coppersnake wrote:
xXToYeDXx not from america so yeah...
good points though.
Another reason why valve may be able to do in game transactions is because tf2 etc use the valve service and have a inbuilt valve store while crysis may have had an external store eg sells game on steam and uses origin as the basis for the in game store.
This may be true. Developers using Steam can hyperlink to the Steam store for DLC via the overlay. MW2 for example has a menu option to purchase DLC that opens the overlay and brings up the store page with the map packs. Technically not leaving the game, but not really buying the DLC in game.
But as I've said the case seems to be conflicting terms in 2 seperate contracts with 2 different companies. Whether the terms by Valve were new or not is no longer in question. And I think I've posited a fairly solid argument showing that EA's statement of non involvement is a lie.
I don't think Valve is trying to monopolize any market with their Steam service, they just have certain terms that not all developers or publishers can abide by for reasons such as conflicting terms with those in another agreement they have with another company. In fact I'm willing to go as far as saying, probably, the terms by Valve state something like "You're responsible for keeping your games up to date and offer DLC on Steam" (Not exclusively) and the terms with this other company state "You must offer your DLC exclusively through our service". Those are 2 conflicting terms so abiding by one will by default violate the other. We know that developers using the Steamworks SDK to bring their games on to Steam are responsible for keeping their game up to date by releasing patches through Steam for Steam bought copies. This could also include a clause that says the developers are also responsible for offering DLC so that Steam bought copies offer the entire game experience DLC and all.
But the fact remains that we only have one side of the story thus far and that side comes from EA, a company known for it's intellectually void decision making. I'm still waiting for Valve to offer up their side.