We suspected that EA would not allow Battlefield 3 to be sold on Steam and now it’s confirmed. The question is why EA would do such a thing. According to EA, Steam is too restrictive.

EA’s not-so-new yet re-branded digital distribution service called Origin is in full effect. In order to get people more involved with Origin, EA is throwing a big sale that lasts until July 31. Every game on EA’s list has been discounted to $4.99. You can grab a lot of quality titles with a $20 bill.

Steam is the biggest digital distribution service for games right now. If publishers want their PC games to gain some traction in the marketplace, it behooves them to put it on Steam. Up until recently, every game on Steam had to be paid in full before you can play them. That has all changed because Valve now supports free-to-play games as well.

Say goodbye to the EA Store and say hello to Origin. Origin is a direct-to-consumer digital platform that we can’t help but view as a Steam competitor. Origin can be downloaded right now from Origin.com. EA has taken the 150 or so games from the EA Store and made them accessible from Origin. Moving forward, EA is going to expand Origin services to mobile devices and offer incentives for its games that can’t be obtained anywhere else.

Fox News recently asked a surprisingly valid question in a surprisingly balanced way, at least in comparison to the other work that they’ve done regarding video games as of late. The question was whether or not the digital distribution craze that’s been building in strength and popularity since the rise of Steam would kill off consoles. They presented the question in this way: “Will Nintendo’s next follow up to the Wii game console be the last of its kind due to the rise of digital distribution and cloud gaming?”

Don’t get me wrong: Digital distribution is great and can be very convenient. That alone would be able to topple the traditional gaming market and probably should have already. However, there are a couple of reasons why that hasn’t happened yet.

Sears is trying its hand at the online movie distribution business. Today (December 28, 2010) the retailer announced the launch of a new service called Alphaline Entertainment. Alphaline Entertainment will allow users to rent or buy movies and television downloads online. Alphaline Entertainment will offer new movies in addition to television shows the day after they air.

PayPal will soon have a service that will allow users to pay for digital products quickly and easily. Launching this fall, customers will be able to buy digital items without leaving the site of the seller. PayPal says transactions can be done in two clicks and gives users a safer alternative when buying their virtual wares.

Anyone that follows the videogame industry will tell you digital distribution is on the rise. Steam is reporting a record amount of users and big profits. Game companies are also using digital releases as marketing tools to promote its full retail titles. Take-Two Interactive is no stranger to digital distribution. This is the publisher that brought us Stories from Liberty City and all the Red Dead Redemption expansions. As good as the digital business is, Take-Two’s chairman Strauss Zelnick doesn’t see it overtaking physical products.

Videogame trade-in programs are the devil. That’s what a lot of videogame publishers would say if they could speak candidly on the matter. That’s the difficulty of selling a physical product. With digital games, consumers are only purchasing the license to play the product. In essence, they don’t own anything. Steam could be one of the first services that allows you to trade-in your digital games for credit towards a new purchase.

Square Enix is taking a chance on digital manga. It’s going to be using its Square Enix Members site to help promote digital manga releases. The North American and French digital manga stores aren’t ready yet though – their virtual doors don’t open until Fall 2010. Square Enix did decided that Comic-Con International is the perfect time to hype up the service and allow people to see what it will be like.

If you’re at Comic-Con International, you’ll get to test it out firsthand. Square Enix’s booth number is 3829, right near Funimation and not too far from Konami. There are machines there where you can sample some of the digital manga Square Enix will be bringing to North America.

If you aren’t at Comic-Con International, don’t feel too left out. You can sample some free digital manga too…