Mass Effect 3 Won't Be Available On Steam

It's not surprise that EA has announced that Mass Effect 3 won't be available on Steam, and it's not more of a surprise that all PC versions, digital and retail, will require EA's Origin service.

Earlier this year Crysis 2 and Dragon Age 2 were pulled from Steam for "restrictive terms of service", and according to BioWare Community Coordinator Chris Priestly, that's the same reason Mass Effect 3 will not be available on Steam.

"During initial release Mass Effect 3 will be available on Origin and a number of other 3rd party digital retailers, but not on Steam at this time," says Priestly. "Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content.  We are intent on providing Mass Effect to players with the best possible experience no matter where they purchase or play their game, and are happy to partner with any download service that does not restrict our ability to connect directly with our consumers."

It is unknown whether or not EA and Valve will have their old relationship back, but let's just hope that things will get resolved before the release of Mass Effect 3.