EA Is Killing Off Origin, But Also Your 32-Bit Gaming Collection

EA’s Origin app has always topped the charts of things no one wants to have, alongside venereal diseases. It’s finally being closed down forever, but sadly it’s not a clean, liberating break that will simply make everyone’s lives much easier—rather, it’s being fully replaced by the EA app, which also sucks. And also, only works on 64-bit machines. And EA will just delete access to all your games if you don’t make the switch.

Honestly, if you’re already on a 64-bit PC, there’s very little change here. The EA App is as clunky and frustrating as Origin ever was, a completely unnecessary obstacle between you and just double-clicking the icon for the game you want to play, but when you want to play Burnout Paradise for the 943rd time, it’s no more of an ordeal than it was before.

The real issues arrive if you’re running a 32-bit version of Windows or Mac

The number of people who will be affected will admittedly be small, but a small number of a very big number still means an awful lot of people will be scuppered. If you’re in this group, the games you already own on Origin—despite not changing in any way—will not be playable via the EA app, and given Origin’s going to absolutely stop working entirely in three months, if you don’t upgrade your machine, you’re not going to be able to play them at all.

If you’re on Windows 11, you’re good, as Microsoft never released a 32-bit version of that OS, but Windows 10 users prior to 2020 could still buy a 32-bit version of the software, and upgrading it is a real pain in the ass. It involves entirely formatting the hard disk on which Windows is installed, and reinstalling Windows in its 64-bit incarnation. (If you’re not sure which you have, this link will help.) And that means you’ll need a CPU which can do that. Fortunately, you almost definitely do (follow that previous link and look for “System type” in the Settings window it pops open, and you should hopefully see “64-bit operating system, x64-based processor”).

If you don’t, however, your PC is probably extremely elderly, and to carry on playing your EA games, you’ll need to completely upgrade the whole thing. Or more realistically, replace it. So yeah, if you’re still running a decrepit old PC because that’s what you can afford right now, you will no longer be able to play the EA games you thought you owned.

That sucks.