Sounds suspiciously like the Cerberus Network or as I affectionately call it CFN. While a fine idea and a good deal with free content like armours and the Firewalker dlc for ME2 it was really badly implemented and PO'd a lot of people.
EA really bolloxed up the Dragon Age online tie-ins as well. Having their own dlc delivery system running almost in parallel but not in sync with xbl has caused some problems. Reading the 'Online profile storage' error message every time I start the game is one of many. They didn't seem to understand that people change their email addresses etc. Tens of thousands of people spent untold hours getting EA.com and Bioware.com and xbl in sync and it still doesn't work properly. Six months and not even a basic bug-fix for DA. Their priorities are obviously not mine.
Hope they've learned a lesson or two but frankly I doubt it. A separate online multiplayer mode and sign-in system will produce some serious headaches I believe. Aren't they the ones shutting down servers to save money? Still it's their right and supposedly good for the industry if not their customers. The alternative is bigger and 'better' drm.
