I actually think EA has good intentions here. they know that nobody is going to use their service if they're available on Steam. Steam has such a monopoly and mindshare that other DD services are kind of laughed at. for EA to make any headway, they need to do this.
they've made a conscious decision to get into digital distribution and from most accounts, the service is pretty good. would it be nice to have everything in one centralized location? obviously. it just sucks that they're cannibalizing their old games and making honest consumers suffer in the process. they should only do this going forward, not taking old games out of circulation.
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xyzzy