More chit-chat on Battlefield 3 possibly skipping a Steam release has surfaced; following their recent meeting with GameStop’s management, financial research firm Baird has said the shooter won’t be appearing on the Valve-operated service.
“The upcoming EA title Battlefield 3 will be sold as a download through GameStop, but not through Steam,” Baird wrote in a report (via).
The speculation was originally ignited by a now-removed post regarding digital retailers on battlefield.com, the game’s official site, which listed fellow download services GamersGate and Direct2Drive (it’s available for pre-order on both sites now), but didn’t mention Steam.
Neither EA or Valve have commented.
The Baird report also read: “Given Steam’s dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative.”
