Some players are finding themselves unable to access EA games on PlayStation and Xbox if their console accounts are tied to an EA account with an expired password.
The problem centres around the fact that many players created EA accounts in the distant past – for one reader who got in contact, it was over a decade ago – and tied it to an email address that has long since been shut down. For anyone with a now-abandoned school or work email, it’s a familiar story.
In such cases, when EA’s account system asks for a password reset, it can only send an email to that lost address.
All of this would be fine if you could unlink an EA account from your console profile and simply create a fresh EA account to play new games. But, as EA’s own customer support has told users impacted by this issue, this is not possible.
It’s a situation which leaves those affected with few options, other than creating a whole new console profile – something many would rather not do.
In response, EA has now acknowledged the problem, and told Eurogamer it is “actively” working to find a solution.
This situation is not new – there are multiple threads on EA’s own help forums dating back months and even years, highlighting it as an issue on both PlayStation and Xbox – but one which has been recently brought to light by a number of readers who have gotten in touch with Eurogamer.
It’s also likely this issue will only become more prevalent over time as people continue to try and revive older EA accounts while sticking to the same console profile.
One person told Eurogamer they were now attempting to get their old EA account unlinked from their console profile by submitting a GDPR Article 17 (Right To Be Forgotten) request to EA, in a bid to force the FIFA maker into deleting their old data. It’s unclear how successful this will be.