When EA started putting games on Steam again in 2019, I immediately forgot my Origin password as an act of rejoicement. That may have been premature, because the era of many PC gaming clients was not coming to an end: EA did stop cloistering its PC games on the Origin store, but the Steam versions still launched the Origin client when you started them.
That hasn't been true for every new EA-published game on Steam, though. I was surprised to find that F1 2021 doesn't require Origin, for instance. Another exception will be the Steam version of the Dead Space remake, which releases in January.
"Dead Space is native on Steam," said an EA rep when reached for comment.
- EA announces the guillotine will finally fall on Origin this April thanks to Microsoft's abandonment of 32-bit Windows and, if you don't like it, 'use a newer computer'
- After The Sims 1 + 2 rereleases stumbled out to mixed reviews, EA issues a patch that boldly declares they 'should now launch in most situations'
EA didn't say whether or not the decision is part of some broader plan to phase out the Origin client for Steam releases, but I doubt it. The upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will require Origin, according to its Steam page. Speculation on Reddit that EA "finally looked at the Steam reviews" might be prematurely optimistic.
For Dead Space, though, EA's statement confirms that the usual third-party DRM notice wasn't just forgotten, or temporarily missing because EA is in the process of transitioning away from Origin to the new EA Launcher, as some in that Reddit thread speculated. The timing is curious, though: EA announced today that its new launcher is out of open beta and "will soon replace Origin."
Nevertheless, Dead Space is apparently a regular Steam game with no extraneous client.
That probably won't make much of a difference to our in-game Dead Space remake experience, but I'm glad to be spared the discomfort brought on by watching pointless DRM-on-DRM draw even a tiny fraction of my system's resources. A PC gamer's natural and unavoidable aversion to unnecessary background processes is indifferent to their significance. Taskbar icons are enemies.
Regarding that in-game experience, the Dead Space remake got a new trailer the other day, and the revised USG Ishimura and necromorphs look about as spooky and grotesque as I'd hoped. The only thing I'm not sure about is Isaac having a voice: I preferred him as the silent Gordon Freeman type he was in the original. I can't be too self-righteous about that appeal to the way things were, though. Isaac was voiced in Dead Space 2 and 3, so remake developer Motive hasn't exactly taken a drastic departure from the overall source material.
Dead Space will be out on January 27.
