Battlefield 3 Requires Origin, Gamers Upset

Published on October 20th, 2011 with  12 Comments

Battlefield 3

Origin, Electronic Art’s gaming client, is going to be required to play the new Battlefield 3 game coming soon on October 25th, 2011. Origin is a game management and security program similar to Valve’s Steam client. Previous versions of Battlefield required no such software, and gamers are not happy about this new change.

The new download client has no benefit to gamers, as it stands. Origin is being referred to as “the gaming industry’s first commercial spyware“, as it collects information about you and your computer, and sends it home to EA. Electronic Arts then sells that data to any company that wants to buy it. Did we mention this software is required for you to run Battlefield 3?

While some people argue that the content that EA is collecting does not expose any personal information, this is believed to be a common misconception. Any interested party that purchases this information can easily cross-reference any data that is collected to easily determine a person’s identity, in a large majority of these cases. Here is a web page titled “What information is personally identifiable” that can dig up a bit more on the subject.

So how do you feel about EA’s new download manager? Do you feel the data collection is a threat to your privacy and security online? Let’s hear what you have to say about Origin in the comments below.

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Comments

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jared-Robinson/82400996 Jared Robinson

    troll, origin is just a steam clone, and we all love steam. EA just wants to be part of the cool club, why not let em. And if they are gathering information, it cant be any more than you have already given to Facebook. and why dont you give any evidence of upset gamers, you have no proof that anyone really cares.

    • Anonymous

      Jared, what the link in this article states is that the information that EA is selling about you reveals the identity of 87% of the population. Your Zip, Date of Birth, and Gender is enough information for the people buying your information to know exactly who you are. You might be okay with this, but not everyone is.

  • Anonymous

    This type of nonsense is 1 of the main reasons I got out of PC gaming. That and the evolving nature of PC hardware that always left me with graphics that were OK, but never EXCELLENT.

    • Daz

      So you’re gonna head back to consoles, where the graphics are most definitely NOT EXCELLENT?

  • Sieden

    Nope not at all, big deal, when I click on BF3 on my desktop origin launches and logs in. Who cares if they collect non personal information? World of Warcraft does this as well, I’m pretty sure they are looking at what the majority of PC players hardware looks like to get an idea of designing games with the consumers hardware in mind.

  • Scott

    What a pain in the ass.

  • Asd

    Pirate the damn game!! Teach EA a lesson that you don’t f*** with the consumer!!

  • Shootiest

    Most companies do this… selling information is nothing new. BUT, a game?… This should never happen, we shouldn’t be forced to use something that takes our personal information.

    Also, STEAM went through the trouble of allowing their CDkeys to be used with Origin…. EA better do the F***ING SAME, or I’m not buying anything else EA because I’m not going to use Origin when I have Steam already – A much more seasoned application.

    It was already announced that Steam will be getting BF3 on the 25th… so if that happens why the HELL wouldn’t EA allow for CDkeys to be switched over to Steam as well, its a favor in return… which is why I though they were able to subtle things between each other about having their game on Steam… by making these agreements.

  • Asdhasuidas

    Wanted to play the Battlefield 3 alpha&beta. Didn’t work, needed to be launched as “admin” even though I tried everything possible it still didn’t work.

    I finally made it work, I played one session, then when I came back I couldn’t open it. I reinstall the game and again I get the error from origin, I try to bypass it again but fails and couldn’t ever get it to work again.

    If there wasn’t a big s*** brick called Origin in way of me installing the game I actually might have had a chance to install it, but when all I can do is look at the error message, I have no chance to do anything myself.

  • DebaKLe

    EA has update their EULA as a response to the community outrage.

    “EA would never sell your personally identifiable information to anyone, nor would it ever use spyware or install spyware on users’ machines. We and agents acting on our behalf do not share information that personally identifies you without your consent, except in rare instances where disclosure is required by law or to enforce EA’s legal rights.”

  • http://www.seotoolspy.com Will

    Origin sucks.

    The original Battlefield 2 had in-game stats tracking, but now you have to be logged into a webpage (Battlelog / Back in October) to see your stats.

    The fact that EA is selling information doesn’t bug me, nor does the fact that EA is using their own game management platform, but it’s the fact that they REQUIRE a bad game management platform. Hopefully they’ll respond to their fan base, as EA claims to care about them.

    Steam please?

  • Tor

    What are you doing EA?? is this a marketing scheme to drive customers AWAY? EA disgusts me. the last EA download manager caused so many issues for me. If I had known (games require this origin manager) I wouldnt have bought Battlefield 3. I’ll never support them again.