In what can only be described as a tale of “better late than never,” EA has allowed several titles that were previously only available on the Origin Store to be released on Steam as part of the Valve-EA partnership EA announced last October. Business politics aside, this is great news for gamers, especially because several of the titles are subsequent (and in some cases, final) entries in series that were otherwise incomplete on Steam.
For example, Visceral Games’s Dead Space series, with troubled protagonist Isaac Clarke, has finally come to fruition on Valve’s gaming client. The original Dead Space was released on Steam in January 2009, with its sequel seeing a release almost exactly two years later. However, Isaac’s story remained unfinished until June 18, when EA finally allowed Dead Space 3 and its DLC Dead Space 3 Awakened to launch on Steam.
Likewise, Crytek’s visually impressive and generally underrated stealth FPS title Crysis first came out on September 17, 2008, while Crysis 2 followed on March 22, 2011. However, Crysis 3 was missing in action until last month; it came to Steam on June 4, complete with DLC The Lost Island.
Finally, what would a long-awaited threequel discussion be without Mass Effect? Oh shut up; the ending of ME 3 wasn’t that bad. Anyway, the original Mass Effect released on Steam in December 2008 while its sequel, the aptly-titled Mass Effect 2, came out on January 26, 2010, with a digital deluxe edition following a day later. This trilogy earns the crown today for both longest wait and biggest finish; not only did Steam gamers have to wait 10 and a half years for Commander Shepard to finish his fight on June 11, but Mass Effect 3 was released simultaneously alongside the fourth entry in the series, Mass Effect Andromeda. Bioware released both titles with plenty of DLC included.
These releases are just part of EA’s pledge to release more of their AAA games on Steam; PC Gamer reported that other releases have included four Battlefield titles and both recent Star Wars: Battlefront titles, which in turn followed entries in series like Dragon Age, Unravel and Need for Speed.
Which of these games are you excited to finally play on Steam? Let us know in the comments.
