Origin not compulsory for The Old Republic

Forthcoming BioWare MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will not demand that you run EA's new Origin application in order to play.

BioWare community manager Stephen Reid took to the game's official forums today to clarify that although the game is a digital exclusive for the new online store, you won't need to have the Origin app on your desktop to play or patch the game.

"While Origin will be the exclusive digital retailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, that does not mean that Origin is required for you to access or play The Old Republic," he explained.

"Origin is a digital storefront, and the desktop application is there to give you quick access to Origin exclusives and deals. However, you won't need to launch the Origin application to run The Old Republic, nor will you patch the game via Origin.

"Once the game is on your hard disk, you'll be connecting to our servers to patch and launch the game, and Origin does not have to be running to do that."

So, pick up a boxed version and you shouldn't have to touch EA's store, if that's your wish. That said, Reid also noted in his post that physical copies of the game will include the Origin client on a disc.

The long-in-development MMO is due to launch later this year.