EA Is Shutting Down Origin—Switch by April 17 or Lose Games
Published On: January 22, 2025
Electronic Arts (EA) has officially announced that it’s pulling the plug on its Origin PC client on April 17, 2025. This isn’t exactly a shocker—EA has been nudging players toward their EA app for a while now. But with Microsoft ending support for 32-bit software, the transition is no longer just a suggestion. If you want to keep playing your EA games, you’ll need to swap over to the EA app, which only works on 64-bit systems.
Origin, which launched back in 2011, was EA’s attempt at a dedicated digital storefront. It had a solid run, but let’s be real—it was never anyone’s favorite launcher. In 2020, EA announced plans to replace it with the EA app, and by 2022, that shift had already started rolling out. Now, with the official shutdown date locked in, it’s time to say goodbye to Origin for good.
I haven’t used Origin in a while—probably not since Apex Legends first launched—but I remember it being pretty clunky. So in some ways, this change might be for the better. That said, the EA app has its fair share of problems too. When launching EA games through Steam, it sometimes feels like the two can’t decide who’s in charge, making simple things like adding friends way more complicated than they should be. Half the time, the EA launcher feels like it’s just one click away from crashing.
If you’re still running Origin, EA says the switch to the EA app should be relatively painless—assuming your system meets the requirements. The new app needs a 64-bit operating system, meaning you’ll need to be on Windows 10 or 11. If you have cloud saves enabled, your game data should transfer over automatically. But here’s the catch: mods might not make the jump. EA suggests checking with mod creators to see if their content will still work after the switch.
This transition poses challenges for users operating on 32-bit systems, as the EA app does not support older architectures. Consequently, these gamers will need to upgrade their hardware to continue accessing their EA game libraries.