There's no telling when EA might decide to flip the switch and make it a paid purchase though, so we suggest grabbing it as soon as possible. (Also see: A Newbie's Guide to Buying Digital Games on PC ) Nonetheless, you might be able to fare better.
In fact, even trying to claim Need for Speed Most Wanted for free now is throwing up errors, which may be due to the traffic on Origin right now. In our experience, it hasn't been the most reliable piece of software, and our attempts at playing FIFA 16 on PC only served to compound the perception. The downside though is that you'll need to use the Origin client to get it. It's one of the last decent entries in a series that's been in steady decline for years and has seen its developers change hands from the now defunct Black Box Studios to Criterion (of the Burnout fame) to Ghost Games-the studio that was responsible for last year's abysmal Need for Speed.
2012's Need for Speed Most Wanted is now free for Windows PC.
