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EA Launcher is the worst PoS ever (DA:I on Steam Deck)

Cyberpunkd

Member
So I refuse to buy Mass Effect Legendary Edition since the EA Launcher is included, and I heard horror stories about it.

Fried Rice Cooking GIF by Nigel Ng (Uncle Roger)


Wife finished BG3 after 130 hours. I come home and she says she wants to play Veilguard or Inquisition next. My first thought was:

Are You High With Love GIF by Amazon Prime Video


But as a regular married bloke that enjoys regular sex I pushed that out of my mind and said: "I got Inquisition since a few years ago, let's try that first".

Season 6 Leslie GIF by Parks and Recreation


1. Turn on Steam Deck, notice Decky Loader I used to install GOG (and that can install EA App) is gone
2. Google, switch to Desktop, execute the installer again, switch back to Gaming Mode
3. Decky Loader is there, install EA App
4. Turn on EA App
5. Go through obligatory login via Steam Deck keyboard, navigate PoS app with no controller support (truth be told GOG is the same), install the game
6. Launch the game, noticed I cannot do anything with the controls
7. Google, find I need a dedicated Proton preset for this
8. Switch to Desktop, find the GitHub page with the Proton present (via a Steam Deck keyboard), install it, paste it into the hidden .steam folder, select the correct Proton compatibility, switch back to the game
9. Go through the EA login, turn on the controller
10. Quit game, reload, go through the login again, Google why I have to do this even when selecting "Remember Me"
11. Log in to EA App, go to Account Linking, get Desktop site loaded on mobile for some reason, navigate tiny menus to link my Steam account to EA Account
12. Log in the game again, all good

Hey EA:

Wolf Of Wall Street Goodbye GIF by Jordan Belfort


Happy weekend everyone!
 

Magic Carpet

Gold Member
I gave up on decky loader. It’s a Wild West kind of thing that dosnt seem to remember things after updates.
Nice when it works having a little side menu interface. But not worth the hassle imho.
 
You did well - I am pretty sure there are some EA games that will not load at all on Steam Deck because of the crappy launcher. EA just leaving money on the table.
 

GHG

Member
I take it you don't on the game via Steam and only do via the EA launcher (or whatever the fuck it's called these days?).

If you own it though steam then don't bother with any of that, just install the game in the regular SteamOS mode and it will handle everything for you. If not then use this:


 

xrnzaaas

Member
I'm surprised that Valve isn't trying to fight launchers and ban them for Steam games, not only to make the games compatible on Steam Deck (and their future devices), but also to look pro-consumer. They're in a very strong position and I think they could enforce this on the big corpos, rather than making them leave. Even Ubisoft decided to go back to Steam, because that's where the money is at.
 
I'm surprised that Valve isn't trying to fight launchers and ban them for Steam games, not only to make the games compatible on Steam Deck (and their future devices), but also to look pro-consumer. They're in a very strong position and I think they could enforce this on the big corpos, rather than making them leave. Even Ubisoft decided to go back to Steam, because that's where the money is at.
I thought valve being pro consumer was a meme.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
I take it you don't on the game via Steam and only do via the EA launcher (or whatever the fuck it's called these days?).

If you own it though steam then don't bother with any of that, just install the game in the regular SteamOS mode and it will handle everything for you. If not then use this:



I have it on EA / Origin account (bought it when it came out). I didn’t think I will ever play it when it was on sale for 4€ on Steam.
I'm surprised that Valve isn't trying to fight launchers and ban them for Steam games, not only to make the games compatible on Steam Deck (and their future devices), but also to look pro-consumer. They're in a very strong position and I think they could enforce this on the big corpos, rather than making them leave. Even Ubisoft decided to go back to Steam, because that's where the money is at.
Here surprisingly enough EA is going better than Ubisoft - Veilguard doesn’t have an EA account requirement, while Outlaws still forces you to link your account to Uplay. It’s that 10 year ago things were different.
 
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Reactions: GHG

winjer

Gold Member
Even on Windows, the EA launcher is a pile of crap.
No wonder it's even worse on the Steam Deck.
I wish companies like EA would star killing their own launchers, so consumers wouldn't have to deal with this mess.
 

DAHGAMING

Gold Member
This is my big issue with Steam Deck and the reason I went with the Ally X. I have tried DA:I aswell as I never got round to playing it and it runs great. Steam need to find a way around this and that anti cheat issue that makes games unplayable on the Deck, im sure they will though and when they do they will up there sales. Hope you find a good work around though, I love handheld gaming at the moment.
 

Braag

Member
Out of all the forced launchers, the EA app is easily the worst.
People dunk on Ubisoft Connect a lot, but at least that thing works, the EA app isn't even responsive half the time.
 

MMaRsu

Member
So I refuse to buy Mass Effect Legendary Edition since the EA Launcher is included, and I heard horror stories about it.

Fried Rice Cooking GIF by Nigel Ng (Uncle Roger)


Wife finished BG3 after 130 hours. I come home and she says she wants to play Veilguard or Inquisition next. My first thought was:

Are You High With Love GIF by Amazon Prime Video


But as a regular married bloke that enjoys regular sex I pushed that out of my mind and said: "I got Inquisition since a few years ago, let's try that first".

