EA's Origin reclaims Crysis 2 from Steam

By Robert Purchese Published 15 June, 2011

My shop's better than your shop.

Crysis 2 has disappeared from Steam and is now "only on Origin", EA's new digital distribution store.

Has EA's aggressive promotion of Origin begun? Will all upcoming EA games be excluded from Steam as well?

That's the assumption.

However, Crysis 2 can still be bought from other non-EA digital distribution outlets such as Impulse and Direct2Drive. And there are many other EA games still available on Steam, such as 2011 titles Dragon Age II, Bulletstorm and Shift 2: Unleashed.

But, this week's Alice: Madness Returns won't be sold on Steam. That game will be "only on Origin". And there's no sign of this autumn's Battlefield 3 on Steam either.

Origin is the next generation of the EA Store. One small application keeps track of all EA games, gathering stats, populating a profile and keeping you in touch with your friends. You can even buy games!

Crysis 2 on PC - a comparison of quality levels.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (81) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Shikasama #1 11 months ago

    Decline of EA digital sales starts.....now!

  • Tomo #2 11 months ago

    Bodes well for Alice Returns. Sigh.

    This is one thing I hate about digital distribution, having to use various different clients to play my sodding games. I don't mind buying from different places, but having to load them up with a separate program is a pain in the arse. Especially when the client sucks as badly as EADM.

    If somehow a 3rd party could create a client which can somehow access all the other clients/stores, that would be total win. But I imagine that's highly unlikely.

  • dfunked #3 11 months ago

    Load of wank... The only time I buy games via something like Steam is to support the developers (Portal 2), if it's cheaper than a physical copy online (again, Portal 2) or if it's on sale.
    From what I've seen of the prices on Origin so far, they're not even trying to compete with the prices for physical media, so I simply won't bother with it...

  • thesombrerokid #4 11 months ago

    Good luck with that EA.

  • SClaw #5 11 months ago

    I don't have problem with this but... EA games on Steam were always too expensive because EA set the price high to discourage the sale, or so Steam always claimed, yet on Origin the price is still stupidly high.

    Call me old fashioned but if I'm not paying for a box, a manual, a disk, expensive shelf/warehouse space then I want it cheaper - not the same or more. You can't have your cake and eat it EA. I'd rather wait a few days and get it a hell of a lot cheaper from Amazon or something.

  • AaronTurner #6 11 months ago

    The other vendors perhaps haven't used up their keys yet. This may not just be Crysis 2 then, perhaps once all the keys are bought for all the games they will just disappear? Bad news for someone like me that wants all their games in one place, the only time I'll buy from another vendor is if the game has steamworks. Stupid perhaps but I'm sure there are plenty of others like me.

  • hiddenranbir #7 11 months ago

    Good on EA. Tired of Steam monopoly.

    @TOMO

    True, but Steam is the only place that forces you to run it to play your games. Gamersgate doesn't, Impulse doesn't and EADM didn't either (Only for Spore). Origin doesn't either. Infact, because it is still in beta, Fifa 11 works better without it. As does BC2



    I'm pretty sure EA will end up with sales of their own too. I mean, hell, even MS did some on their store...which I've forgotten the name of. Some marketplace, anyway. Hehe, although they've still got £60 for Bulletstorm.
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 15/06/11 @ 09:06

  • pipito #8 11 months ago

    Wells its huge hit. no blizzard games on steam either. Steam may end up just one more casual game service.

  • Smoped #9 11 months ago

    So this is all that's left of the once mighty Origin Systems? A name for EA's webstore.

  • Smoped #10 11 months ago

    So this is all that's left of the once mighty Origin Systems? A name for EA's webstore.

  • StooMonster #11 11 months ago

    Sings

    "Fuck you
    Fuck you very, very much
    Cause we hate what you do
    And we hate your whole crew
    So please don't stay in touch"

  • Nuada #12 11 months ago

    I had a look at Origin the other day and it's ugly as sin, a hooer to navigate and the prices aren't competitive. Good luck with that EA.... On another note, I can see feck all difference between Very High and Extreme in that Crysis video above. What am I suppose to be looking for?

