Unloved games client: EA shuts down Origin

Electronic Arts is shutting down its games client Origin for good on April 17. The publisher has announced this on a support page. Users of Origin should switch to the EA app, it says.

Origin was EA's attempt to set up its own games store. In addition to EA's own games, it was also possible to buy some third-party games there. However, the program always remained unpopular in the community. For years, EA has been trying to entice users to switch to the new EA app. Electronic Arts already discontinued official support for Origin for Windows in 2022. MacOS followed in 2024.

Until now, however, anyone who wanted to could still use Origin instead of the EA app – by downloading Origin from an independent source and blocking EA's update notifications with an external program, as a Reddit post shows.

The reason: End of support for Windows 10

Functionally, there are no major differences between Origin and the EA app. The new app has a similar range of functions to Origin, so in addition to downloads and library management, it also includes a store that primarily contains EA's own productions.

Games installed via Origin should be found automatically by the EA app, the account for logging in is the same. Like Origin, the EA app is mandatory for most EA titles: Even if you buy EA games on Steam, you usually have to install and run the EA app to launch the titles. However, there are also some exceptions: Last year, EA released several classic games from its own catalog on Steam that can be played without the EA app.

EA justifies the final end of Origin with the 32-bit architecture of Origin. Support for the last 32-bit build of Windows 10 expired in September 2024. Because Microsoft no longer offers a 32-bit operating system, EA apparently feels justified in only operating the EA app, which is only available for 64-bit systems, in future.

(dahe)