Krovven wrote on Jul 20, 2011, 12:15:
I said this when these events first started, still seems to apply...if EA is trying to circumvent Steam by selling DLC from within game, or through another vendor and not allowing Steam equal opportunity...then Valve has every right to kick Crysis 2 off Steam.
Valve certainly does have every right to sell what they like on their platform.
Assuming StingingVelvet's info is correct, seems like EA/Crytek made a really stupid move on their part.
Depends. Like I said earlier the extra revenue is significant and could make up for lost sales due to a lack of Steam versions, depending on how many people now ignore the game. I would imagine EA did not make this decision lightly, they know how much they sell and where. If they are willing to cut out Steam one would have to assume they legitimately believe they will make more money doing so, or at least break even.
Given EA's marketing budgets and established franchises that doesn't really surprise me. It would be hard to convince me that anyone who wants Mass Effect 3 or Battlefield 3 will just ignore the games if they are not on Steam. The real loss would be extremely casual gamers who are also big Steam fans who would only really know the games were out through Steam. What kind of percentage are they? EA knows better than we do I suspect.