A GameStop report has confirmed news that Battlefield 3 will not be coming to Steam. EA itself originally spilled the beans via a release list, but it quickly pulled the details offline. The US game retail giant has now corroborated prior reports.
“The upcoming EA title Battlefield 3 will be sold as a download through GameStop, but not through Steam,” said financial research firm Baird, in a report to GameStop bosses. “Given Steam’s dominance — and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application — publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative.”
EA has been excluding Steam in order to inflate the worth of its own proprietary download service, Origin. While some people do indeed welcome a competitive alternative, the issue is that Origin won’t be that alternative. EA is basically producing an inferior Steam knock-off while still charging full price for its games and doing nothing to appeal to customers outside of holding quasi-exclusive games that can still be bought at retail or on consoles.
Baird says companies will be receptive to a competitive alternative, and that may be right. Origin, however, is a far cry from “competitive.”
Battlefield 3 won’t appear on Steam, retailer says [Developer]
