I'm definitely not buying BF3 if it comes with Origin.
I took a look through the EULA for Steam and it doesn't have anything close to that, luckily.

To make it easier for groups like Lolzsec to hack your system/accounts? At this point, you might as well save some time and publish your SS number, credit information, passwords, etc

...Seriously? And here I was pumped about Battlefield 3. Damn it, EA. Damn it, damn it, damn it. Can I play anything these days without something looking over my [censored] shoulder?

Yep, I figured as much. There is no way in hell I will ever install Origin.

Exactly my point. It ain't the government you should be afraid of anymore.

So does anybody know which games in the near future will require this, apart from Battlefield 3? Also, I'm going to read the full versions of all EULAs now (I usally presume it's just 'don't copy the program, modify it, pretend it's yours').

My guess is BF3, ME3, and the next DA, assuming they don't all come to Steam/D2D/Impulse/Gamers Gate/etc.

Let me know if you find any that involve consenting to become a Human Cent-i-Pad :tongue:

I had to install Origin in order to get my free copy of ME2 from buying DA2.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's not a resource hog, download speed is acceptable and when you exit the program it doesn't leave processes active in memory.

Personally I don't have any problem with it.

I suppose probably at some point all EA games will be sold only via Origin, and sometimes they will have some special cheap sales deals. While I prefer Steam simply because it's convenient to have all my games in one library, I think it's healthy to have a few more competing digital download platforms. Hopefully it will lead to cheaper prices for older games.

"The year is 2027."

"Corporations have more power than the government."

-Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I've dropped it as a news tip to "The Register". If this thing is true I'm sure they'll get at it.

If EA starts losing sales because of it then they will certainly back off a bit. Personally, I don't think it is all that bad because all of my software is legit (I didn't actually see anywhere in the EULA where they monitor for pirated software) and I don't care if they see where I go on the internet (I didn't see anything about that in the EULA either).

I bet Activision would love to hear about that. :biggrin:

Not necessarily they could scream "piracy" & use the reduced sales as reason they need more drm

You know that's right.

I pity the poor fool who has to go trough my data :lmao: I wonder if they'll do anything with that info? I have uTorrent installed, so would they ban me just for that? Valve knows that too, but due to that being the case for several years they apparently don't care :hehe:

Good luck with that EA. The IPRED and FRA laws in Sweden received heavy backlash, so I'll expect the same to happen with Origin.

Up to this point I was at least considering BF3. Not anymore.

Having just read through the http://eacom.s3.amazonaws.com/EULA_Origin+_June+launch_.5.17.11.pdf (warning: PDF), it seems they don't monitor websites you visit and just use the information for marketing...

"Blah, blah, blah, all this data we're gonna steal from you ... to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online services. EA may also use this information combined with personal information for marketing purposes and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data with our third party service providers in a form that does not personally identify you."

I'm pretty sure that other software I've installed has done the same thing - and I'm talking the likes of iTunes, not some really dubious program.

Otherwise I might have to go down to Slussen with a carton of eggs or something.

I think some people are confusing pure statements of legality, necessary to not get into trouble with the law when someone accidentally hits the "submit report" button below an error message, with what a program actually does while it's running. Steam isn't tracking what you do when you run it, but it looks at what programs you run when you start a VAC protected game, which without notification in the license agreements would be illegal. I think the same can be said about Origin.

It keeps track of programs you have installed.
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

Given you can opt out of it IIRC, but I believe this is what EA wants.

My guess is that they haven't actually implemented the ability into origin to do this (at least not most of it). They're just writing the EULA with foresight to the time when they do roll out that silent update that does this.

If by "keep track" you mean "runs a registry and hardware check when you answer 'yes' on the Steam survey popup the odd month or so".