Now that it’s confirmed that BF3 won’t appear on Steam, the only mystery was why. While it’s not any great shock to hear EA was pushing Origin hard, now we have definitive word by the BF community manager on Twitter that BF3 will require Origin. We now know BF3 uses the Origin equivalent of Steamworks, which means no matter where you buy the game, you’ll need to activate it on Origin — including retail disc formats. Obviously, if you bought a game on Steam that you had to then activate on a Steam clone, requiring both to run to appease their DRM demons, rips in space time would occur. That’s why Steam is out of the loop but services like Direct2Drive or GamersGate are still in, because they don’t tack on any extra DRM or client restrictions.
Now we know, and knowing is half the battle. Anyone not buying BF3 because of the Origin requirement?
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I have been involved in both computers and video games since a very young age, cutting my teeth (literally) on an Apple IIe and an Intellivision. I've been writing about both for fun, off and on throughout the years, which eventually led me here -- still playing games and casually writing about them off an on.
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I don’t think that anything like origin would stop me from buying a game I wanted. Heck even before these game management programs we had to deal with anti cheat mechanisms. Plus, gamespy was used by several games as a requirement. Didn’t UT3 require gamespy? I think that that was one of many things that turned me off from UT3.
DRM is probably the only that is going to get me to not purchase something. Any publisher who thinks that always on DRM is going to seriously stop the copyright infringement of their software is sorely mistaken.
I, for one, am NOT buying BF3 because of forced “Origin” use. Yet another DRM – because that’s what Origin really is – on my system? And one by EA, who rarely play nice or respect their customers? The BF series was fun, but other games are fun, too. Bye bye!
thanks for info. no thanks to origin. no sale here. it’s not enough that i bought the game, but they want to know when i play and how long i play? how much intrusion will you put up with?
ahh… I remember the days when you actually “owned” the game after purchase. Not anymore… now you basically rent the game.