  • OrangesJoel #13 11 months ago

    Because the trouble with Steam is it's far too convenient. What gamers really want is separate online identities for every major publisher and no means of communicating between them.

    Just stop this, EA. Christ.

    EDIT: Effective means of protest if you're unhappy with this: where EA is making games Origin exclusive, buy them boxed from brick-and-mortar highstreet stores or web retailers. EA get considerably smaller margins on box product sales than they would on Steam sales.
    Edited by OrangesJoel at 15/06/11 @ 09:15

  • Whitster #14 11 months ago

    And hereby starts the lack of an open market that we all foresaw digital distribution would bring.

  • StolenGlory #15 11 months ago

    Dick move.

  • Anciegher #16 11 months ago

    This is bull.

  • Dizzy #17 11 months ago

    So if you bought Crysis on Steam, what about updates?

  • MaxiSleep #18 11 months ago

    Stupid stupid stupid move. Enjoy the Ghetto EA.

  • TheApologist #19 11 months ago

    Amazon are likely to be the winners out of this one.

    Consumers, however, will not.

  • Diomedes117 #20 11 months ago

    I don't get how digital distribution can work when buying the retail version is CHEAPER!! Com'on, do EA, Sony, MS, Valve etc think we are that dumb?

  • StooMonster #21 11 months ago

    hiddenranbir: Good on EA. Tired of Steam monopoly.

    Steam isn't a monopoly, there are other plenty of places to download games.

    Not only do we need yet another desktop client piece of software, and inferior one at that, but the publishers' greedy exclusivity is obnoxious -- at retail publishers might get 50% of recommended retail price and the other 50% is what the shops play with for differential pricing (publishers don't control the actual final price) on Steam / DirectToDrive / etc they get 70% to 80% of the price (which they set), on their own download services they get 100% of the price they set.

    If you believe even for a moment that this means that games will cost less on EA's service then you are naive. Moreover, the price fixing will only increase because of the decreasing amount of competition.

    Just wait for Activision, Ubisoft, et al follow suit, then you'll be crying. I hope this fails and fails big time, I'm all for digital downloads but through aggregators not individual publishers.

    What's more I am betting this bodes that BF3 will be exclusive to Origin, and if that's the case then I'm simply not going to bother or with any other games that are exclusive to their service.

  • Darren #22 11 months ago

    Buy those PC games on discs, folks, as you'll not only save yourself up to £15 in the process - Alice: Madness Returns is £34.99 on EA's store yet £24.99 at GAME (at least, it was when I pre-ordered it less another £2.50 in Reward Card points) - and EA's games are not tied to an online account in order to load them nor do they require the disc in the drive to play them either. You can also install them where YOU want to unlike Steam. All round win IMO.
    Edited by Darren at 15/06/11 @ 09:28

  • tankboi #23 11 months ago

    F**K YOU EA...I already have my massive back catalogue and friends list connected with my 6 year old steam account, and I am not going to just start up multiple DD services.

    Too little, and too late to the party, sorry. Be content with owning the rest of the bloody industry and just let this go. At least let Steam sell as well as your shitty Origin service.

    if its going to be anything like your EA downloader bloatware crap then you can stick it where the sun dont shine, and the cash dont flow.

    Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

    That is all.

  • Bandatta #24 11 months ago

    The EA client blows. I haven't been able to play Bad Company 2 with half my friends for months now as the sodding store won't recognise them for some reason. It lets up after about 3 months only to boot them again after 6. I've had similar problems as well, and reclaiming lost or forgotten access info is unbelievably difficult. I abandoned BF2142 because I couldn't get back in and had to create a new account.

    Buying from EA online feels like feeding an alligator. I never know what I'm going to lose.

