Online game store biz gets heated, EA blames Valve for Crysis 2 missing in action

Electronic Arts (EA), the game developer behind many of our favorite games, has made it quite plain that they intend to get into the online game store business in a big way, as evidenced by their statement that its upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, will only be available through their own online store known as Origin.

While this won’t affect the old style retail sales of the game it does signal that EA intends on making its newer games exclusive to their own online game store. This move is most apparent when looking for EA games on Valve’s competing online game store: Steam.

There is no problem finding any of the older EA games on Steam but along with EA’s Alice: Madness Returns and Battlefield 3 it seems that Crysis 2 has disappeared from Steam. EA however is quick to point out that this wasn’t a move by EA but rather due to Steam specific business terms between it and game developers.

In a statement sent to IGN, EA claims Crysis 2’s removal from Steam “was not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA.” It says Valve, the Half-Life and Portal developer behind Steam, is responsible for the game no longer being sold.

“Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers hoping to sell content on that service — many of which are not imposed by other online game services,” the statement reads. “Unfortunately, Crytek has an agreement with another download service which violates the new rules from Steam and resulted in its expulsion of Crysis 2 from Steam.”

via 1UP.com