EA: Relationship with Valve not beyond repair

A peaceful conclusion can still be reached from EA’s complex and protracted digital war with Valve, an executive at the publisher has said.

Electronic Arts’ Europe boss Jens Uwe Intat told Eurogamer it was possible that games such as Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3 could still appear on Valve’s leading PC platform, Steam.

“Never say never,” he said when asked if EA could again fully embrace Valve’s PC platform.

That claim suggests Electronic Arts is still willing to resolve a thorny disagreement with Valve over DLC sales policies.

Intat also appeared certain that future PC games would not be exclusive to EA’s own rival digital platform, Origin.

"When we were talking about it’s best for the consumer that competition is a good thing, for the consumer also choice is a good thing," Intat said.

"Competition and choice go hand in hand. So the fact we will only distribute our own games on our own platform, I don’t see that."

EA’s marketing teams have already established that Origin will feature exclusive add-on content.

A dispute between EA and Valve began earlier in the year when EA attempted to directly sell add-ons to its games sold through Steam.

Due to those actions interpreted as a violation of Steam’s terms and conditions, Valve removed the offending games from its Steam Store.

In what may be a foretoken of things to come, EA will now host its own holiday blockbuster Battlefield 3 on Origin but not Steam.

Valve company president Gabe Newell recently told Develop that his studio “needs to convince EA” to once again host games on Steam.

He said the disagreement between both companies was due to a number of “complicated” issues.

Meanwhile, Intat suggested that EA might launch rival publishers’ games on Origin.

"We are discussing with other publishers to distribute their games," he said.

"But the key is really to develop and impressive consumer experience where people are happy to play and buy games."