Gamestop has confirmed our thoughts and lately revealed Battlefield 3 will not be available on Steam. Financial research firm “Baird” recently held a meeting with Gamestop management. Afterwards in a report from Baird Equity Research, analyst Colin Sebastian revealed: “The upcoming EA title Battlefield 3 will be sold as a download through GameStop, but not through Steam”.
Battlefield 3 will be available on Gamestop’s own digital retailer “Impulse”. Gamestop hopes the absence of BF3 from Steam will give them an advantage in the market.[/p]
Source
TL;DR GameStop say that Steam won't get Battlefield 3 but Impulse, their digital download service, will, which makes them happy and they think will give them an advantage.
I don't know how much truth is in this but surely EA must realise that Steam is one of, if not the most popular PC download network with most PC gamers having their friends and groups already settled on there, and having another game using another network will just cause more hassle- I'm sure EA won't want to create that as it could drive down sales. But who knows, maybe there's something Valve aren't telling us- we just don't know.
Battlefield 3 will be available on Gamestop’s own digital retailer “Impulse”. Gamestop hopes the absence of BF3 from Steam will give them an advantage in the market.[/p]
Source
TL;DR GameStop say that Steam won't get Battlefield 3 but Impulse, their digital download service, will, which makes them happy and they think will give them an advantage.
I don't know how much truth is in this but surely EA must realise that Steam is one of, if not the most popular PC download network with most PC gamers having their friends and groups already settled on there, and having another game using another network will just cause more hassle- I'm sure EA won't want to create that as it could drive down sales. But who knows, maybe there's something Valve aren't telling us- we just don't know.