If you’re planning on playing Bohemia Interactive’s latest combat title then you’d better be a Steam user because they have announced it will be required to play.
The decision to make ARMA 3 a Steam Exclusive appears to be out of necessity if the game is to be released this year according to new project lead Joris-Jan van ‘t Land. In a blog update he states that the problems with the arrests in Greece and the way the game development was going, they have had to make some important decisions to get back on track.
“The first two months on the job were all about taking an inventory of the project and team, seeing what was going well, what was not, and coming up with plans to fix it all. The mission set by our CEO, Marek Špan?l, was clear: do all we can to release Arma 3 in 2013.”
“Valve’s Steamworks offers some cool features that can help us to enhance the Arma experience where it matters. We’ll save the exact details for a later update, but to summarize our priorities in two key words: user-generated content and multiplayer.”
In the blog update he highlights the benefits of being a Steam exclusive to make sure gamers understand why this decision has been made.
CEO, Marek Špan?l also commented on the decision :
“As an independent developer, we’re constantly evaluating the way we develop, distribute and publish games. Valve made tremendous improvements to their system, which made the installation/update process much more user-friendly – for both developers and customers.
“We realize that some people may find it difficult to migrate to a new platform, especially if they were used to purchasing and playing our games without any external third-party application. We have evaluated the pros and cons, but in the end Steam enables us to release Arma 3, brings massive advantages to the game, and improves the end-user experience. Not to forget, the majority of our players already come from Steam.”
If you’re after a boxed copy, they will be available at retail with a Steam code included in the box.
