There have been a few indications these past few months that EA will be returning to Steam. Although it’s very unlikely that newer titles will be making their way to the storefront, it looks as if older releases like Dragon Age 2 and The Saboteur could be showing their faces.
Back in March a story broke showing us a new redesign of what Steam could look like in the future. Curiously, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst was in the sample library despite its home on the Origin store. We haven’t really heard anything new since, however in recent days some new tidbits of activity on the Steam database hints at EAs return.
There has been a test app update for Origin integration. The screenshot shows that the app configuration was altered, but the app in question is pretty ancient. We know that the app that was being run is just for testing, but the question is why are they doing this at all?
The second fragment is that The Saboteur has been played on Steam by at least one player during the past year. The title was released back in 2009 as an open-world action-adventure game, but isn’t listed on Valve’s platform. Suspicious to say the least. The activity happened on December 24 last year, but has only recently been noticed.
The third hint on this treasure trail is Dragon Age II receiving a new package only six days ago. Another game in EA’s massive roster, it’s also an older title released eight years ago in 2011.
The Reddit community has come to the conclusion that this suggests EA will return to Steam, but perhaps only with ‘older content’. What that means exactly is anyone’s guess, since Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is only a few years old – fairly new in comparison to The Saboteur or Dragon Age II. Perhaps rather than ‘older’ titles there will be a different metric for what could come to Steam.
If this is really the case, it would mean fans of the games will no longer be limited to Origin or hunting down boxed copies.