There has been some speculation about a possible break-up between EA and Valve, after Crysis 2 was pulled from the Steam platform and appeared on EA's new storefront sporting a misleading "only on Origin" tag. Although many of us saw this as a power play to draw people into using their service, EA was quick to clarify that in fact the decision was not theirs, but rather the result of a business requirement from Valve to make DLC packs available through Steam.

EA's David DeMartini, who now heads the Origin platform, sought to explain the publisher's position in a blog post this week: "We want our products available to as many players aspossible, which means we make them available in all the places that gamers go to download games and services. [...] But we take direct responsibility for providing patches, updates, additional content and other services to our players. You are connecting to our servers, and we want to establish an ongoing relationship with you, to continue to give you the best possible gaming experience."

DeMartini goes on to explain that, at present, there is only one download service that does not allow them to manage this experience directly, and that they are working diligently to find a mutually agreeable solution. He doesn't mention Steam by name, but speaking with Gamasutra he states in no uncertain terms that Crysis 2 was taken down because of downloadable content being available through Direct2Drive, but not Steam.

Except under 'extremely special circumstances' EA promises to make games available on every major download service. Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of those extremely special circumstances, as the company has already said they're trying to build an audience for Origin with exclusive content. According to DeMartini, there may be other Origin exclusives in the future, but it will be the exception rather than the norm, as they are also interested in reach.