  • Jazzy_Geoff #25 11 months ago

    I refuse to take any PC game that isn't on steam, even if it's free (as sometimes occasionally happens). I just cannot be bothered to organise the various downloads and clients. Steam or fuck off basically.
    Edited by Jazzy_Geoff at 15/06/11 @ 09:31

  • des #26 11 months ago

    It was just a matter of time,digital is growing rapidly,bye bye old Steam.

    Others will follow,why share money with some middleman(Steam) when you can keep everything for yourself.This is just natural evolution of DD services,EA publishes/makes tons of games why would they share anything?Nobody would

    EA has the right to sell their games anywhere they want,don't like it?Buy Battlefield 3 from Valve then--oh wait,Valve is not making Battlefield 3.

  • StooMonster #27 11 months ago

    tankboi: if its going to be anything like your EA downloader bloatware crap then you can stick it where the sun dont shine, and the cash dont flow.

    Anything like? It is the EA Downloader bloatware, but with Social Networking added.

    I kid you not.

    "See what your friends are downloading" "Origin supports 14 different languages, letting gaming fans from all over the world access direct downloads that take their PC gaming to a whole new level." etc.

  • huckan #28 11 months ago

    Personally I find steam spot on for my needs and won't be fucking around with EA's client as I've found it pretty poor and annoying with obvious updates every time I start my PC.

    I've already pre-purchased BF3 through their system (well it only cost £20!) and unless their stance changes I won't be using them in future as I don't like being ring-holed to a single developers system.

  • Shikasama #29 11 months ago

    des - You said all that like it was a good thing that you are happy about. Explain how each individual publisher tying their own titles to their own desktop software and setting their own prices could ever, in a multiverse of possibilities, be a positivie thing for people who buy games.

  • BloodSaint #30 11 months ago

    Why don't they connect their crappy software to steam, instead of making it exclusive... Like how Games for Windows Live connects with steam. This way consumers don't have to remember usernames and passwords all those different services...

  • Krusty #31 11 months ago

    Blows goats!

    Steam has already won, it's a little late for your shit EA.

  • paulf #32 11 months ago

    one way ticket to failsville

  • coojam #33 11 months ago

    Much as I love Steam, supporting a "single vendor" market is silly. They're being responsible for now, but there's nothing to stop them capitalising on their monopoly in the long run. Not that EA's strategy here is any better.

    Hopefully new operating systems will be able to incorporate games seamlessly from multiple clients in the future. Over to you, Windows 8.

  • Dizzy #34 11 months ago

    "I don't get how digital distribution can work when buying the retail version is CHEAPER!! Com'on, do EA, Sony, MS, Valve etc think we are that dumb? "

    The reason for that is that digital distribution doesn't want to upset the retailers (yet). It is a catch 22.

  • Dduckster #35 11 months ago

    Jesus christ. Are they going to make the boxed version exclusive to Lidl too?

  • deadstoned #36 11 months ago

    EA you just lost one hell of sales, and as much as it pains me to say it. I wont buy Battlefield 3 without Steam. All my Battlefield buds are on Steam FU EA.

  • apoc_reg #37 11 months ago

    Origin can f@#k off, i havent even gone to the site let alone download it.

    I suggest everyone do the same

  • oerhoert #38 11 months ago

    Well, no Crysis 2 for me then.

  • hiddenranbir #39 11 months ago

    Steam isn't a monopoly, there are other plenty of places to download games.

    It was the logical consequence. So more competition is GOOD. It means more aggressiveness in getting other parties to use THEIR store, offering better deals to them.

    And interesting you're so unhappy you'll still get BF3. You don't have to get it from Origin you know...and you won't need Origin to run the game as it remains.

    Just wait for Activision, Ubisoft, et al follow suit, then you'll be crying.

    Ubisoft had their own store for years...I bought PoP2 and 3 from it.


