EA vs. Valve - EA New Releases Removed From Steam In Wake Of Origin

Electronic Arts' new digital distribution service Origin has launched and has brought the removal of new EA games from Steam, Valve's digital distribution service. EA PC releases like Crysis 2 and Alice: Madness Returns are not available on Steam anymore and are instead available for digital distribution via EA's new service Origin as well as on Amazon and Impulse. EA mentioned in a statement to CNET that Steam removed Crysis 2 because of a new set of business terms imposed, however, Alice is still not available.

• RATING: Alice: Madness Returns Review

At E3 2011, EA also announced that BioWare's upcoming Star Wars massively multiplayer online roleplaying game Star Wars: The Old Republic, which already has 1.5 million users registered for its beta, will be releasing exclusively on Origin. Battlefield 3, EA's highly anticipated first person shooter and Mass Effect 3 for PC are also rumored to be heading exclusively to Origin.

The big ramifications for PC games consumers is that now you're basically being forced by companies to have a variety of different clients installed on your computer to run specific games. Not only that, but with EA already announcing exclusivity offers for their new releases, it's possible that DLC packs and beta access for EA games may be released only through Origin as well.

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This announcement also comes in the wake of EA's Battlefield 3 pre-order controversy, so people already have their noses out of joint when it comes to EA lately.

What do you think of EA moving all of its new titles to its own digital distribution service? Will you use Origin? Let me know below.

Sources: CNET, Reddit

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