The Frustration of Game Launching: A Tale of Steam and Origin

Hello, fellow gamers!

Today, I want to share a rather perplexing conundrum I’ve faced while trying to enjoy some recently purchased games. I must admit, my journey through the labyrinth of tech support has left me feeling quite exasperated, so bear with me as I detail the challenges I’ve encountered. This isn’t a critique of the companies involved; I appreciate the courteous customer service I’ve received, even though it has unfortunately led me nowhere.

Here’s the situation: I bought three modern games through Steam, all of which my system can handle without issue. However, the catch is that these particular titles require the Origin client to run, as EA restricts their games from being executed directly through the Steam platform. This means that when I launch a game from Steam, it automatically redirects me to the Origin client—a minor annoyance at first glance.

What’s truly maddening is that Origin fails to recognize the games I have already installed on my hard drive through Steam. Despite the game being successfully present, Origin insists that I need to download it, presenting me with one of two frustrating scenarios:

1. If the game isn’t installed, it prompts an installation via Steam.
2. If it is already installed, it throws an error message indicating that the game failed to download, urging me to try again.

As a result, I found myself stuck in this perplexing loop. I reached out to customer support at EA, where a representative walked me through the usual uninstall and reinstall processes, along with some basic troubleshooting. Unfortunately, these steps were ultimately ineffective and only delayed my gaming experience—taking three whole days to redownload the game thanks to my sluggish internet connection.

Eventually, another EA rep guided me through some fixes on Steam’s end. I cleared my download cache and repaired the library folders, and to my relief, the Origin client finally acknowledged the game installation! But, just when I thought I was in the clear, a new obstacle surfaced: every attempt to launch the game resulted in a frustrating cycle where Origin simply wouldn’t start it. Instead, it initiated a first-time setup before… nothing happened. It would reset back to the Origin homepage without any resolution.

I even turned to Steam support for assistance, only to be told that I needed to consult with EA or pursue a refund—a losing battle since I had previously been denied a refund due to my slow internet delaying the download beyond the refund window. I