Just for the record, if you're going to play Battlefield 3 on the PC, you're going to create and use an Electronic Arts Origin account. Period. Developer DICE has confirmed what, really, shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, a couple days ago on Twitter.

This covers retail copies on DVD, but we can assume it extends to any digital copy bought from a download service (other than, ahem, Steam) because well, why the hell wouldn't it. This is EA's new PC digital distribution service, it makes sense it would use its biggest selling PC title to drive people to it, like it or not.

So save yourself the inconvenience come October, just go ahead and create your account and download the client now. Just remember, if you're abducted by aliens and don't log in for two whole years EA can delete your account, burn down your house, ruin your credit, sell your children into slavery, blah blah etc. But hey, you're still playing Battlefield, not some over-marketed military shooter pumped out by an evil big-name publisher.

Origin Required to Play Battlefield 3 [BF3 Blog]