Why you can't buy Crysis 2 from Steam

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 7 July, 2011

Nothing to do with Origin, EA claims.

You can't buy Crysis 2 and other EA games from digital download service Steam because Valve won't let EA directly manage its relationship with gamers.

Or, in other words, it has nothing to do with the launch of EA's Steam rival, Origin.

"As you know, games and how they are made have both changed," EA's SVP of global online David DeMartini wrote in a blog post.

"Today, we continue to extend the experience with new maps, vehicles and other content that adds hours of fun and more value for our players.

"We also enhance the gaming experience with features like friends lists and in-game chat using the Origin application. Most importantly, we always want to be sure we provide this content and service at the highest possible level of quality.

"To ensure this, any retailer can sell our games, but we take direct responsibility for providing patches, updates, additional content and other services to our players. You are connecting to our servers, and we want to establish an ongoing relationship with you, to continue to give you the best possible gaming experience. This works well for our partnership with GameStop, Amazon and other online retailers.

"Unfortunately, if we're not allowed to manage this experience directly and establish a relationship with you, it disrupts our ability to provide the support you expect and deserve.

"At present, there is only one download service that will not allow this relationship. This is not our choice, and unfortunately it is their customer base that is most impacted by this decision. We are working diligently to find a mutually agreeable solution.

"Going forward, EA will continue offering our games to all major download sites. We will also remain committed to providing you, our players, with the best possible content, services, and gaming experience that we can."

EA launched Origin last month. It will be the only place you can download upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it is not necessary that you run Origin to play it.

Two weeks after launch Crysis 2 disappeared from Steam, but was still available from other non-EA digital distribution outlets such as Impulse and Direct2Drive.

EA said at the time the decision to remove Crysis 2 from Steam was Valve's call, not EA's.

"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," read a statement.

"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 Origin.com."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 11 months ago

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

  • grayn #1 11 months ago

    Guess they'll be taking all their games off the Appstore too, then.

  • Eraysor #2 11 months ago

    I think the reason Steam doesn't provide that service is because it already provides the best automatic patching and updating service itself...

    EDIT: It's almost like they're deliberately trying to be obtuse and awkward so Crysis 2 would get removed from Steam.
    Edited by Eraysor at 07/07/11 @ 09:30

  • JoeGBallad #3 11 months ago

    I know (I KNOW) there are competition laws in place for good reason, but sometimes I wish there was just one, unified place to download all major games, because at this rate every publisher and their dog will have an online shop, and we'll have to submit our every detail to them all.

    Unless they all let you use paypal or something.

  • gribb #4 11 months ago

    @2. EA knows how popular Steam is and not having one of their biggest PC games on there is undoubtedly a massive headache for them. They care about making money way more than digital distributor point scoring.

    Crysis 2 will be back on the store soon, mark my words.

  • toneriko #5 11 months ago

    read: it wasn't enough that (via steam) we couldn't have control over your money but that we couldn't have control of your balls as well.

    Sounds like my DLC money and marketing data value are cash cows EA doesn't want to let go of...

  • Roarster #6 11 months ago

    "providing patches, updates, additional content and other services"

    Isn't this what GFWL does and Valve have no problems including GFWL games on Steam. I suspect someone is still not quite telling the truth here.

  • thesombrerokid #7 11 months ago

    "it's not orign, it's the EA Downloader that is a part of origin."

    ehh that's origin mate, at present that's basically all origin is.

  • Spekingur #8 11 months ago

    What? EA, you be trolling.

  • login_name #9 11 months ago

    If this is true, how do the MMO companies get away with it? They update via their own launchers. There has to be more to it than just patches and DLC.

    Edit: In fact, once you've bought it, you never even had to load Steam. Just click a desktop shortcut that loaded the game launcher/patcher. At least this is how Aion worked.
    Edited by login_name at 07/07/11 @ 09:46

  • Optimaximal #10 11 months ago

    Interesting clarification there...

    "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 was published under EA Partners, meaning EA was just the retail distribution & support partner - it sounds like Crytek are the ones who have shot themselves in the foot... again!

