EA Brings Spore, Warhammer Online, And More To Steam

Publisher Electronic Arts formally joined Valve's digital distribution platform Steam, bringing big titles such as Spore, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and more to the PC-based service. Additional EA titles now available through Steam on North America include Mass Effect, EA Sports FIFA Manager 2009, Need For Speed Undercover, and Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack. The company also plans to make Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Mirror's Edge, and Dead Space available on the service in January 2009. Other major publishers like Activision, Ubisoft, Take-Two, and Atari have long sold games through Steam, but until now EA was a notorious holdout. Previously, the publisher digitally distributed internally-developed PC games only though its own EA Store as well as Steam competitors like Direct2Drive. For several years, however, EA has had a close relationship with Valve; the company took over as retail distributor of Valve's games following the severing of the studio's ties with former publisher Vivendi. According to Valve, Steam claims over 15 million active user accounts around the world. "We are pleased to extend our holiday titles to gamers worldwide via Steam -- a revolutionary technology that is one of the game industry's most successful digital distribution services," says EA COO John Pleasants of the deal.