Actually, while I'm not sure what the full story was with Battlefield 3, it is rumoured that Valve wanted exclusive rights to Battlefield 3. EA wanted to see their headline game on every distribution platform available. Valve do not want their games on Origin. I like steam alot and its a better system than anything else but Valve are not angels.
The whole Origin vs Steam debacle was because EA
deliberately (As in,
"did so knowingly and intentionally, with forethought") violated Steam's terms of service by selling DLC through EA's system built into games to bypassing Steam, and then pretended to be the victim when Valve removed their games. Whether or not Valve should take a cut of DLC or in-game purchases is up for debate, and I'm not firmly on Valve's side on the point (but it's a complex issue), but that's not the point: it was clearly in Steam's terms of service (and had been for awhile), and EA intentionally slipped in-game non-Steam DLC purchases into
multiple of their recent releases
after they were already on Steam, forcing Valve to remove them from Steam afterward, and then EA blamed Valve and pretended they were getting bullied - which was amusing, because EA is really large, and has previously offered to buy Valve out, and most people online didn't buy into it recognizing how 'coincidentally' EA was launching their own rival service, and it was in EA's interest to claim Valve's ToS was too restrictive.
EA could've negotiated a new deal with Steam, or could've not made their DLC available to the Steam versions of the game (boycotting with entire games or just the games' DLC), or could've publicly commented on the issue and opened dialog, or could've let Valve have the cut they've always been taking without complaining... instead they snuck Origin purchasing into multiple games already on Steam at once, then acted surprised and shocked, and acted like this was something new Steam added to the ToS. It had nothing to do with Valve demanding exclusivity; it had to do with profit sharing from DLC, and EA acting like a child to raise awareness of Origin instead of negotiating a better deal.
[
Even non-Origin digital sales require Origin to be installed]
[
Battlefield 3's Absence on Steam Blamed on Restrictive Terms of Service]
EA was 100% in the wrong in this case, in my opinion.
I don't agree with everything Valve does; nor do I think they are perfect... but they are a lot better than EA.
Here was Valve's response after the whole debacle:
"
I think at the end of the day we're going to prove to EA they have happier customers, a higher quality service, and will make more money if they have their titles on Steam. It's our duty to demonstrate that to them. We don't have a natural right to publish their games." [
Valve's response]
That is a good response. EA during that time went around
criticizing everything it could think of about Steam, and hinting heavily that Origin is a better choice for developers.
If one company (Valve) has a reputation of integrity and openness and of working with and alongside developers and customers, and another company (EA) has a history of abusing other developers and customers, then they get into a public spat of some kind, why would you believe the company with the proven track-record of deceit?
Again, as you mentioned, Valve isn't an angel. But at the same time, past events have earned them more trust, and lost EA trust. If a situation is unknown, I'm going to give Valve the benefit of the doubt, and EA I'm going to scrutinize harder looking for ulterior motives... and since they 'just so happened' to launch their own rival distribution store at the same time, you didn't have to look too far at all.
