EA Games May Be Coming to Steam Beginning With Spore

With games available from every publisher from Sega to Activision to THQ, Valve’s Steam has become the high standard for downloadable PC games, but at least one major publisher has kept their titles off the popular service: Electronic Arts. But according to evidence uncovered by ShackNews, that could finally be changing starting with a Steam-ready version of Spore.

Though nothing has officially been announced by either Valve or EA, an End User License Agreement (EULA) for Spore has appeared without explanation on Steam’s website. Valve has worked with EA in the past -- most recently with bringing Left 4 Dead to retail shelves -- so it’s not totally unfeasible that the two could reach some sort of deal for digital distribution. Steam has already carried some titles (such as Crysis) from EA Partners -- that is, titles published by EA but not created by internal EA studios.

The only surprising part about this potential deal is that it calls into question the value of EA’s own online store that includes direct downloads of full games. If EA games on Steam become a reality, will the EA Store continue selling direct downloads independently? Could this move be interpreted as a sign that their own attempt to get into the digital distribution market has failed?