So, in a compellingly suave move as befits their standard operating procedures, EA has decided that for the foreseeable future, the PC versions of Mass Effect 3 will require Origin.
Even the brick and mortar versions.
My Steam copies of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, where Shepard (no BroShep) stands ready to take on the Reaper threat, suddenly rendered useless by my unwillingness to install a nascent digital distribution framework.