Dead Game News: EA Deletes User's Account Without Warning

[Cybershaman]

SidAlpha just posted an interesting video concerning an individual who discovered that his EA/Origin account was deleted along with all of his purchased games. At first, he couldn't get any help because, even though his profile page still partially came up, they saw no account details on their end and then just kind of dropped him, even deleting his support ticket. Long story short, he kind of got everything resolved eventually, but he was lucky that a moderator on Reddit caught wind of the fiasco and got in touch with a "real" (not just a generic level 1 customer support rep) person who could dive into things further. It appears that they had him create a new account and were in the process of manually adding back his games (sans microtransaction purchases and achievements) by having him provide transaction details for each one. This is just a taste of what's to come with regard to so-called "live services". You do NOT own the games you "purchase" through any of these services. I hope you guys find this as interesting (and chilling) as I do.

 

Linkage: "EA deleted an Origin Account And All Of A Person's Games" by SidAlpha on 08/12/2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu67uPlezCs

[BTGBullseye]

That's grounds for a lawsuit if he doesn't get absolutely everything back.

[Cybershaman]

That's grounds for a lawsuit if he doesn't get absolutely everything back.

 

It sounds like they are restoring everything he had recorded transactions for. Still, this is a cautionary tale for what will likely happen in the future. :/

[Alyxx Thorne]

Thankfully these instances are kinda rare, even if it's serious enough to make news, and I doubt it's something to worry about on a large scale.

[Cybershaman]

Thankfully these instances are kinda rare, even if it's serious enough to make news, and I doubt it's something to worry about on a large scale.

 

It's more of a reminder that the games we "own" on a digital distribution platform can go away without warning. Yes, this was an unusual case. Again, it's just a reminder that the games we've paid for will basically disappear if the service ever goes down in the future. We already have seen instances where older games have been removed from download. It's a point in favor of buying an actual physical copy. But, even that is becoming harder to do. Many "physical" game copies still download the entire game from places like Steam. We're heading for a day of reckoning. Sure, it might not be tomorrow or even within a few years. But, mark my words, within a decade or so, we're going to see a major snafu happen with a large digital distribution platform.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I've never had an incident where a game I own has been removed from my library, even after it's removed from the storefront.

 

The only thing I am still worried about are multiplayer games closing servers.