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.
Origin is still new. And as a result, I’m just not ready to commit to it. I don’t have any specific reasons of my own, but there are over 6508 topics on the Bugs and Issues with Origin section of their forum and only 354 topics on the Bugs and Issues [Resolved] section. Even accounting for signal to noise on the internet, it doesn’t make me feel confident about their product.
Especially not when Steam works now, and has worked for the past two games in the franchise. I think that competition in the marketplace is great. I think that there should be more digital distribution options.
But Steam works now. Pulling the third installment of an extremely popular and well crafted franchise from it just seems like they have no confidence in their own product.
I realize no one is forcing me to buy Mass Effect 3 and use Origin.
But I would have bought preordered it if it was on Steam.