Over the weekend there was quite a bit of news regarding the current hoopla between DICE's Battlefield 3 and EA's new online service, Origin. We already know that Steam will not be an outlet in which to purchase Battlefield 3, a tactic in which EA hopes people will hop on the Origin bandwagon. However, some gamers were thinking of buying Battlefield 3 on disc format in order to avoid being forced to use the Origin service. Pulling out another surprise, DICE's Daniel Matros revealed in a reply on Twitter that Origin will be required to play disc versions of the shooter, though, as BF3blog.com notes, many disc shooters require a client to perform in the background of a game, so this isn't really anything out of the ordinary.
Speculation is concluding that Origin also will be required no matter what digital distribution service a person uses to buy Battlefield 3, be it Direct2Drive, Amazon, etc.
We learned further as to why Origin is required for Battlefield 3, as Matros announced that a player's Battlefield 3 account is linked directly to their "Origin persona," meaning, their Battlefield 3 username is the same as their Origin username. Taking a page out of the "Online for Consoles" handbook, the only way a player can change their Battlefield 3 username is to also change their Origin username, akin to what console players do on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. This is radically different to past Battlefield games on PC, where players were allowed to create several soldiers under one identity.
EA's attempt at closely linking Battlefield 3 to their Origin service is certainly turning out to be a controversial one, and perhaps one that may bite them in the ass at some point. Even with the PC's killer specs, will this propaganda turn die-hard enthusiasts over to consoles? I foresee some petitions going live very, very soon.
[BF3Blog]
