EA Begins Origin Exclusivity (Update)

EA is starting to push their new Origin service by making certain games exclusive. If you’ve logged on Steam recently and tried to search for Crysis 2, you may be in for a surprise: it isn’t there anymore. Yep, EA has pulled it from the Steam store and it is now only available through Origin. However, the story doesn’t end there either as the upcoming Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic will also be exclusive to the Origin client.

Is this the beginning of a new era where more and more game developers start to release their own client with their own exclusive titles? Will gamers have to shift through various distribution software to play the game they want? Unfortunately, that seems to be the case for now. Valve isn’t exactly innocent of this tactic either.

You may recall that all of Valve’s games are only available through Steam as well as the Call of Duty franchise. Despite having a seemingly friendly relationship in the past, with EA publishing many Valve titles, Steam’s ascension at the forefront of digital distribution appears to have shifted EA’s views on their old partner. It is unclear at this time if Battlefield 3 will also be subjected to Origin exclusivity.

Update:

EA has provided a response to Patrick Klepek from Giant bomb regarding the situation.

It’s unfortunate that Steam has removed Crysis 2 from their service. This was not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA.

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. 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.

Crysis 2 continues to be available on several other download services including GameStop, Amazon, Origin.com and more.

So, it appears that Crysis 2 was removed from Steam due to terms that infringe on the way that EA planned on distributing their games. However, this is just one piece of the puzzle as we haven’t heard Valve’s side of the story.

Sources: exophase.com, giantbomb.com