14 DAY TRIAL // Those who buy the upcoming Battlefield 3 title as a retail DVD will still need to download and install Electronic Arts' Origin digital distribution service if they want to actually play the game, fact confirmed by the DICE global community manager.
Battlefield 3 is set to be one of the biggest first person shooters of the year, second only to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and it's already been causing quite a stir, not just with its superb graphics and gameplay, but also through the awkward decisions taken by its publisher, Electronic Arts.
More specifically, we heard last week that Battlefield 3 won't be available for purchase on the biggest PC digital distribution service, Steam, because of the new policies imposed by its owner, Valve, on EA and its own Origin service.
Now, it seems that the connection between Battlefield 3 and Origin is even more complicated, as DICE's Daniel Martos confirmed on his Twitter account, via BF3blog, that even gamers who buy the retail DVD of Battlefield 3 will need to use Origin in order to actually play the game.
More specifically, Martos was asked by a fan about the necessity of Origin on the PC even if the player already had a retail DVD of Battlefield 3. The DICE community manager confirmed this, so it seems that, at least for retail buyers, Origin is a mandatory requirement.
No word yet on if Origin is required for customers who get Battlefield 3 from other digital distribution outlets, like Direct2Drive or GamersGate, but it's quite likely that no PC player will be able to avoid Electronic Arts' own service.
What do you think about this intertwined nature of Battlefield 3 with Origin? Is EA right in pushing it on potential customers or should it leave it to the owner of the game to decide what programs need to be running alongside Battlefield 3? Steam has been used as a anti-piracy method by plenty of other games in the past, so the situation isn't all that different with what EA is trying to do. Share your thoughts about these things below.