    Btw, if you're worried about steamgames that were EA. I used the key to register on EADM so at that time I had TWO sources to download. So if you're worried about patches etc, your steam game isn't defunct. Not sure I understand how it EADM was bloaty. I ran it, downloaded my game, installed and then closed it. Only to open it again when I wanted to download another game. It is the same with Origin right now.
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 15/06/11 @ 10:22

  • Tricky #40 11 months ago

    @Deadstoned - all of your Battlefield buds won't be on Steam for BF3 either then will they? So you'll just have to use the in-game friends list like the one in BC2.

  • hiddenranbir #41 11 months ago

    ^

    And you can always add the .exe to steam....and use your friends list that way. Frightening isn't it?

  • Caimbeul #42 11 months ago

    EA really are going downhill rapidly again. You can tell the company is run by suits who know nothing of the industry and how its customers think when it comes to value and pricing.

    The vid on the other hand i had not seen before. virtually no difference between Very High and Extreme. Will stick to Very High Settings thank you.

  • Shikasama #43 11 months ago

    hiddenrabs - And when has Steam suffered through a lack of competition? How many £3/£4/£5 games do you expect to see on the EA store? How many Summer Sales? How many little gems will you pick up because hey, they are only cheap anyway. In what universe do you see this happening on an EA platform?

    I'm sorry but current evidence (the pricing on their store right NOW) completely blows your competition argument out of the water. Look at the prices on the Windows Marketplace for another example. These companies don't seem to see it as competing, but trying to just get the sales off people who don't know any better.

  • Shakey_Jake33 #44 11 months ago

    I was afraid EA might do this when they announced Origin originally. I'm all for a bit of competition in the space, but this kind of publisher-orientated fragmentation will not achieve this.

  • FortysixterUK #45 11 months ago

    Unless EA do regular good sales deals like STEAM do ( I only buy special offers from STEAM), then their digital sales will surely suffer? Over christmas STEAM did some great EA deals . I bought loads. But ONLY because they were on sale.

    Frankly unless digital sales can undercut physical copy prices, I'll always go for the physical copy.

    I think companies that release games digitally would rather stop physical sales altogether, and then maintain artificially high digital prices.

  • Shikasama #46 11 months ago

    Also, not to mention the minor point that if all of their games are exclusive to Origin, there is no competition.

  • actionfitz #47 11 months ago

    No steam sale = no sale for me.
    If they think they can just swap all their games over to their own online store and keep charging £39.99 for Digital games they can fuck off.
    I never buy new games off steam at full price. Steam Sales are the only time I buy digital copys of PC games.
    Here's hoping they have the sense to offer value for customers and not just profits for shareholders.

  • HL706 #48 11 months ago

    I like Steam. It works, it's intuitive and I've never had any hassles with it whatsoever. Boxed EA products or nothing for me I guess.

  • hiddenranbir #49 11 months ago

    I'm sorry but current evidence (the pricing on their store right NOW) completely blows your competition argument out of the water. Look at the prices on the Windows Marketplace for another example. These companies don't seem to see it as competing, but trying to just get the sales off people who don't know any better.

    But GFWL -did- have sales. They're just not in a position to do it everyday like Valve, yet. Did Steam start off with cheap ass shit? No, they were super expensive until they got strong enough. No doubt EA is going to try and court other developers to use their platform, unlikely to be any of the big ones but MS managed to get things like Mount and Blade so EA will try for the smaller ones too. I'm not going to argue that EA, MS are going to be as mobile as Valve or the other established e-sellers when it comes to discounts and special offers but they've seen why e-selling has been successful and I can't think that even these guys are -that- stupid to not react to that.

