In what is a pretty interesting turn of events, it seems that Star Wars: The Old Republic, the new online role-playing game from BioWare, Electronic Arts and LucasArts, won't require customers to download EA's own Origin program if they want to play it.
Electronic Arts' new Origin digital distribution service has sparked quite a lot of controversy and, seeing as how all major upcoming titles from the company can now be pre-ordered digitally only through the Origin.com portal, it seems that fans of those games don't have any choice but to download the desktop client.
What's more, Origin also acts as a sort of anti-piracy protection, because buyers of the new
Battlefield 3 shooter, for example, will need to have the program running if they want to play it.
Such a thing won't be required by Star Wars: The Old Republic, however, as Stephen Reid, Senior Online Community Manager for the game, has revealed on its forums that the Origin desktop client won't be mandatory for The Old Republic players.
"Regardless of what other games may choose to do in their integration with Origin's desktop client, here's what our situation is: You are not required to use the Origin desktop client to download, patch or play the game client for Star Wars: The Old Republic."
"This applies whether you purchase The Old Republic via Origin.com or from a retailer in boxed form. You will not be forced to install the Origin desktop client. There are still various consumer benefits to the client itself, but it's not required for The Old Republic."
Still, even if Origin isn't required to play Star Wars: The Old Republic, EA's service is still the only place where customers can
pre-order the game via digital distribution.
This announcement is quite interesting, but we look forward to hear more about the connection of the new online role-playing game and EA's own Origin before its release, whenever that might be.
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