Season 6 Leslie GIF by Parks and Recreation


1. Turn on Steam Deck, notice Decky Loader I used to install GOG (and that can install EA App) is gone
2. Google, switch to Desktop, execute the installer again, switch back to Gaming Mode
3. Decky Loader is there, install EA App
4. Turn on EA App
5. Go through obligatory login via Steam Deck keyboard, navigate PoS app with no controller support (truth be told GOG is the same), install the game
6. Launch the game, noticed I cannot do anything with the controls
7. Google, find I need a dedicated Proton preset for this
8. Switch to Desktop, find the GitHub page with the Proton present (via a Steam Deck keyboard), install it, paste it into the hidden .steam folder, select the correct Proton compatibility, switch back to the game
9. Go through the EA login, turn on the controller
10. Quit game, reload, go through the login again, Google why I have to do this even when selecting "Remember Me"
11. Log in to EA App, go to Account Linking, get Desktop site loaded on mobile for some reason, navigate tiny menus to link my Steam account to EA Account
12. Log in the game again, all good

Hey EA:

Wolf Of Wall Street Goodbye GIF by Jordan Belfort


Happy weekend everyone!

And thats before even playing that horrible 'game'.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Veilguard is Deck verified so shouldn't have any of those issues. Playing older and/or unsupported games can indeed be more troublesome, if not impossible, but that's what you signed up for with the device.
 
Last edited:

Cyberpunkd

Member
Veilguard is Deck verified so shouldn't have any of those issues. Playing older and/or unsupported games can indeed be more troublesome, if not impossible, but that's what you signed up for with the device.
Veilguard has no EA App integration to begin with, they removed it.
 

Hrk69

Member
I’ve been using it for years as a dedicated FIFA player, and I can confirm that OP is absolutely right. This thing is the worst.

What’s even more frustrating is that after all these years, there’s been zero improvement
 

TheStam

Member
EA App is so annoying on Steam Deck. Epic, Battle.net, Ubi-whatever are managable. But that piece of shit app is not, while Origin worked fine.

I was midway through ME Legendary Edition when they closed Origin and forced you to use EA app. Since then every update broke the EA App and I wasn't even able to access the app or uninstall the 100+ GB (mandatory install of all 3 ME games). Got bored of it and formatted the whole Steam Deck and reinstalled everything. Next update the same thing happened.

The Steam Deck is amazing for Steam Games and Streaming, but that experience was awful.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Good news everyone, the wife looked at Veilguard reviews, judged it to be crap. She is going to at least try Inquisition.

What can I get her if she loved the Witcher series and (less so) BG3? Best if it doesn't require twitch reflexes?
 
Good news everyone, the wife looked at Veilguard reviews, judged it to be crap. She is going to at least try Inquisition.

What can I get her if she loved the Witcher series and (less so) BG3? Best if it doesn't require twitch reflexes?
Baldurs Gate 2 and DA Origins.

Skyrim and Fallout 4.

You know, the big ones.
 

MMaRsu

Member
Good news everyone, the wife looked at Veilguard reviews, judged it to be crap. She is going to at least try Inquisition.

What can I get her if she loved the Witcher series and (less so) BG3? Best if it doesn't require twitch reflexes?

I mean Assassins Creed Odyssey maybe. There aren't a lot of games like Witcher series. Maybe Cyberpunk

Baldurs Gate 2 and DA Origins.

Skyrim and Fallout 4.

You know, the big ones.

Fallout 4 is absolute trashfire.
 
Last edited:

Complistic

Member
I got inquisition working great on the steam deck (played it for about an hour before remembering I hated it) and I'm pretty sure you just need to toggle on the experimental proton release for it.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I have ME Legendary on Steam Deck in Steam and it works fine. Works great actually. Literally the only EA Play thing I see is a very brief load on the Vulkan Shader screen.

Whats the big fucking deal? Its pretty out of the way.
 

justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
Donald Trump GIF by Election 2016


I also played Diablo 4. Even though it also has a Battle.net launcher the implementation is miles ahead of EA.
It's almost like diablo 4 was released after steam Deck was released and dragon age released before.

Every step you described sounds like very basic troubleshooting every PC gamer has to go through when first booting a game. Steam made a lot of pc gamers to lazy to be a PC gamer.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Every step you described sounds like very basic troubleshooting every PC gamer has to go through when first booting a game. Steam made a lot of pc gamers to lazy to be a PC gamer.
I have been gaming to 30 years, primarily on PC. I know the ups and downs of tech troubleshooting. This is not it, if anything it got worse with time.
 

HogIsland

Member
At the time of the "EA Spouse" post and peak community hate for EA, they still made some of the best games in their entire history. At the moment, there's almost nothing good I can say about them.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
The other day I tried to boot up the Steam version of ME Trilogy on my Deck. Yeah, that didn’t go well and I didn’t feel like troubleshooting this shit for several more hours.

It is ridiculous.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
ME Legendary works spectacularly on my Deck. I occasionally have to sign in to the launcher when I first boot it, but that's all. Burnout Paradise Remastered on the other hand only works one out of 10 times.
 
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