Hacking and piracy group Razor1911 has released a cracked executable purporting to let PC Battlefield 3 owners play the game without installing or running EA's Origin digital distribution system, as normally required.
EA confirmed in August that an Origin account and client would be required to run even retail versions of the PC edition of Battlefield 3, a move many saw as an onerous "trojan horse" aimed at marketing EA's new digital distribution service.
But the new release apparently gets around this check using a modified executable that replaces the one installed by the game disc.
"This release is dedicated to our fans worldwide who bought this game on [sic] legal way and don't want to install the trojan from Electronic Arts to play online," a statement accompanying the crack reads.
Titles that use Valve's Steamworks middleware require players to download and install the Steam marketplace to run, leading competing marketplaces like Direct2Drive to decline to carry some Steamworks games.
EA has so far refused to offer Battlefield 3 on Steam thanks to what it calls Valve's "restrictive terms of service."
EA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Battlefield 3 crack.