GameStop- Battlefield 3 Not Coming To Steam

[Livin in a box]

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.

 

[_Chaz_]

While EA may not be my favorite team of developers, they're certainly not idiots. There's no way they would agree to not have BF3 on Steam.

 

[Fear Zoa]

It's steam or nothing for me and i'm sure allot of others feel the same.

I pretty much only play games on steam (with the exception of WoW and Minecraft)

 

[megawalk]

well this is a dissappointment. my purchase authenticy is within steam. so i guess i will not be buying BattleField 3 then

 

[coolness]

this was already posted

 

[purechaos996]

I do agree, I would probably only buy this on steam or on a console, I can't imagine buying a PC not on steam xD It's been so long since I've done that.

 

[Wabsta]

I fully agree with Fear Zoa and Megawalk.

 

[Potticus]

This has been posted. But I'm getting Red Orchestra 2 check it out guys. This is what settled the debate in my head.

 

[Nathan Drake]

I don't understand this "Steam or nothing" mentality. Who cares? Oh no, waiting six months won't give you the game half price! Oh the humanity! Buy a physical copy from Amazon or something. Many other digital retailers will have the game too. If you actually want to play the game, you'll buy it. The purchase of a game shouldn't fall between "is it on Steam, or not?"

 

[baosen]

Meh... I don't care which platform I buy on it, just as long as I get to play it properly. I'll probably go for retail stores on this one.

 

[Mangofett]

I don't understand this "Steam or nothing" mentality. Who cares? Oh no, waiting six months won't give you the game half price! Oh the humanity! Buy a physical copy from Amazon or something. Many other digital retailers will have the game too. If you actually want to play the game, you'll buy it. The purchase of a game shouldn't fall between "is it on Steam, or not?"

I get the feeling even a retail copy will force install their Impulse software. Though as long as it doesn't, it will be fine.

EDIT: As I think about it, the chance of it installing with the game is very high. The service will probably be used as an authentication platform, much like Steam is.

I, for one, do not want another piece of redundant software on my system. I'll probably get this game for 360.

 

[FAST6191]

Granted I am the kind of person that is quite happy to sit and watch things fall over but I can see the logic behind this move. It might not work but I do reckon someone has to try it with big titles to stop steam getting too great a hold on the market (granted this then goes directly to gamestop who provide a shining example of too great a say over more traditional games markets).

Re: "purchase authenticity" and "steam or nothing".... for a digital distribution service? I am sure steam is wonderful and easy to use but such a mindset strikes me as odd. I suppose the disclaimer of I am not too great a fan of digital distribution the way it current works owing to a less than brilliant second hand market among other things (coupled with several fairly high profile withdrawals of sale for products on various networks over the years) but that is a different discussion I guess.

Edit. Re forced install of Impulse. Maybe not for single player but I would not be surprised to see it wound into multiplayer and given multiplayer seems to be an important aspect of this franchise.

 

[Nathan Drake]

I don't understand this "Steam or nothing" mentality. Who cares? Oh no, waiting six months won't give you the game half price! Oh the humanity! Buy a physical copy from Amazon or something. Many other digital retailers will have the game too. If you actually want to play the game, you'll buy it. The purchase of a game shouldn't fall between "is it on Steam, or not?"

I get the feeling even a retail copy will force install their Impulse software. Though as long as it doesn't, it will be fine.

I think that's only if you buy the digital copy through Gamestop. It would make no sense if it came from an entirely different digital distributor. If worse comes to worse, people will probably make an anti-Impulse crack if it comes down to it.

 

[Mangofett]

I don't understand this "Steam or nothing" mentality. Who cares? Oh no, waiting six months won't give you the game half price! Oh the humanity! Buy a physical copy from Amazon or something. Many other digital retailers will have the game too. If you actually want to play the game, you'll buy it. The purchase of a game shouldn't fall between "is it on Steam, or not?"

I get the feeling even a retail copy will force install their Impulse software. Though as long as it doesn't, it will be fine.

I think that's only if you buy the digital copy through Gamestop. It would make no sense if it came from an entirely different digital distributor. If worse comes to worse, people will probably make an anti-Impulse crack if it comes down to it.

Like I said in my edit, Impulse will most likely be used as an authentication platform for online play. I doubt you'll be able to get rid of it without breaking multiplayer.

 

[Nathan Drake]

There's always hamachi and custom servers, but that's too much work for a lot of people. If the software isn't intrusive or large, it wouldn't be so bad. Regardless, when I get it, it will be a PS3 version of the game.

 

[Deleted User]

I;m getting Bf3 on Direct2drive, Its only 50$ for me.

 

[Heran Bago]

I actually really like the impulse platform. Think of it as another entity than Gamestop, just because they now own it. They picked up Recettear before the other platforms like Steam took them seriously.

I mean yeah Steam should have a monopoly too but give the other guys a chance.

 

[DSGamer64]

They removed Crysis 2 from Steam, they won't put Battlefield 3 on Steam guaranteed.

 

[FAST6191]

There's always hamachi and custom servers, but that's too much work for a lot of people. If the software isn't intrusive or large, it wouldn't be so bad. Regardless, when I get it, it will be a PS3 version of the game.

In the past maybe but many games are forgoing LAN play and full on custom server and such is not a simple project most of the time.

 

[PettingZoo]

I haven't heard of this 'Impulse' digital distribution store from Gamestop (Australia here), but if you bought a physical copy I'm pretty sure you won't have to touch 'Impulse' what so ever. What you will have to use however is Origin, EA's own digital distribution store (Formerly the EA Store) even if you bought it through Impulse or D2D.

In my own opinion it's pretty I find it to be an outright inconvenience from EA to force people to jump through hoops by pushing their store recently. First they pulled Crysis 2 from Steam despite people having already bought the game and forcing upon the new consumers their Origin store software, yet Alice: Madness Returns has been left on there and was released after Crysis 2 being removed.

In all honesty I'm pretty skeptical about Origin, for one thing EA reserves the right to disable your account/remove purchased games if you do not log in for a period of 24 months without any form of refund or consent.