  • MrFlump #11 11 months ago

    Reads to me like EA are aiming for some cheap and easy marketing points. If EA broke the Steam terms in some way over crysis 2 and it got removed, why not spin it so that it sounds like the competitor is bad and origin want to be bestest mates with a better customer focused service.

    I'm sure anyone who visited support sites in the past for patches and addons really did feel engaged and interacted with by the publisher. /rolleyes

  • TheRealBadabing #12 11 months ago

    If the reason was something that was actually positive for gamers, EA would be shouting the specifics from the rooftops to make it very clear that Steam were the bad guys.

    The fact that all we are getting from EA is regurgitated marketing bollocks tells me that actually Steam is quietly protecting it's customers from potential exploitation/abuse.

    We have all seen how EA have cocked around with Live since MS gave them carte blanche. I think Steam are learning from that mistake.

  • BOFH_UK #13 11 months ago

    ""providing patches, updates, additional content and other services" "

    Hmm, that's odd because I just purchased Assassin's Creed 2 off steam in the sale which includes Ubisoft's client. Said client appears to download patches and updates, provides additional content and other services like achievements. EA not being entirely, 100% truthful? Surely not...

  • Darren #14 11 months ago

    @Eraysor - Sure, yeah, Steam's method of patching is terrific when games like The Witcher 2 have to download 9 GB of data for standalone patches that are less than 100 MB simply because they don't support the normal methods of binary patching that everyone else uses. It may be the exceptional rather than the rule but it serves to highlight a major flaw with Steam IMO.

    Add to that the inability to install games to custom folders (like EVERY other non-Steam game allows!), the obnoxious new release pricing, the way all games are tied to one user account with the need to log in to play them (giving an 'all your eggs in one basket' kind of feel which is never a good thing anyway) and Steam is far from the best. Their weekend and summer sales are great but that's about it; I'd rather buy disc versions or digital copies from elsewhere personally which don't have the flaws Steam has.

    Steam has held dominance over the PC digital market for too long IMO and I'd really like to see two or three rivals to equal them because competition is always a good thing, it encourages change and should help drive those horrid new game prices down plus more choice is always a good thing for the consumer.

  • Zephro #15 11 months ago

    Games For Windows Live is allowed to do that.... Some Paradox games manage their own patches.... previous EA games on Steam required EA validation and buying all the DLC via the EA store inside the game and not via Steam. Ubisoft games do this.

    I sense bullshit.

    Also they should just suck it up as Steam's patching system always works more reliably.

  • MrFlump #16 11 months ago

    You probably need to get off the blinkered approach that Steam is simply just selling games and distributing. There is so much more to it than some are giving it credit for.

    There is the Steamworks functionality, cloud game save support, overlay chat with your friends irrespective of what they're playing, achievement support in one place. You simply won't get that if the various publishers start using their own download services for their own games.

    Ironically, as much as I love having competition I think Steam has the best service by far and I don't intend to install any others from the publishers as quite frankly they'll always be playing catch up and won't give me the same service.

  • Matthew_Hornet #17 11 months ago

    The thing is, EA, when it comes to providing "the highest possible level of quality" I trust Valve way more than I trust you - even when it's your game!

  • Bluetooth #18 11 months ago

    I don't get why businesses lie like this, especially when the answer is so obvious. A bit like politicians really. I would respect them more if they just said "we are coming out with Origin, which we aim to rival and outperform rivals like Steam". Instead they talk marketing bullshit

  • AiusEpsi #19 11 months ago

    @Darren

    Valve actually have an update in beta right now that starts the process of totally overhauling how patching works on Steam, and specifically it'll address things like the ridiculously enormous Witcher 2 patches by moving Steam over to using binary diffs.

    It'll also let them build features like different download locations, schedulers, download limiters, etc. So they are working at eliminating some of the current deficiencies in Steam over the next few months.

    Also, as far as I'm aware, pricing is set by the publisher. The exact details are all under NDA (like all these sorts of business relationships are) but usually how Valve's games are priced gives you an idea of how they would price things, and I usually think they're fair.

