It looks like publisher Electronic Arts may finally be jumping on the Steam bandwagon, as the EULA for EA Maxis' Spore has mysteriously appeared on the Steam site.

EA has long refused to offer titles on the Valve-maintained digital distribution platform, and has instead opted to pursue digital distribution through its own online store.

Though the EA-published Crysis and Crysis Warhead debuted on Steam earlier this year, the availability of the two games was negotiated by developer Crytek and Valve. Both were originally published under EA Partners label.

Should Spore make it onto Steam, it will represent the first internally-developed EA game on the platform. Other PC games from internal EA studios include Mass Effect, The Sims, Warhammer Online, the Command & Conquer series, and Dead Space.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56404

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This means that all big publishers in PC gaming will be under Valve's roof!!!! EA is the last big publisher to resist Steam's powerful hold - and if EA succumbs to Steam, then that probably means that Steam's sales are off the charts!!

PS: NCSoft is actually another big publisher not on Steam, but they usually are mostly on the MMO space so they don't really need Steam (though Guild Wars 2 on Steam would be awesome).

This is worrisome, I really don't want to see Valve and EA getting any closer than they already are. Though it's great that spore will now be on steam as well.

Edit: WTF was I wthinking at the time?

Excellent news, now I can look forward to Spore without SecuROM. Hopefully EA's other PC titles find their way onto Steam.

I'd be interesting to see how spore is selling. I know its sold at least 2 million copies but that was as of several months ago. Since pc games are less front loaded and it now looks like the game will be released on steam that bodes well for its overall LTD numbers.

I wouldn't be so sure. GTA IV on steam still has SecuROM. Much to my dismay. T.T

@vlad - what do you mean you don't want to see Steam and Valve get any closer? To what?

Any news that gives more sales to Spore and more money to the reformed but impoverished EA is good in my books

To having an EA-Valve merge or anything of the like.

Yeah - next news, EA buy Steam & Valve... :P

Yeah, a number of other games have it as well- the Stalker sequel, Sacred, Bioshock and Far cry 2. At least they tell you if there's any stupid 3rd party DRM now on the sales page for the games.

Thanks a lot for the info, you saved me some trouble. It's too bad, I want legit copies of the games but I guess the publishers really don't want my money.