Battlefield 3 not coming to Steam

Well this sucks. I dislike EA's service and now this origin thing they have going on now makes matters even worse. Still debating if I should get them game still. I would have to go through all this EA nonsense about accounts and origins.

I don't want to have my digital games on a lot of different services Origin, D2D, Steam etc. Steam is my service of choice for digital DL's and always will be, too bad EA/Origin you will lose.

sucks that i wont have it on steam, but it wont stop me from getting the game :)

Oh and all you kids throwing temper tantrums over this, really ought to grow up. What difference does it make who you download the game from if your mind is set on a digital copy? If you were a true fan of Battlefield nothing would stop you from buying this game. Similarly, if you are a newcomer who is really looking forward to this game based on everything that has been shown to you, why would something as minor as a change in who distributes the game completely turn you off from buying it? The quality of the game or its contents are not being altered here! Come on...

I'm still all about hard copies. I will get a disk over a digital download anyday, so this little fiasco will not be affecting me in the least.

This should have been on Steam.

I don't really think it's a bad move anyway considering the fact that Steam doesn't make the sales of any game public. And I'm among the folks who would like to see the majority of the sales number for BF3 done on the PC platform, which will keep the franchise's emphasis on PC in future. Plus, I don't think it's going to affect the actual sales due to them abandoning Steam, because those who are determined to buy it will still do whatever happens.

Really, EA? How long does it take you to realize Origin could never win Steam? I hope they change their mind in the last minutes though.

hardcopy here ... can have a nice case sitting on my desk for the same price for years to come.

Annoying, but i am getting this game anyways! not getting it will mostly be my lost :)

Whatever... I want a disk, so I'll go through Amazon. Apocalypse averted.

hmm i guess they want to promote their new ORIGIN thing more, either way i always go to a retailer to get my games anyway, wont affect me much. bestbuy is just a block away.

So, you want this game to compete with MW3 and you just shoot yourselves in the foot...? Why not slowly integrate into Origin rather than shoving it down our throats?

Unfortunately, from what I experienced with the BF3 Alpha, Origin is worse than Steam. I couldn't even install the game on Origin it sucked so much. I don't trust online retailers anyway, hard copies ftw!

That kinda annoys me, now I cant go through the US store to buy my copy and will have to pay twice the amount in an Australian retailer .

not a wise idea EA , not wise at all.

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Was this a surprise to anyone? No... Just a heads up.. you will be using Origin regardless if you buy a retail copy or download it from ANY d2d service folks... Just liek Bad company 2 forced you to use EA's service (EA has fused all that now into origin)...

you people that are buying the retail version, don't be surprised if the retail version still makes you install EA's Origin program.

Valve >>>>>>>>>>> EA

Not too surprised, considering EA is trying to mimic Steam's success with their own online retailer.

One might not want to Support Steam, but there is even less reasons to support EA.

I guess I don't really see the huge problem people are having here. It's not like the game is going to be any more expensive and when EA has the funds to back this sort of system, it doesn't really make much sense for them to allow Steam to take a cut from their profits. It doesn't restrict anyone from getting or enjoying the game, so it all seems fine to me.

Competition has entered the digital age. Not too long from now, not releasing a game on steam will be like not sending physical copies to Gamestop. A strange move? Maybe, but it sure as hell wouldn't dictate my purchase decision. I love Steam, but unflagging loyalty to a single distributor seems highly limiting.

Well, this sucks, but I was planning on buying the retail version anyway...

Wait so those who anticipated this game for a long time and are hyped about are not getting for this reason? I am surprised, i bet you all are not Battlefield veterans :P

Too bad... i live in south america so steam is the most comfortable way to purchase games for me... so this is a total let down, their loss.

EA... Steam have been, and always will be, the best PC gaming client there is.

I will be buying on ps3 so it does not bother me, but why does downloading on steam differ from downloading it on Origin or some other company?

This is stupid on EA's part. They said they wanted to beat MW3 and your not going to use steam because you want to be arrogant about origin. This is going to effect them big time cause over 50 million people use steam.

A message to EA Games... << LINK REMOVED >>

It's funny how you all rage on EA for doing this, but think it's just alright when Valve does the exact same thing. "F**k EA, you don't get to dictate me! ONLY VALVE DOES!" ..sigh

So we have to buy all our EA games from this thing??

To be honest, I'll buy it from Direct2Drive before i touch Origin.

