[Tyrian]

I know there's already a couple of Mass Effect 3 threads floating around, but I've got a question that doesn't really fit in any of them.  I don't like Origin for a number of reasons and I've just seen that EA released ME3 on UPlay.  I'm not a huge fan of UPlay either, but it's better than Origin in my book.  (And yes, I do know about the UPlay browser plugin screwup.)  My question is, if you buy ME3 on UPlay, does it still require the Origin client to run?  Note, I don't object to having an Origin account a la Mass Effect 2 style; it's the Origin client that really bothers me.

I've done some Googling on the subject, but I can't find a definitive answer.  Here's what I've seen in my travels so far:
 -- The official UPlay page lists ME3 as a digital download, which seems to indicate they aren't just selling an Origin code.  Link.
 -- I found this Kotaku article.  The interesting part is in the last paragraph, which I quoted below. 

Previously consumers were being forced to sign up to Origin if they wanted to play games such as Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3, so this is an interesting move from a publisher that very publically removed its games from Steam. It’ll be interesting to see whether this is part of a long terms strategy for EA to begin releasing its games on other services, or if it’s simply a one-off deal.

-- I've also found a couple of forum threads on GameFAQs and GameSpot, but neither of those have conclusive answers.

Has anyone here actually bought ME3 from UPlay or found a source confirming that the UPlay version doesn't require Origin? 

[SpardaSon21]

I honestly don't see how Origin is any worse than Steam (or UPlay) at this point.

[Fury]

I don't have any issues with Origin either. But that's off-topic for now and I don't even feel like trying to convince people otherwise any more. That ship sailed a year ago.

ME3 performs many checks against ME3 servers, which are as far as I know in Origin servers hosted in Amazon's cloud services. ME3 multiplayer uses Origin to connect people together to play as a team. I very much doubt either Bioware or EA would invest time and money to duplicate connectivity to function without Origin, especially if that means they would be separated from 99.9% of PC multiplayer players that use Origin.

I am certain ME3 bought from UPlay requires Origin, just like ME3 bough from retail store does.

[MP-Ryan]

The worst part about Origin isn't the client, it's the painfully buggy servers that love to randomly drop your connection for no apparent reason.  And regardless of whether or not you need to install the Origin client, you will be authenticating to the ME3 server, which - like I said - is where the problem lies.  UPlay won't get around that.

EA's insistence on Origin was garbage and their removal from Steam was double garbage considering Origin doesn't have a tenth of the service Steam offers (and its buggy too), but Origin itself isn't the technically-problematic part of ME3 gameplay.

[Tyrian]

@MP_Ryan:  That's actually one of the problems that I've had.  When I test drove Origin with the ME3 demo, it took me three hours just to get in one multiplayer game at my university.  When back home, I have notoriously slow, unstable internet.  I can't switch to a new provider because they are literally the only game in town, unless I go to dial up.  The other item that bothers me is the Consent to Collection and Use of Data section in their Origin EULA.  I reread the Steam ToS, and they don't have anything that invasive in there.  But like Fury said, that ship sailed a year ago.

@Sparda:  I actually had a chance to test drive both Origin (ME3 demo) and UPlay (AC3 for free from GPU promotion).  UPlay (and Digital River, by association) is probably the second most unfriendly software system I've ever used, second only to Mentor Graphics IC layout tools.  I'd never use it regularly, but for a one-off purchase, I'd deal with it.  But at least it worked.  On the other hand, my experience with Origin has been that it's nearly non-functional.  Despite playing the ME3 demo for several days, I could only connect to about four games total.

Speaking of crappy internet, I'm currently not at my university.  My ISP just decided to eat this message.

[newman]

I got Origin solely for the ME series. Had no issues playing the games whatsoever. I also have an UPlay account and can honestly say I hate UPlay more than I do Origin. Of course, I never had any issues with Origin like the ones you reported, so ymmv...

[Tyrian]

Don't mean to do a mini-necro here, but I was really sick for the past couple of weeks. 

It's not really connecting to the servers that bothers me, as long as they've fixed the horrifying connection problems.  I'm just intensely distrustful of the Origin client, due to the EULA.  I was curious if buying through UPlay is a way to avoid the Origin client.  I've been reading through the ME3 multiplayer thread, and it seems that the server issues have been fixed.  None of my searching has yielded ymy answers though.