Before the world gets excited: North America only (*again*).
Stalker costs as much as a couple of packets of noodles at the moment. So some good news for the service.

Like Ubisoft, America only. Thanks EA you don't surprized me.

Despite the reassurances by Bioware's CM, and the various volunteer moderators on Steam's forums (Keep in mind, these volunteers are just that, volunteers.), the paragraphs at the bottom of EA games on Steam's store indicates an active internet connection, and an activation is required.
Supposedly Mass Effect requires some sort of activation first before being allowed to play at all. No one so far has identified what application or process is actually making the call, and what the call is authorizing.
Count this as my paranoia against EA. I just don't think they'd up and turn around like they have. They've screwed me over countless times to the point where everything I see from them must be combed carefully lest I get the lice myself.

Well, considering these are games running on Steam...yeah, an Internet connection is KINDA required.
It looks like the Steam versions of Spore, Need for Speed : Underground and Mass Effect no longer use SecuROM. The Steam version of Crysis and Crysis : Warhead, however, still do.

I think it's more complicated than you're implying.
It's not like they're limiting their potential market just for the hell of it.

Yeah, the reasoning is that Crysis/Warhead were the product of a license agreement between Crytek and Valve, thus they had to keep the "wonderfully useful and all pirate stopping" DRM in their crapware. Since Crysis and company are rather shitty games (in my opinion) it's no big loss. I am however looking forward to playing Mass Effect. So YAY! on that front.

Oh just ask Crytek. Their game was the best game ev4r! Just ask them? The poor sales based on the fact that their development targeted a tiny fraction of PC gamers (IE: High end uber-machines) had nothing to do with it. It was all that damned piracy, they'll say.

There's not a doubt in my mind that that's exactly what they want to do, which makes me also sure that it's not a decision that's entirely and independently up to them.

Well yeah, that's what I meant. Just about everyone should be familiar with Steam's "DRM" (logging on the internet) which I don't mind since I have a cable modem that's on constantly. One thing I do dislike about Steam is the fact that you have to go Online to activate "Offline Mode", and you're pretty much screwed if you want to play something on Steam and your internet connection is down, but then again, the most popular games on Steam (Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, and that little game known as Counter-Strike) are all online anyway.
Other than that, the only other thing that ticks me off is this whole crazy Euro conversion pricing thing going on and the games not even being available at all to many people outside the U.S. That's really crappy, and I feel bad for those people. =(
But still, I love the whole central location for all of your games and messaging system features it has. And Valve's Orange Box, their various weekend deals, and GoG here have completely and utterly spoiled me on buying a single PC game for $50 anymore.

I find it hilarious that you've pretty much quoted word for word what I've said a few times in various forum conversations. :) Crytek's priorities are a complete mess.
I should also mention that C&C Red Alert 3 is ALSO SecuROM free on Steam. I forgot all about that being an EA title.

Is file distribution the problem? Bandwidth costs? If so, then all games on that distribution platform shouldn't open to other countries at all, only for that particular country. However, I can see other games there as well, which means that the platform is open, but the games aren't.
This is not the first time I'm upset about EA games not being available internationally. I was also very disappointed previously when Steam has the XCOM series on sale. I went on, only to see that it is geographically locked. I sent a support email to Steam asking why. No reply.
It's really a huge pain in the a**. I already have bought games from GOG and Stardock Impulse, both of which does not practise geographic segregation. Steam, and EA, apparently does not want my money.

This is exactly my point: That statement is so absurd that there HAS to be some practical reasoning behind it.
Just because it's not immediately apparent to you, doesn't mean it's not there.

Yeah that's true. It's probably a licensing or copyright issue, or some other problem that involves money, that a party is not willing to pony up or take a risk for. Every company is only interested in the bottom line after all.

EA came to Europe on Steam. It is the awesome news. Games will use only Steam DRM not Securom.
[url=]http://store.steampowered.com/news/2122/[/url]