It was first reported a few weeks back that EA won’t release Battlefield 3 through Steam. Now, however, a rumor is circulating that they will – just not until after the retail launch.
In other words, EA wants to get as many pre-orders through Origin as possible before they let Valve have a piece of the pie. Yes, it sucks… but that’s business.
Valve and EA better settle on the whole DLC issue. I won’t get Origin besides Steam if I can avoid it.
That being said, getting a retail version anyway.
Fairly certain you’ll still have to use Origin even with the retail release. I may be wrong – but definitely something to look into.