As a major fan of Battlefield 2 and 2142 (and one who hated Bad Company) I am disappointed, and will not be purchasing BF3. Thanks for losing my support EA, I don't care about your Origins crap. EA just won't beat Steam, it's too late.

some people don't realize that allegedly this problem is Steam's fault, not EA's. apparently Steam has imposed a strict set of business terms regarding DLC which prevents EA from hosting some of their games on the service even if they wanted to (which they imply they do). it is interesting, however, that this seems to be happening only to EA games... to those particularly upset, perhaps the proper response to amend the situation would not be to boycott BF3, but Steam instead.

Your loss EA, I guess I can use those $60 to preorder Rage on steam today :)

Battlefield 3 not coming to my PC.

This is a serious deal to me. 99% of my PC library is through Steam, the other 1% thankfully doesn't need CD keys or has their own method of verifying. I probably won't be purchassing BF3 as a result. I don't want to keep track of CD Keys, manuals, boxes, and CD's. Thats the whole reason I got Steam in the first place. I just want to play the game w/o all the clutter. Its cool if I only buy like 2 games a year, but I buy A LOT of PC games. I don't have the luxury of storing all that stuff on my desk when I was a teenager. I need to have space to work as well. Bad move for EA because I can only stomach Blizzard DL'er and Steam. There is no room for a 3rd.

Agreed with Too-DementeD. Never even intended to buy it on Steam. Every crybaby can just buy the boxed version and add it to their account or whatever. I don't see any reason or rhyme in all that whining. Grow up people.

Sigh. BF3 not appearing on Steam is a huge inconvenience. It's not enough of a blow to prevent me from purchasing it outright, but it's still annoying.

Honestly cant see the issue here with this decision, as the core game remains unaffected regardless of what retailer you purchase from. Ok there are friends lists and whatnot with steam but apart from that there is no detracting experience whatsoever. Besides if i developed an IP i would want to distribute it the way i wished it to be distributed, they have no duty to put it on steam its 100% their choice, and to be fair to EA steam do place a hefty fee on games and DLC sold through their services...

@mjc0961 They will blame Piracy, they always do... oh wait you can't play a pirated copy of an online game. Doh... there goes that excuse. SO yea what you gonna come up with now EA?

Valve and EA need to settle this. Valve needs to retract the DLC part terms of service agreement. In game DLC is not going to kill you Valve. And EA needs to realize that EA Download Manger sucked and renaming it Origins isnt going to help it, especially in the beta (extremely buggy) state that it is in. Both need to remember that pissing off consumers = less money.

@Kiriyama_X "Doesn't matter, no one buys PC games anymore anyways, oh don't act like that isn't true. " With all due respect, outlining one's personal disdain or lack of knowledge of the PC market - then wrapping it up with ".... oh don't act like that isn't true. " doesn't make the comment factual. @drenai2001 - thank-you so much for the insightful and "factual" article, however its not needed. To combat this claim, let's not even pull out any in-depth facts. Let's just use some good ole fashion common sense. If no one bought PC games anymore, do you think that publishers of AAA titles would continue to invest in them? In an era where games of "profitable" units like consoles can sell a million and still be considered financial disappointments and shelved, who could reasonably imagine they would continue to "dump" money into something "no one buys". Publishers are not fan boys, they're cash boys. Such nostalgia does not exist with them if the investment is not heavily profitable. Now a more factual statement would be " no one buys PC games as much as they use to". Maybe that's what was meant. Maybe I'm over analyzing. Nevertheless, applying such a broad and non-factual claim, then implying we all know its true will garner such responses. Especially when this article itself says that steam (primarily a PC application) has 30 million users..... sheesh

Why is everyone making a big deal out of this? Does it even matter where you buy the game? Gosh people are so hard to figure out ._.

You don't have to suddenly hate on EA just because they've decided they want to put their own titles on their own distribution outlet. Valve sell their own games themselves and if EA want to too, so be it. It's their loss when they've lost out on sales. Besides. You could always go to a store and get it on disc if you're planning to buy it on PC anyway. It's cheaper than buying it on Origin, and you get an actual disc (which I personally prefer over than buying digitally, even though digital is usually cheaper).

To be honest, I never liked any games that forced me to run a full program of much more than what's related to that game - including Steam. Why could I not just run my Counter-Strike with a miniversion of Steam identifying me as the legit owner? Instead, there was a full client that was used for everything - for instance, it would automatically start updating any Steam game I had, producing unwanted lag that I had to counter by manually stopping the updates. I didn't need any of the tools, not even friends list / chat when I often played 'alone'. Point of all this: who cares what program is running when none of them are of any use when playing the game.

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@Kiriyama_X Absolute nonsense. Have you seen what happens to the Steam servers when they're having a sale? While it's probably true that less people buy physical copies of PC games these days, it isn't the same case for PC games in general.