After Electronic Arts recently revealed that they had pulled Dragon Age II from the Steam digital distribution service because of an inability to provide, and charge for, additional content to said game, many gamers began wondering how this would affect future EA games like Battlefield 3.

While Electronic Arts is currently working with all the folks responsible for Steam in order to iron out a workable agreement, they have no plans to offer Battlefield 3 on Steam, at the moment. Obviously, gamers will be able to purchase PC copies of Battlefield 3 (the preferred platform for fans of the series) via EA’s Origin service, but forgoing Steam might hurt sales in some form or another.

As the most popular digital distributor, for its extremely enticing sales and ease of use, Steam was most likely many gamers’ first choice when it came to picking up Battlefield 3 for the PC. But, as gamers are wont to move from one platform to the next for the best gaming experience, it wouldn’t be surprising to see gamers simply transition to Origin for Battlefield 3.

And, as mentioned on the Battlefield 3 forums, Electronic Arts isn’t closing off talks with Steam, they just need to work out a way to provide additional content without breaching Steam’s current terms of use.

A similar situation rose up recently with Apple’s App Store that saw many games take down their in-app purchases because they violated terms of service. But Electronic Arts, being a much larger purveyor of video game content was not willing to acquiesce in the same fashion smaller mobile games developers did.

Let us also not forget that Electronic Arts isn’t against offering Battlefield 3 on any of the other popular digital distribution services, as long as they allow them to provide, and charge, for additional content. It’s just a small speed bump on the road to Battlefield 3’s release, but it shouldn’t affect gamers’ enthusiasm to get their hands on this game.

Do you think that if Battlefield 3 were only available on Origin, that it would affect sales of the game? Can Steam and Origin coexist in the digital distribution market, or will one eventually faze the other out?

Battlefield 3 releases October 25, 2011 on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Source: EA Forums