14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Electronic Arts has stoked up rumors that it is preparing a major split with digital distribution platform Steam by apparently announcing that its upcoming first-person shooter Battlefield 3 will not be available on the Valve created outlet.
Electronic Arts has posted a list of retailers based in the digital space that will be selling Battlefield 3 and while it included usual suspects like GamersGate and Direct2Drive, alongside EA's own newly launched Origin, it made no mention of Steam.
A number of websites and users have seen the retailer list, but EA has quickly taken it down refusing to offer any comment on it since then.
Steam has also been silent on the availability of Battlefield 3.
Electronic Arts has recently made clear that it plans to make buying video games that it publishes through Origin more attractive than picking them up on rival services.
Executives have said that the publisher is interesting on providing potential gamers with choice about where to buy video games and that it still plans to work with Steam in the long term.
But as the recent Crysis 2 related events show the two companies have conflicting interests and we might end up with a situation where special offers that Electronic Arts plans to make contradict the conditions that Steam poses and result in the game disappearing from the service.
Battlefield 3 is a high-profile game and withholding it from Steam might be a sign of how EA plans to handle such matters in the future.
The game is being created by developer DICE with a new game engine called Frostbite 2, which delivers even more realistic and destructible spaces, and is set to go up against Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 from Activision and Infinity Ward in a fight for the first-person shooter crown.