EA Is Dealing the Final Blow to Origin, and Taking Some Users With It

EA's Origin app, launched in 2011 as a rival to Steam, is finally being replaced by the EA app. This transition, however, comes with significant drawbacks. The cumbersome user experience and frustrating logins that plagued Origin haven't been addressed, and the switch presents challenges for existing users.

A major concern is the loss of access to games purchased through Origin. Users who fail to migrate their accounts to the new EA app risk losing access to their game libraries. This highlights the precarious nature of digital ownership.

Furthermore, the EA app only supports 64-bit operating systems, leaving users with 32-bit systems in the lurch. While Steam also dropped 32-bit support earlier in 2024, this move underscores the potential for incompatibility issues with digital game libraries. Most modern systems are 64-bit, but older systems running 32-bit Windows (like some Windows 10 versions sold until 2020) are now incompatible. A simple RAM check (32-bit systems are limited to 4GB) can determine if this affects you; reinstallation is necessary for 32-bit Windows users.

This situation raises questions about the long-term accessibility of digitally purchased games. The shift away from 32-bit support, coupled with increasingly invasive digital rights management (DRM) solutions like Denuvo, creates concerns about the future of game ownership. Denuvo's deep system access and arbitrary installation limits further complicate matters.

A viable alternative is GOG, a DRM-free platform offering a permanent solution to this problem. Games purchased on GOG can be played on any compatible hardware, ensuring long-term access to your digital library. While this approach opens the door to piracy, it doesn't seem to hinder the platform's growth, as evidenced by upcoming releases like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.