DICE community manager, Daniel Matros, has recently confirmed that players will need EA’s Origin client in order to run Battlefield 3 when it launches this October. So far this has only been verified for retail copies of the game, though it will likely apply to digitial ones too, DICE confirming last week that Battlefield 3 won’t be launching on Steam.
Part of EA’s motive for establishing the Origin service is to allow easier to access to its players and products, whereas using other online outlets presents numerous barriers for the publisher.
Just to confirm, this is only for the PC version of Battlefield 3, Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 players will be able to run the blockbuster FPS via XBL and PSN without additional requirements (bar the online pass.)
Source: BF3blog
gazzagb
EA seem to be wanting Origin to die a slow death from the start. Steam is easily the largest digital distributor for the PC market, and even though many people will sign up to Origin just to play BF3, I reckon it would make PC gamers happier to be able to use Steam. EA just need to agree to Valve’s conditions that the game doesn’t need an external client to start and run the game, and then they will have access to the largest digital PC market.