14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher has pulled the first-person shooter Crysis 2, developed by Crytek, from sale on the Steam digital distribution service from Valve in a move that is apparently designed to push its own upcoming digital store, Origin.
At the moment those who are interested in picking up Crysis 2 and do not want a retail copy can still get it from digital distribution services like Direct2Drive, Impulse, Gamersgate and from Amazon.
It's not clear whether Electronic Arts will also pull the game down from these other services in the near future or whether it has only targeted Steam for removal.
Reports also say that Crysis 2 is now set to get a “Only on Origin” tag, meaning that Electronic Arts will be using the game as an exclusive to launch its own digital distribution service.
Battlefield 3 might just be EA's biggest launch for the year and the game is not available for pre-order through Steam, even though the company has announced a number of pre-order incentives and is actively marketing the game.
It will be interesting to see what happens to other big EA games, like the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, on Steam.
Origin is the recently announced digital distribution service from Electronic Arts, which is set to launch this year and aims to mix normal store service with a multiplayer platform and a number of social features.
To promote it, Electronic Arts might restrict digital sales of its biggest launches to it and it's already probable that the upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will only be available through it when it is finally launched.
At the moment Steam controls the lion's share of the PC-based digital distribution market, by some estimates more than 70 percent of it, although competition has been increasing in the last six months.