Recently, a number of EA-published games have suddenly dissapeared from Valve's leading online game portal. Speaking to Develop, Newell said the reason why is down to "a whole complicated set of issues".

Last month industry sources speculated that the issue hinged on EA's desire to sell DLC directly to Steam customers, as opposed to hosting content through Valve's own portal.

Valve takes a revenue cut from all content sold through Steam, meaning that EA's alleged strategy - if true - could allow EA to circumvent those payments.

Certain EA-published games have been removed from Steam on days that coincide with the release of new DLC. Electronic Arts has also launched the Origin service for PC; something that is categorically a competitor to Steam. Newell suggested the struggle with EA is complicated, but nevertheless reconcilable.

"I don’t think Valve can pick just one thing and think the issue would go away if we fixed that," he said.

"We have to show EA it’s a smart decision to have EA games on Steam, and we’re going to try to show them that," he said.