if not for consumers. If part of their business strategy is to make a competitor to Steam, then providing exclusive games is a good way to get users to try out the service. This is bad for consumers, but probably good for EA. Realistically, they should just release content say 2 weeks later on their competitor's platform. That way they'll still get the sales from Steam but hopefully bring a few users over to their side.

 

[mchuf]

I read that TOR only uses Origin as a store/dl service and that it won't be required to play the game. To me, that is an improvement to Steam. If this how all EA games will be, then this is a good thing. I'll see what EA does in regard to drm before I buy anything off of this service though. But to be honest, Valve has allowed all kinds of crap drm from publishers anyway. So it might not make much of a difference.

 

[Guest]

For once I actually support EA on this. I am a daily Steam user, but if Steam imposes on developers that only Steam can be used, then it becomes a monopoly.. and Im sure Steam isnt in the business of being nice for fun. So its good... EA... stands up to them. (wow that took effort)

The more competition the better.

 

[Benihana]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]So nobody answered my question: is it possible to buy an offline version of a game in US/Europe or not? Steam has become somewhat of a standard during the last few years... why? Is it really that great having to launch Steam and Internet connection every time you want to play a game? What the hell is the advantage of all that?My friend had a compatibility issue with Steam on his G73Jh. Reinstalled Win7 a few times, different versions, every time - BSOD on Steam launch. He switched to pirated games. I can understand him - he wants to play the game, not deal with third-party crapware. So is just the case that you can't get anything except online-DRM-tied stuff, or is everyone too lazy to get their a$$ up from the chair and get a DVD? Or is there some "magical" advantage in using Steam games?[/citation]
It's probably not possible to buy a great game (like big-time great) that does not use the internet to activate.

Steam has become a standard because it's one of the few DRM strategies that makes you feel like you are getting a helluva lot more, than having to jump through hoops like previous strategies. Most gamers today have a pretty stable internet connection. While I do feel for those that do not, big time developers are going to use the internet to help protect their product with online activations. The sales hurt from those with internet problems is negligible compared to the sales made from those without problems.

And DRM is like door locks on your car. Maybe there was a time way back when cars didn't have door locks, but in today's day and age, all cars from big makers will come with them. So will DRM. Since Steam does provide DRM in a rather palatable manner, it's no wonder that it's so successful.

Also, perhaps you or your friend do not use the community features, doesn't care about achievements, doesn't use anything that Steam has to offer and just wants to play the game. Well, there are millions of gamers who do enjoy using those features. XboX Live is so successful partially because of the community features. People like using that kind of stuff, Steam has a lot of that kind of stuff.

And as for your friend not wanting to deal with third-party crapware, I have to agree. It's nice to play a game that just works 100% from the get-go. Sadly that's not today though. I remember GTAIV on Steam used Steam, GFWL, SecuROM, and Rockstar Social Club as it's DRMs. That's kind of like Mr. Bean's car where you have 4 locks you have to unlock just to start your car.

=================
As for the update, wow. I believe Valve used to allow you to use many channel outlets and distribution services. I mean there are games on both Steam and GoG which both are digital distributers. Perhaps there really are some new terms in place. Perhaps there is more to this than what EA has said so far.

 

[pocketdrummer]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]So nobody answered my question: is it possible to buy an offline version of a game in US/Europe or not? Steam has become somewhat of a standard during the last few years... why? Is it really that great having to launch Steam and Internet connection every time you want to play a game? What the hell is the advantage of all that?My friend had a compatibility issue with Steam on his G73Jh. Reinstalled Win7 a few times, different versions, every time - BSOD on Steam launch. He switched to pirated games. I can understand him - he wants to play the game, not deal with third-party crapware. So is just the case that you can't get anything except online-DRM-tied stuff, or is everyone too lazy to get their a$$ up from the chair and get a DVD? Or is there some "magical" advantage in using Steam games?[/citation]

You can play games offline easily. You only need a connection to activate them, but you also need it to download, so I don't see the problem.

Maybe there was a problem with his laptop. I don't have any problems with Steam on the 6 computers I've installed it on.

 

[Guest]

dear ea. to the average pc gamer, you are a joke. no-one will switch to your service. NO ONE

 

[hixbot]

Do we need so many digital distibution systems? It should all be standardized and open. No one company should controlling and profitting from digital distibution (except the game developers). Make it a standard platform that anyone can use and that ALL digital downloads can be made available for no added cost. Heck you can make it web based if you want.

 

[fir_ser]

Too bad to hear this news.

 

[Guest]

I don't care or understand why EA deny Steam selling Crysis 2 but it seems EA allow GameFly to sell it. When Steam sells Crysis 2, that's when I will buy it.