    We'll just have to wait and see. But I've been using Origin since E3 announcement and it isn't destroying my experience at all. All I've done is use it to install EA games and that's it. I'm still using Steam as my overlay. And it isn't as if retail deals are out the door. I reinstalled BC2 with it but linked it to Steam. I reinstalled Fifa 11 with it, but play it without the overlay. It is just EADM in a new name, it isn't scary.
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 15/06/11 @ 10:40

  • mortiz666 #50 11 months ago

    I won't be buying from "origin", looks like it's down the old fashioned root for EA Games in the future.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #51 11 months ago

    I'm a bit torn on this. Clearly I could do without having multiple game clients on my PC (in fact I doubt I'll bother) but at the same time you can't really blame EA for given it a go (or any other publisher) whilst at the same time say it's ok for Valve.

    I love Steam and use it daily but it is close to becoming a single market economy.

    What this really needs is an opensource framework that allows them to run their own stores and their own accounts but allows achievements, communication and matchmaking accross systems. If I had the time I'd knock something up. :(

  • SuperFanBoy #52 11 months ago

    Can't all major PC publishers agree on a common set of networking tools? That way people will be encouraged to shop around without fear of fragmentation or multiple clients.

  • jivemaster #53 11 months ago

    I could understand if origin had been around forever like steam and they finally decided to move to their own system so they have complete control ... but origin barely exists. It seems like a pretty stupid initiative. Having a special edition of a game exclusive to a particular store is bad enough - but making a game exclusive to your own service - that's just lame. The only exception is Valve games, seeing as they started the first successful online store concept. You can't ignore steam now. It's too late, and you'll pay for it with lack of sales.

    I predict EA exclusive games will slowly return to steam once they realise it's doing more harm than good.

  • kingdumpalot #54 11 months ago

    What if I've already bought crysis 2 on steam? will I be refunded? Will I still be able to play?

  • Eraysor #55 11 months ago

    Looks like I'll be going back to buying boxed EA games from now on. What a bunch of price-fixing idiots.

  • Bradach #56 11 months ago

    i'm new to PC gaming. If i went and bought Crysis 2 from a shop could i think "add" it to steam?

  • cw- #57 11 months ago

    Crysis 1 on Steam £9.99
    Crysis 1 on Origin £14.99

    Helloooooooo

  • Lemming81 #58 11 months ago

    Goodbye on PC, EA.

    I give it six months max before EA are quoted on this very site as saying PC gaming is in decline based on this.
    Edited by Lemming81 at 15/06/11 @ 11:36

  • azic #59 11 months ago

    Such a stupid fucking greedy move.

  • des #60 11 months ago

    Valve tax is not popular among developers,what a shock.

  • Lemming81 #61 11 months ago

    "Valve tax is not popular among developers,what a shock."

    You mean the supplying of a store front with an established customer base, bandwidth to download your game and match-making, and achievements (if you want them), all built in? Yeah what arseholes Valve are! They should do that shit FOR NOTHING right?, right? :-/

  • vasi4_5 #62 11 months ago

    Sorry EA but i don't want second steam.

  • Spekingur #63 11 months ago

    EA are fools.

    Blizzard is already doing this with Battle.net - with super "good" prices for everyone! (They are not very good.)

    Edit:
    Quite a large percentage of PC gamers use Steam. If EA is to have any chance in 'beating' CoD:MW3 with BF3 in sales they need to be everywhere. That means on Steam too. If the suits at EA do not realise that then they shouldn't be suits at EA anymore. You know for sure that CoD:MW3 will be on Steam to maximize sales.
    Edited by Spekingur at 15/06/11 @ 12:10

  • des #64 11 months ago

    "You mean the supplying of a store front with an established customer base, bandwidth to download your game and match-making, and achievements (if you want them), all built in?"

    Yeah,no arguing there but the fact is that EA and others can do with their games whatever they want.They certainly have tons of talented people that can make something like Steam and digital is growing rapidly--no brainier,really

    Not saying that they will do that at first,but i'm 100% sure that in few years people will treat EA,Ubisoft,etc like specialized retailers.People will follow games,no matter what.
    Edited by des at 15/06/11 @ 12:15

  • JamieR #65 11 months ago

    Well thats less EA games i buy then.

