(Photo : Electronic Arts / Screenshot taken from official website)
Video game company Electronic Arts announced that it would be shutting down its controversial Origin game distribution app for Windows on Apr. 17, 2025.
The situation comes more than a decade after the launch of the app and people who still use it will be directed to install the company's newer app, which was released in 2022. EA Origin launched in 2011 and it quickly became a flashpoint of controversy among gamers.
EA Origin Set To Shut Down
Electronic Arts decided to start pulling titles such as "Crysis 2" from the popular Steam platform in order to drive players to use its own launcher. While this all made sense from the company's point of view, it backfired quite hard.
The transition was quite difficult, to say the least because there was not much reason for gamers or consumers to switch over to EA Origin. The fact of the matter was that a lot of people did not trust Electronic Arts and had a lot of goodwill for both Valve and Steam, according to Ars Technica.
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The thing about EA Origin was that it lacked features that players very much enjoyed on Steam and it was hard for them to let these go. Additionally, the use of Origin, which is a long-dead brand name, felt like a slap to the face for most players.
Eventually, Electronic Arts returned its games on Steam in 2019 and announced plans to retire the Origin name and app. This was supposedly being done in favor of a more simply branded "EA" app, which was the one that was released in 2022.
Clunky and Frustrating
Electronic Arts also shared a new FAQ page where it explained the latest system requirements. This is particularly useful for PC players who have not yet migrated over to the EA app. It runs on 64-bit architecture and requires either Windows 10 or Windows 11, Engadget said.
If you are trying to download the EA app on a more modern system, you will not have to redownload your games. Additionally, those who have enabled cloud saves will be able to transfer all of their data without doing anything else.
A lot of players still do not find the EA app that much better than the EA Origin app. The former is still clunky and frustrating to use and adds a completely unneeded obstacle between players and their games.
The major issue with this transition is that some people who are still running a 32-bit version of Windows or Mac will be forced to upgrade. This is because their games will not be playable on the new EA app unless they do so, according to Kotaku.
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