Sadly it’s true. Representatives for a financial research firm named Baird have stated “the upcoming EA title Battlefield 3 will be sold as a download through GameStop, but not through Steam.” So there you have it. The article goes on to say that “given Steam’s dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative.” This to me means that developer Dice may, even though they stated otherwise, now be attempting to compete with Steam through Origin.
I still like Steam as I have a quite a few friends on it and you can always still add and run games through it, but alas, Gamestop or Origin with Direct2Drive it is.
[ Source: Develop Online ]