Remember when you could walk into a store like Software Etc. and wade through aisles and aisles of PC games packaged in gigantic boxes? Those days are long gone, and though you can still find a single rack of PC titles at your local GameStop, boxed copies are becoming something of a rarity these days. For Electronic Arts, the demise of boxed games, PC and console, can't happen fast enough as it looks to go all-in with digital downloads.

BioWare's Community Coordinator, Chris Priestly, is letting Mass Effect fans know that if they plan on helping Commander Shepard save the planet from Reapers, they'll have to go about it without using their Steam accounts. Mass Effect 3 will require interacting with EA's Origin platform and will be available for purchase through Origin and select digital download services not owned by Valve.

Let's be honest, copyright law is a mess, especially when it comes to digital media. Want to convert your legally purchased flick to a mobile format? Chances are that by doing so, you'll run afoul of the DMCA, and that's just whack. In an ideal world, movie studios would jump on board dismantling the DMCA, but that's not going to happen. However, most of them are willing to look at another solution.

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), which is made up of several movie studios and tech companies, today announced "it has reached key milestones towards establishing the first open market for digital content distribution." That has the potential to be big news, considering an additional 21 companies have joined the group, which now stands at 48 members strong.

One of the milestones DECE reached is a Digital Rights Locker, which would allow consumers to access their digital entertainment on any device that supports the DECE standard. That includes TVs, media players, smartphones, and everything else, though iPhone and iPod touch owners would be excluded (Apple is one of the few companies not on board with this).

Check DECE's full press release here (PDF), then hit the jump and tell us what you think of this approach.