I've been just as frustrated as you about the lack of clarity from Electronic Arts and Valve over Crysis 2's removal from Steam. Then, when EA said it "appreciates Steam's decision" to allow Alice: Madness Returns on Steam, things became more confusing.
I have some answers.
Alice: Madness Returns was not pulled down from Steam--it wasn't there to start. As others pointed out to me, EA has a habit of placing its games on Steam at the last second. Alice: Madness Returns was the latest, but there was a similar situation with Dragon Age II.
As for why Crysis 2 is no longer on Steam, an EA spokesperson explained to me that Crytek had brokered a deal for another digital distributor to host the game's downloadable content. Because Steam could not distribute the content, Steam took the game down. It's still not available.
"EA had nothing to do with Steam's decision to drop Crysis 2," said the company in a statement.
EA did not make that point completely clear in its previous statement about Crysis 2's removal.
"Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers hoping to sell content on that service," it said last week, "many of which are not imposed by other online game services."
The reasons for suspicion over EA's relationship with Steam come from the launch of Origin, EA's new distribution platform revealed at E3. Origin will be the exclusive home to the digital version of Star Wars: The Old Republic. The question that lingers: what about Battlefield 3?
"No new information on BF3 or what Steam will decide to do with other EA titles," said the company. "We are glad they chose to post Alice on Steam."
Steam does list some upcoming releases, but not many. While Battlefield 3 is not listed, Rage, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, and Dead Island are, and can be added to a Steam wishlist.
