EA’s SVP of Global Online fails to explain why Crysis 2 was removed from Steam


When we heard that EA’s and Crytek’s critically acclaimed title was removed from Valve’s distribution service, we wondered whether that was due to the launch EA’s own distribution service, Origin. According to David DeMartini, EA’s SVP of Global Online, Valve won’t let EA to directly manage its relationship with gamers and that’s why Crysis 2 was removed from Steam.
As David DeMartini wrote in a blog post:
“Some confusion came up a few weeks ago, when we started seeing stories and forum posts that suggested that EA was in conflict with one of our download partners, and that we had removed our games from that service. This is absolutely not true.
At EA, we want to bring the best possible content to our players. This was a key factor during my time in EA Partners, where we found great studios and worked to make their games available to as many players as possible. Here at Origin we have the same principle. We want our products available to as many players as possible, which means we make them available in all the places that gamers go to download games and services. To be very clear, except under extremely special circumstances we offer our games to every major download service including Amazon, Gamestop, and Steam.
As you know, games and how they are made have both changed. Today, we continue to extend the experience with new maps, vehicles and other content that adds hours of fun and more value for our players. We also enhance the gaming experience with features like friends lists and in-game chat using the Origin application. Most importantly, we always want to be sure we provide this content and service at the highest possible level of quality. To ensure this, any retailer can sell our games, but we take direct responsibility for providing patches, updates, additional content and other services to our players. You are connecting to our servers, and we want to establish on ongoing relationship with you, to continue to give you the best possible gaming experience. This works well for our partnership with Gamestop, Amazon and other online retailers.
Unfortunately, if we’re not allowed to manage this experience directly and establish a relationship with you, it disrupts our ability to provide the support you expect and deserve. At present, there is only one download service that will not allow this relationship. This is not our choice, and unfortunately it is their customer base that is most impacted by this decision. We are working diligently to find a mutually agreeable solution.
Going forward, EA will continue offering our games to all major download sites. We will also remain committed to providing you, our players, with the best possible content, services, and gaming experience that we can.”
The interesting part here is that David claims the game was removed due to the fact that they can’t provide the experience they want to their customers. So let us ask you; How the F’ didn’t Valve remove NFS: Shift 2? Need for Speed Shift 2 had also a patch and DLC that you could get from Origin and Valve hasn’t removed that game from Steam, even though it allegedly breaks the same rules as Crysis 2.
Moreover, Valve has allowed Microsoft to sell DLC on their own for GFWL titles. Additionally, they allowed Atari and Ubisoft to sell DLC for Test Drive Unlimited 2 and Assassins Creed 2 respectively. So why they didn’t allow EA to do the very same thing?
There is definitely something more going on here and this press release didn’t shed any light on the real reason of Crysis 2’s removal from Valve’s distribution service.