EA games now on Steam; no third party DRM included

Posted Dec 19th 2008 6:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Biz, Downloads, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Mass Effect Series, Spore, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Dead Space, Mirror's Edge

In perhaps their biggest game publisher deal yet, Valve has announced secured the rights to distribute a number of PC game titles from Electronic Arts via their Steam service. EA has previously handled downloadable PC game titles via their own EA Downloader service but now Spore, Spore Creepy and Cute Parts Pack, Warhammer Online, Mass Effect, FIFA Manager 09, and Need For Speed Undercover are now all available to purchase and download via Steam (sorry, rest of the world, this is for North America only).

In addition to those games, EA will also offer Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Dead Space and the upcoming PC port of Mirror's Edge via Steam in the near future. When contacted by Big Download, an EA spokesperson would not comment if any of EA's older PC games might find their way onto Steam as well. If you have been wanting to buy EA games but have been avoiding purchasing them because of EA's use of DRM in their recent titles, a message of Valve's Steam forums states that the EA games on Steam do not use third party DRM or SecuROM set-up, saying, " the only DRM it uses is Steam itself."

Tags: command-and-conquer-red-alert-3, dead-space, drm, ea, electronic-arts, fifa-manager-09, mass-effect, mirrors-edge, mirrors-edge-pc, need-for-speed-undercover, spore, spore-creepy-and-cute-parts-pack, steam, valve, warhammer-online

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

All I gots to say is WAAAAHHHHOOOOOOO!!! I know I should get too excited about games finally being available where they should have been available in the first place and containing no extraneous DRM like they shouldn't have in the first place but I can't help but consider this a pretty big win for PC gamers.

Thank you EA for listening to your customers.

...bysmittyPosted at 6:31PM on Dec 19th 2008 by bysmitty

Dammit, I own Warhammer, Spore, and Mass Effect. From now on, I'll just wait for the Steam release of any game I want.Posted at 6:39PM on Dec 19th 2008 by Crunch Jingles

EA rocks for doing this.Posted at 6:49PM on Dec 19th 2008 by Einhanderkiller

Zounds! It sounds too good to be true.
Posted at 8:24PM on Dec 19th 2008 by LocalToast

this is awesome.!!!Posted at 11:21PM on Dec 19th 2008 by Fox318

Now, there's something I can really get behind. If only I was actually in North America.Posted at 2:25AM on Dec 20th 2008 by Tateru Nino

I was about to cheer, then I got to the "North America only" bit and heaved a sigh of disappointment. Oh well, maybe one day...Posted at 8:13AM on Dec 20th 2008 by paralipsis

Ahh, hate how Mexico is not included in "North America"... I really want these games in my Steam library (which I tend to care more than regular box on-the-shelf type of stuff)--Posted at 8:25PM on Dec 20th 2008 by Dr. Spiegel

Yeah, I'm really pumped about EA finally coming to Steam. I bought Mass Effect the first day, which is great except for the fact that it crashes to BSOD EVERY 10 SECONDS. Other than that it's fine. Sigh.Posted at 5:18PM on Dec 21st 2008 by Deckard

@#2: way ahead of you buddy -- I already buy only thru Steam, if I can help it. Best advice you can give a PC gamer...Posted at 7:17PM on Dec 28th 2008 by James