Fighting a somewhat losing battle with Steam, Origin, EA Games' digital rights management (DRM) platform, is pulling out all stops in order to make itself a more formidable competitor in the DRM arena. This February, EA is targeting racing fans, as the 2012 edition of "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" becomes free to download for all Origin account holders.

What makes Origin's deal so good is that users who download the game would have the popular "Need for Speed" title in their library for an indefinite period of time. That means that those who download the game will have it for as long as they want, no strings attached, according to Softpedia.

Well, sort of.

Of course, since the game is offered specifically for Origin members, gamers who would like to participate in the offer would need a fully working Origin account in order to download the game. Unfortunately, for most gamers, an Origin account is not something that one really looks forward to.

Part of the reason for the relative unpopularity of EA's Origin service is the fact that despite offering free games from time to time, most titles that it has offered in the past have been said to be either too old or too uninteresting.

Recently, however, EA has been revamping its free offerings in Origin, with the company offering relatively solid titles such as "Dead Space" and "Battlefield 3" being offered as a free download for a specific period of time. Other good games that were offered free include "Plants vs. Zombies: Game of the Year Edition" and "Jade Empire: Special Edition," reported Attack of the Fanboy.

Plus, Origin has been pretty generous when it comes to the amount of time their games are being offered for free. One of the company's recent free titles, for example, was offered as a free download for a good 63 days before it was pulled out.

As for "Need for Speed: Most Wanted," Origin does not state until when it would be tagged as a free download. Thus, those who love racing games are advised to download the game through their origin accounts now, just in case EA pulls the plug on the promotion early.

"Need for Speed: Most Wanted" is quite notable for being the final game that Criterion Games created independently. When it was released, fans were quite split due to its difference between the original "Most Wanted" title, but critics have generally been positive about the fun factor and playability of the game. Plus, it had a pretty good multiplayer mode.

Considering the number of Origin's active users, however, finding enough players to engage awesome multiplayer races in might be a bit of a challenge.