  • Xardan #66 11 months ago

    Be happy some companies have the balls to compete, otherwise prices will increase.

  • Zozzilla #67 11 months ago

    I prefer to buy hard copies of games, due to my connection being full of fail, plus it's usually cheaper that way. And it saves losing it and having to spend days downloading it again if my hard drive breaks and I've forgotten to back-up new purchases (which has happened before with my Steam stuff. ¬.¬ Also had great fun patching WoW and FFXI again.)

  • Tricky #68 11 months ago

    By the way, for those of you who are complaining that EA are charging full RRP for their games on their own store, there's a very good reason for this and it's covered under Marketing theory by something called Channel Conflict.

    It's the same reason Microsoft charge full whack for games on Games On Demand - if they try and compete with the rest of the companies who are also distributing their product then those companies will demand higher margins in order to compete and the last thing you want to do is piss off your distribution channels.

  • makeamazing #69 11 months ago

    I only buy downloads for PC from two places these days, Steam and Gog... wont be looking at any others, just too much hassle with passwords/loging details and keeping track of files. So lose lose for EA from me.

  • Inmediasress #70 11 months ago

    If this tendency keeps up that every publisher and his mother wants an personal digital distribution service than you can dig a grave but not tfor the boxed sales but digital sales.

  • Durandle #71 11 months ago

    Sooo... playing EA games will "require" origin to be installed in order to work I guess. I know Steam does it, but I like Steam and I like Valve. I don't trust or like EA one bit and don't want their crappy software running in the background.

  • Lord_BeeJee #72 11 months ago

    EA feels its selling too much, this way competitors can have some sales heh

  • bad09 #73 11 months ago

    GOG or cheapo sales are the only things I buy DD now so not really bothered.

    DRM is killing my confidence in this industry (and DD buying). I'm back to boxed so I can have a crack handy without fear of losing a account full of game as I'm fed up of the internet holding my gaming to ransom. Use the internet don't chain us to it you cunts.

  • sabbede #74 11 months ago

    Go to hell EA.
    From now on, I'm just stealing your games.

    P.S. Crysis 2 was crap anyhow.

    Edit: for 'just' read 'always and only', as in "I'm going to seed games I'm not even interested in playing because fuck you."
    P.P.S. Thanks for ruining BioWare assholes. (Notice how EA's takeover corresponds EXACTLY with BioWare developing disappointing games?)
    Edited by sabbede at 15/06/11 @ 15:10

  • Matthew_Hornet #75 11 months ago

    Good thing is, this is likely to fail so utterly that by the time BF3 comes out it'll be back on Steam.

  • Bravestinsane #76 11 months ago

    oh well ill just support Pre Owned and trade a few games in to buy Battlefield 3 from a shop

  • brod #77 11 months ago

    If being douchey is a prerequisite for being the #1 video game publisher then EA is right on track to reclaim the throne.

  • septimus #78 11 months ago

    Fuck you very much EA.

    Like Ubisoft you don't get that people don't want sign up to 5000 fucking online services to play a game!

    I hope they don't do this for Battlefield 3 :(

  • StooMonster #79 11 months ago

    hiddenranbir: So more competition is GOOD. It means more aggressiveness in getting other parties to use THEIR store, offering better deals to them.

    I said in my post that more competition is good, choice means differentiated services and lower prices, which is good for consumers.

    Having games available from one place at one price is not good, games available "exclusively" mean less competition is BAD.

    Exclusivity to THEIR STORE means higher prices.

  • MattyD #80 11 months ago

    LOL you'd have to be crazy to buy anything at full price from Origin and not have a physical copy to fall back on / save you redownloading if you uninstall a game, when the retail version is often significantly cheaper even on day 1.

  • dmt2 #81 11 months ago

    Crysis 2 is shit. Crysis is the best game ever. Go figure.