Arma 3 will be a Steam exclusive, says developer

Open-world shooter Arma 3 will be released exclusively through Steam, project lead Joris-Jan van 't Land announced today on developer Bohemia Interactive's blog.

According to van 't Land, when he took over four months ago as Arma 3's project lead, Bohemia was unhappy with the direction the game had taken and the imprisonment of staff members Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar in Greece. The team was determined to release Arma 3 in 2013, and despite expecting negative reactions decided the best way to stick to their plans was to publish exclusively with Valve.

"One of the steps in this plan has been to select Valve's Steam as our primary platform," he wrote. "Not only is Arma 3 PC-exclusive, but now we have decided to make it Steam-exclusive as well."

Bohemia chose to publish through Steam due Valve's place as the leading digital PC games platform, its wide reach and support for titles, says van 't Land. The developer also wants to avoid problems associated with creating a game across multiple platforms, including prolonged development and testing time and costs. Adding features using Steamworks will shorter production time and use of DRM will prevent piracy, he wrote.

Van 't Land noted that Arma 3 must run through Steam, but Offline mode will be supported.

"We honestly believe that we would not be able to deliver Arma 3 in 2013 without this decision," he wrote. "Now, a few months ahead, we feel strongly that it is paying off, and soon you'll get a chance to see why."

Buchta and Pezlar were released on bail in January. Shortly after, Bohemia decided to rename the in-game island so it sounded less like the real-world island of Lemnos, where the pair were arrested.