Battlefield 3 Causing Rivals to Befriend EA
Battlefield 3 is causing major… well, friendship offerings with EA games. Valve isn’t too happy with EA’s decision to not release Battlefield 3 on Steam, and Activision is calling truce with EA. After EA announced that it will not be releasing Battlefield 3 over Steam, Valve is doing all they can to increase relations with EA. In a recent interview with Valve’s Director, Gabe Newell responded to the situation in his usual polite manner..
“We have to show EA it’s a smart decision to have EA games on Steam, and we’re going to try to show them that… I think at the end of the day we’re going to prove to Electronic Arts they have happier customers, a higher quality service, and will make more money if they have their titles on Steam. It’s our duty to demonstrate that to them. We don’t have a natural right to publish their games.”
EA is probably making the stupid decision here, as they are cutting off the largest distributor for PC games. Valve’s strict DLC policy towards game companies doesn’t allow them to directly connect to their consumers, which offloads the need for customer support for PC issues with their game. Valve knows it will increase revenue for both of them, but EA doesn’t seem to understand. Frankly, Steam works for gamers – it’s become a trusted platform for PC Gamers who don’t want to use physical disks and like the ability to access their content and game-saves anywhere.
EA has a history of having games being sold over steam but has also been pulling games off of steam such as Dragon Age 2 and Crysis 2. Now EA has launched their own PC gaming service and will become required to be used if one wishes to play Battlefield 3.
Another new friendship occurred due to Battlefield 3, which is Activision’s decision to call truce with EA. ACTIVISION? EA’s biggest Rival? Yes! Activision says the more they become rivals, the less money both of them will make.
The biggest games of the year will soon be launching which COD MW3 and Battlefield 3, and the competition between EA and Activision is only heating up. Recently however, both companies have been trash talking about each other and Activision believes each word spoken is only hurting each other every time.
I recently participated in a game testing held by EA and was able to select 2 free EA games of my choice. I was surprised to see that Portal 2 was one of my options. Portal 2 has Valve written all over it with absolutely no EA info available. I looked all over the case of Portal 2, as well as the manual and found no mention of EA games whatsoever. I asked one of the workers what affiliation Portal 2 had with EA and he replied with “Well, we’re kind of affiliated with Valve but didn’t have anything to do with the game development [of Portal 2].” After a bit of Googling when I got home, I found out Portal 2, and several other Valve games, where distributed by EA for the 360, PS3, and physical media for the PC. Hopefully EA will reverse their decision and release their games through Steam.
Update: (8/22/2011)
Jeff Brown, head of EA, responded to Activision’s new head member Eric Hirshberg, about the truce offering to EA and Jeff responded to Eric in a kindly manner saying:
“Welcome to the big leagues Eric — I know you’re new in the job but someone should have told you this is an competitive industry… You’ve got every reason to be nervous. Last year Activision had a 90 share in the shooter category. This year, Battlefield 3 is going to take you down to 60 or 70. At that rate, you’ll be out of the category in 2-3 years. If you don’t believe me, go to the store and try to buy a copy of Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk.”
Pretty much, EA is telling Activision “No, screw off, were taking you DOWN!”
