EA ‘begins pulling games from Steam’

Electronic Arts appears to be on the verge of a new digital e-store war with PC games kingpin Valve.

The publisher, which recently opened its Origin games portal for PC, is thought to have instructed the FPS Crysis 2 to be removed from Valve’s online store.

That game, developed and owned by Frankfurt studio Crytek, launched at retail under the EA Partners program.

The digital edition now sports an “Only on Origin” label, according to a Kotaku report.

Crysis 2 is still available on portals such as Direct To Drive, at least for now.

Electronic Arts launched Origin last month, and has begun to pour its own content into the digital store.

EA exec David DeMartini recently said his company didn’t see Origin and Steam as an either/or choice.

"Just because a gamer chooses to play Battlefield 3 doesn’t preclude them from playing another shooter game, just as the fact that I’m on Facebook doesn’t mean I don’t also use LinkedIn,” he said.

EA’s content pull from Steam may be of benefit to Valve. The Washington studio is on legal alert from other companies claiming it has a monopoly on the digital PC space.