Nobody is going to miss EA’s Origin game launcher when it shutters in April

Electronic Arts’ Origin app has been around since 2011, but this year will be its last. The often-reviled game launcher is going dark for good on April 17th, which is only a few months away. The good news is that EA already released a replacement in 2022, known as the EA app, not that it’s much better than the Origin app it is replacing, which is likely why Electronic Arts started releasing its games on Steam back in 2019 after a lengthy hiatus. So, if you’ve yet to switch to the EA app from Origin, the clock is ticking.

Join the 64-bit world with the EA app

32-bit apps are so yesterday

Electronic Arts created an app to replace Origin so the company could move to a 64-bit foundation. Origin is 32-bits, and guess what? Windows requires 64 bits, which means Origin is dead in the water, hence the EA app that replaced it, which is 64 bits.

Now, the move to the EA app was not a smooth one in 2022, when EA up and decided all of its Steam games required access to the new app. The problem is that the Steam Deck runs Linux, so the new EA launcher didn’t work at first, essentially breaking the games of its Steam customers who game on the Steam Deck, forcing Valve to fix the issue. Worse, it would seem that anytime the EA app is updated, games can break all over again on Linux, an ongoing issue, apparently. So, if you were hoping EA actually cleaned up its act, think again. Heck, even 2K of all companies ditched its launcher on Steam, a lesson Electronic Arts is still unwilling to learn.

For those who are just moving to the EA app, you’ll want to ensure your cloud saves make the journey before Origin is gone, and whichever games don’t offer cloud saves, you’ll have to transfer those saves manually. You can install the EA app from Electronic Arts’ website.