http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/battlefield-3/1181544p1.html

Report: You Won't Find Battlefield 3 on Steam

Origin, Direct2Drive, and GamersGate will all be selling digital copies of DICE's anticipated shooter, Battlefield 3, according to a leaked list from Electronic Arts. And while it has yet to be confirmed, it appears the biggest PC digital distribution platform in the world, Steam, will be excluded.

EA and Valve got into a bit of a dust-up last month when Crysis 2 disappeared from Valve's online storefront, Steam. Valve remained mum about the whole thing while EA pointed the finger at Valve. Now it appears EA will be avoiding Steam altogether with what will likely be one of the biggest games it has ever published.

On Sunday, Joystiq spotted the since removed listing of Battlefield 3 digital distribution partners on EA's official site. Electronic Arts and Valve have yet to respond to requests for comment, but a recent forum post by EA on its policy on selling games on third-party sites, along with the recent Crysis 2 issue, indicates the two sides are at an impasse.

"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," EA stated when Crysis 2 was removed from Steam. "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."

Shortly thereafter, EA had this to say about its third-party site policy: "When a download service forbids publishers from contacting players with patches, new levels, items and other services – it disrupts our ability to provide the ongoing support players expect from us. At present, this is the case with only one download service. While EA offers its entire portfolio to this site, they have elected to not post many of our games. We hope to find a mutually agreeable solution to this issue soon."

Again, EA and Valve have yet to confirm whether or not Battlefield 3 will sell on Steam when the game is released on October 25. However, the game is already available for pre-order at competitors like Direct2Drive but is nowhere to be found on Steam.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

They shoudl have jsut said that they hated money, really. However, I wonder what those business terms actually are that he talks so much about.

I'm geting it retail anyway but it's sickening how EA pushes their own store down the consumers troat even if they don't want it.

Valve hasn't had anything to say yet? I wonder what the deal is.

What confuses me is the entire accusatoin about not supporting patches and stuff, because i KNOW that is just bullshit. I get patches and services to games all the time. Unless by "contacting players" they mean "promoting our DLC you coudl have if you ahd mod tools" then this smells like lies througha dn through, and if it does mean that then I am even more eternally grateful to Valve.

Yea it sounds fishy on EA's part. Especially with the relaunching of their online store. Valve has seemed to be a good supporter of devs so I dont know why that would just change with EA all of a sudden. And no one else seems to have problems with valve.

Seems EA failwagon again.

I don't care, there's bajillon of better games than just another random FPS.

:starts Recettear:

So the PC version officially becomes DOA. Way to go EA, you really didnt stand much of a chance against COD, but at the very least put up a fight

Meh, if EA thinks people are going to abandon Steam and start using their online platform they are sadly mistaken. Especially for such worthless games as Crysis 2 or Battlefield 3.

EA's store sucks. Though its better than microsofts XD imo. I bought Battlefield 2142 and that experience was way worse than Direct2Drive or steam. and steam or GOG is my favorite depending on what I'm looking for.

That said. developers or publishers shouldn't have to sell games at certain stores if they don't want to. (Though there are always consequences)

They have every right to launch their games on their online store trying to support themselves even if failure is likely to occur.  Aren't valve games only on steam and not on direct2drive? 

I'm getting a disc copy so I don't care. I just hope the DRM isn't bogus. Granted, I'll likely only play online anyways.