  • jumpdeveraux #20 11 months ago

    I'm still perplexed as to why so many people think Valve set the price for every game on Steam... as if Gabe has some sort of electronic pricing gun of doom.

    At least when each of the publishers try and drive everyone to their own portals there will be no misunderstanding as to who's trying to milk the consumer with ever higher prices for digital downloads.

  • CaptainQuint #21 11 months ago

    Thing is though, EA haven't exactly been forthcoming with their Crysis 2 support on the consoles.

    IN FACT THEY'VE BEEN SHITE.

  • whoyouknow #22 11 months ago

    I trust Valve with my credit card information, game collection, patches, friends list, privacy, etc. etc.

    I wouldn't trust EA to hold a half-eaten peach while I tied my shoelace.

  • HolyJebus #23 11 months ago

    "I think the reason Steam doesn't provide that service is because it already provides the best automatic patching and updating service itself... "

    I would generally trust Valve over EA too but in fairness didn't Steam force a crazy update on Witcher recently, 6 gig or something? The boxed version didn't need such a large update did it? Perhaps it has something to do with the reasoning behind this?

  • Irien #24 11 months ago

    Strangely, The Sims 3 was in the Steam Summer Sale yesterday. That's a game which relies heavily on DLC and paid for content, as well as dynamic patching and streaming of object data from the EA servers (AFAIK). If anything was to be removed (for the reasons they state), it'd sound like that should be a contender, not some (largely standalone) FPS.

    My guess is that Crysis2 wasn't making quite as much money as some of the others, but was high enough profile to "make a point".

  • JamieR #25 11 months ago

    If they gonna bullshit us at least try better than that. this just makes me want to slap them.

  • Buran #26 11 months ago

    Origin needs to gain features as voip, screenshot and video capture & management as Xfire or Steam to truly became a competitive service.

  • Toothball #27 11 months ago

    Presumably they also face the same situation with Microsoft and Sony on the consoles though. All updates to games there have to go through their respective platforms. I don't really care where updates come from though, but I am slightly concerned with the enhancements mentioned, like friend lists and such. I don't want to start another friends list on Origin just to 'enhance' my EA games. I like having the same friends list for all my PC games. In fact, I was playing a game last night and it automatically added one of my Steam friends to my in-game friends list. That's the sort of way you want to use an online service to enhance a game.

    Really not fancying our chances of seeing Mass Effect 3 on Steam now.

  • Aradiel #28 11 months ago

    So, if I'm reading this correctly, initially they said "Steam took it off, not us"

    Now they're saying "We lied before. We took it off because Steam won't let you download from our servers, instead they insist on hosting the stuff we are distributing, the bastards"

    If I read it correctly, EA are being petty idiots.

  • djed #29 11 months ago

    Go fuck yourself in your stupid ass, EA. Your products are over-encumbered by bullshit DRM-software and consumer-infringing practices. I remember trying to run Dragon Age on my computer, what a fucking nightmare to get the "Free DLC" that came on the disc to work: several logins created at bioware and ea, additional processes running on my computer (which weren't documented anywhere). And if I shoot my mouth off in your forums, you'll block me from my single-player game. Read the first sentence of this post again.

  • NunianVonFuch #30 11 months ago

    tl;dr Anyone have the non-pr one-liner bullshit free reason?

  • Calundann #31 11 months ago

    I heard some rumours that its because EA want to release Crysis 2 DLC exclusive to Origin that you wouldn't be able to get with the Steam version and that was against the agreement they made with Steam...

    There are a lot of publishers/devs on Steam and you never hear about them having problems like this...

  • sourc0r #32 11 months ago

    i'm sorry for crytek, really. origin is just a waste of money. EA could have provided us their generous gifts and love and shit through Steam. no. fuckin. problem.

  • Boomerang #33 11 months ago

    Newsflash, EA - I don't want a relationship with you.

    I just want to buy good games, at reasonable prices, online. Too much to ask, non?