Valve games now on rival EA's Origin service

In a bizarre move, EA's Origin downloadable PC game service has started featuring game's from their #1 rival in that space, Valve.

When EA first launched Origin, they got a little bit cutthroat about the whole thing. They started yanking their games from Steam to keep them as exclusives on Origin. We thought this would be the beginning of a new PC-based distribution war, but it appears somebody is extending a peace offering.

EA is currently offering a buy-2-get-1 free deal that includes several of Valve's games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Counter-Strike: Source. No details on their emerging relationship have surfaced, nor has either offered any explanation for the sudden change of heart.

However, it appears that the two of them may be agreeing to co-occupy the territory. Perhaps they both recognize that there's no way to "win" a download service war. Both companies have enough compelling exclusives to keep both services installed on gamer's hard drives til Kingdom Come.