EA confirms rumors of a partnership with Valve to bring games back to Steam

[Cal Jeffrey]

What just happened? Steam has not hosted any EA games since 2011, but that is about to change on November 15 when Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order launches worldwide. The publisher has struck a deal with Valve and will begin bringing games back to the competing digital storefront, starting with Jedi. Its Access subscription service will be on offer as well.

On Tuesday, Electronic Arts announced a new partnership with Valve to bring some of its games to Steam — confirming previous rumors. The publisher said its games would appear on the store beginning with the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order launch on November 15. Pre-orders for the title are already up on Steam.

Following Jedi, EA will bring other games into the Steam stable, including The Sims 4 and Unraveled 2 before the end of the year, and Apex Legends, FIFA 20, and Battlefield V sometime in 2020.

“This is the start of an exciting partnership with Valve that will see us innovating for PC players around the world,” said EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson.

“We’re excited to partner with EA to not only bring their great games and subscription service to Steam, but also to open up our communities to each other in an unprecedented way that will benefit players and developers around the world.”

Additionally, the publisher will be bringing EA Access to Valve's customers as well. Membership includes discounts on full-game purchases, DLC, and “in-game” items. Subscribers also gain access to an extensive catalog of EA titles. However, it’s not likely to be as large as the encyclopedia of games to choose from on Origin.

The subscription service will most likely be similar to the console versions of Access. For comparison, subscribers on Xbox have a selection of about 80 EA games to play at their whim. PlayStation has even less choice at about 40. Origin Access meanwhile has over 200 titles.

“This is a good day for gamers,” said Valve co-founder and president Gabe Newell, “We’re excited to partner with EA to … bring their great games and subscription service to Steam.”

The company said that Steam and Origin Access players would have cross-play functionality, which makes sense considering both are PC-platformed.

“Through our subscription, great games, and more, we’re excited to bring players in the Steam and Origin communities together with access to the best games, whenever and wherever they want to play,” Wilson added.

This will be the first time EA has offered its games on Steam since Valve dropped Crysis 2 from the storefront in a 2011 business-terms dispute with the game’s developer Crytek. It appears the two giants of the industry have settled their differences, and EA is ready to go “where the gamers are.”

Image credit: Rick Neves via Shutterstoc

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https://www.techspot.com/news/82538-ea-confirms-rumors-partnership-valve-bring-games-back.html

 

[Skjorn]

All because of "No steam no buy" what a joke.

Guarantee the launcher is still required but you just get steam achievements now. Which somehow makes people feel better about buying on steam?

 

[amstech]

EA wasn't getting the numbers they wanted with their own platform, they limited their profit by being greedy and forcing folks to use a certain avenue to get and play their games. But cash always wins.
They folded.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Guarantee the launcher is still required but you just get steam achievements now.

If that were the case there would be no need in mentioning cross-play. Unless they are trying to sell something that it is not.

 

[m4a4]

All because of "No steam no buy" what a joke.

Guarantee the launcher is still required but you just get steam achievements now. Which somehow makes people feel better about buying on steam?

If that were the case there would be no need in mentioning cross-play. Unless they are trying to sell something that it is not.

It is. If you look at the bottom of About This Game on the Steam page, it says it requires Origin installed.

 

[cliffordcooley]

It is. If you look at the bottom of About This Game on the Steam page, it says it requires Origin installed.

Definitely not cross-play. I'm getting the feeling it is Origin they care about promoting more than selling their games.

 

[Uncle Al]

It could be a good move for both parties as well as the gaming community, but ONLY if they bring more of their catalog along and don't try to get too cute along the way. ..... hey! Miracles can happen .... sometimes .....

 

[EClyde]

EA can make more $ doing this

 

[Draconian]

Look who came crawling back.

Good. Nobody wants to buy games on Origin.

 

[m4a4]

Definitely not cross-play. I'm getting the feeling it is Origin they care about promoting more than selling their games.

It can be cross-play. Just have the Steam overlay instead of the Origin one.

And I'm hoping that Origin is just for verification. Otherwise, it'll be a glorified launcher shortcut (which I'm more ok with).

 

[ypsylon]

If EA Steam game(s) will still require Origin to launch then screw that from the beginning.

To use two launchers to start a single game instead just one is ludicrous. What difference does it make to buy on Steam EA/Origin-locked/ game or buy it directly on Origin? You still need that O abomination running.

I just hoping that isn't the case so I can bring the only 2 games I have on O to Steam (ME3 and ME:Andromeda) and forget that Origin ever existed...

 

[gamerk2]

All because of "No steam no buy" what a joke.

Guarantee the launcher is still required but you just get steam achievements now. Which somehow makes people feel better about buying on steam?

You can still organize your titles within *one* storefront; no reason 10 different ones should have access to my paypal in this day and age.

At the end of the day, my and others boycott of EA obviously worked; they came crawling back.

 

[Markoni35]

Who needs Steam? Without it I have one less invasive app on my PC.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Who needs Steam? Without it I have one less invasive app on my PC.

I can only see either a non-gamer or a console user saying that.

 

[Skjorn]

You can still organize your titles within *one* storefront; no reason 10 different ones should have access to my paypal in this day and age.

At the end of the day, my and others boycott of EA obviously worked; they came crawling back.

Galaxy 2.0 will annihilate everything

 

[Markoni35]

I can only see either a non-gamer or a console user saying that.

I don't need steam to play games. There are still game developers who can produce a game without the overhead of an auto-start spyware app which serves no purpose to me. I don't play 50 different games so that I need an integrator app to make sense of my life. I play at max 2 different games within a year, always the same ones, so why would I install a crappy spying resource hog on my computer?

 

[gamerk2]

I don't need steam to play games. There are still game developers who can produce a game without the overhead of an auto-start spyware app which serves no purpose to me. I don't play 50 different games so that I need an integrator app to make sense of my life. I play at max 2 different games within a year, always the same ones, so why would I install a crappy spying resource hog on my computer?

"For my specific usecase I don't need this, so obviously no one else does."

For those of us who play literally hundreds of games per year, yes, having one unified frontend is a godsend. I've got enough stuff on my "to play" list where I simply don't bother logging into non-Steam storefronts anymore, which means a lost sale for everyone else. And I'm not alone, and that's why EA is crawling back.

 

[Skjorn]

"For my specific usecase I don't need this, so obviously no one else does."

For those of us who play literally hundreds of games per year, yes, having one unified frontend is a godsend. I've got enough stuff on my "to play" list where I simply don't bother logging into non-Steam storefronts anymore, which means a lost sale for everyone else. And I'm not alone, and that's why EA is crawling back.

You'll love Galaxy 2.0