EA: No Patches for Battlefield 3 Outside Origin
EA and DICE are standing firm on their decision to keep Battlefield patches within the Origin platform.
Here's a bit of bad news for PC gamers who purchased Battlefield 3 outside EA's Origin digital platform: you won't (officially) get patches anywhere else, nor will there be standalone versions. Ever.
Both EA and DICE confirmed this fact on Friday in an email exchange with Ausgamers. As the site points out, the most recent patch weighs a hefty 3.6 GB. Because of this, Australian players on limited download plans have requested that EA release standalone files that can be downloaded from local ISPs instead of abroad.
"Many Australians have had issues downloading the huge volumes of content relating to Battlefield 3," the site reports. "The recent release of a 3.5 GB patch was another reminder that, for those of us on limited download plans, keeping games up to date is a bit of a hassle when your ISP isn't able to mirror them locally."
But apparently EA is sticking to its guns and will only update the popular military shooter through Origin. The company hasn't made this fact any kind of secret, indicating for some time now that it wants to keep updates and content packs within the EA ecosystem -- presumably for piracy reasons. This exclusive factor was part of the controversy surrounding the disappearance of EA games on Valve Software's Steam platform.
Still, EA and DICE may eventually change their minds if the multiplayer component begins to diminish in traffic because gamers are unable to download and install patches -- especially when they range in the gigabytes. Fans are encouraged to visit the official game forum and vent their thoughts if patching is a major problem.

Steam on the other hand unifies all of the important stuff, patching, games, community, groups clans and friends, DLC + content, trailers, demo's, gifting etc..
Origin has.. Games.. Friends.. Is EA-Only.. :\
Seriously who came up with Origin? Is there anyone that actually likes it?
Plus it tends to tell me my "REMEMBERED PASSWORD" from the ticked box is wrong a lot.
It's like EA is intentionally trying to turn players away from their new content. :\
Except if you complain about it on their forums (much less vent what everybody's thinking anyways), they'll just ban your account, which is standard operating procedure for them.
Steam on the other hand unifies all of the important stuff, patching, games, community, groups clans and friends, DLC + content, trailers, demo's, gifting etc..
Origin has.. Games.. Friends.. Is EA-Only.. :\
Seriously who came up with Origin? Is there anyone that actually likes it?
Plus it tends to tell me my "REMEMBERED PASSWORD" from the ticked box is wrong a lot.
It's like EA is intentionally trying to turn players away from their new content. :\
Nonetheless, Origin still sucks.
Except if you complain about it on their forums (much less vent what everybody's thinking anyways), they'll just ban your account, which is standard operating procedure for them.
So true!
And hotsacoman, you have a damn good point.
But what if they get banned? Then they can't play the game at all!
You do know there is an offline mode for Steam, correct? It's not exactly a secret...