Dragon Age: Inquisition won't use BioWare Points for DLC purchases

BioWare Points are essentially a PC version of the Microsoft Points that used to serve as the virtual currency on Xbox Live. If you want DLC for the PC version of Mass Effect or Dragon Age, you purchase BioWare Points and then use that to buy the content online. That won't be the case for Dragon Age: Inquisition , however, or for any other BioWare game in the future.

"Based on user feedback, beginning with Dragon Age: Inquisition, BioWare Points will no longer be supported as a means to purchase DLC," BioWare announced today. "This applies to PC or Mac only, as consoles will continue to support their respective methods of purchasing downloadable content."

So exactly how will you go about purchasing the inevitable DLC, you ask? "Instead of using BioWare Points, PC and Mac users can purchase future DLC directly through Origin, using currency," the announcement says. Games that currently support BioWare Points for DLC purchases—Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 2 and 3—will continue to do so.

That's kind of a "good new/bad news" deal, isn't it? It always seemed silly to me to have to use real currency to buy pretend currency so I could purchase DLC, but I'm not certain that tying the process to Origin is ideal, either, if only because of its not-entirely-positive reputation among gamers. So I guess that leads to the obvious question: Will ditching BioWare Points in favor of direct purchases through Origin have any impact on your decision to buy Dragon Age DLC?

Dragon Age: Inquisition comes out on November 18.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.