EA’s Origin App was introduced in 2011 so you could browse and purchase EA’s PC games on its digital storefront instead of Steam. The most notable launch from this time was a strict Origin requirement for Mass Effect 3 in 2012. However, it never really seemed to take off.
Due to clunky UX and frustrating login processes, many PC gamers chose to outright avoid using Origin as much as possible. Despite this, EA persisted, but has now finally decided to outright replace Origin with the equally clunky EA app.
This comes along with several caveats. Own Titanfall on Origin but can’t access your account? Too bad, if you don’t make a formal account switch from Origin to EA, you’ll lose access to the games you’ve paid for.
Along the way, anyone running a 32-bit system will also be left behind, as the EA app supports 64-bit OS only. To be fair to EA, Steam itself also dropped support for 32-bit operating systems in early 2024, with a scant few users on 32-bit systems remaining.
It’s extremely unlikely that anyone who has purchased a new PC or laptop, or assembled a custom gaming PC in the last five years will be running on a 32-bit OS. However, Microsoft did sell 32-bit versions of Windows 10 up to 2020. If you’re on Windows 11, there’s no sweat. 64-bit support was first introduced in Windows Vista’s release almost 20 years ago.
A quick way to check is to see how much RAM your system is running. A 32-bit OS can only use a maximum of 4GB of RAM, so if you’ve got more than that in your system, you’ve likely got nothing to worry about. However, if you’ve accidentally installed a 32-bit version of Windows, you’ll have to wipe your entire system and reinstall a 64-bit version of the OS.
While support being dropped for 32-bit systems isn’t too surprising in 2024, it calls into question the nature of digital ownership. It’s no fun losing access to a library of games that you’ve owned for years due to hardware changes. Steam isn’t free from this either, as Valve has also dropped 32-bit support, leaving players who can’t upgrade to modern systems high and dry.
Invasive digital DRM solutions like Denuvo are also becoming increasingly commonplace in PC games, since some elements require deep kernel-level access to your PC, or have arbitrary installation limits, despite your purchase.
One way of preserving a legitimately purchased digital library is to support GOG, run by CD Projekt. The DRM-free nature of every game listed on the store means that once you download a title, you’ll be able to run it and own it on whatever hardware the title supports, forever.
However, the window this opens up for developers is the possibility of software piracy. But, that’s not stopped new titles from being released on the platform, with the upcoming RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 “coming soon” to GOG.
Sayem is a freelancer based in the UK, covering tech & hardware. You can get in touch with him at @sayem.zone on Bluesky.
