Hi there internet citizen!
Apologies in advance for the long-winded rant but I have exhausted the extent of corporate overlord sanctioned tech support scripting and have failed to resolve my issue. The following is not meant as a criticism of any brands or companies mentioned, and I must offer my commendation for the friendly customer service representatives I spoke to, but whilst they were well-intentioned, they were ultimately unhelpful.
In a nutshell, I have purchased and installed three fairly recent games on Steam – games that my system can run well. My first problem was that I had to run these games through Origin; EA won’t let Valve run their games through the Steam client, so whenever I try to launch it through Steam it automatically opens the Origin client. This in itself wouldn’t be more than a minor inconvenience, except that the Origin client will NOT recognise the game clearly installed on my harddrive. Because it is installed through Steam, the Origin client seems to think I still need to download the game, yet trying to then download the game through Origin results in one of two scenarios:
1) If not yet installed, will force install the game through Steam.
2) If already installed, says that the game could not be downloaded and to try again.
So, running the game presents me with this unusual and insurpassable obstacle. I explained my dilemma to an EA rep who guided me through the standard uninstall/re-install procedures and some basic troubleshooting. Predictably, this did nothing except delay me further as after uninstalling the game I had to wait three days for it to download again (thank the australian internet for that).
Eventually another EA rep helped me get one step further by guiding me through how to fix issues on STEAMS end… He advised that I should clear my download cache and repair the library folders on the Steam client, which I did. I then loaded everything back up again and SUCCESS(!) Origin no longer recognises that the game is not installed! It now just refuses to play it at all. Every time I click play it … does nothing? Starts doing a first time set up (through steam) and then just…. nothing. Resets the Origin client and takes me back to their home page and that’s it?
I also reached out to Steam support for help but they told me that they weren’t able to help – basically said I had to speak to EA or get a refund (despite me trying to get a refund in the past and being rejected because the aforementioned slow internet caused me to not finish downloading these games until their refund period had expired… this isnt the case for all of them, I am generalising, but still… i reached out for a solution, not a shoulder shrug). Makes me wonder why I can even purchase these games through Steam at all?
If anyone has experienced this same problem and can offer a more helpful solution I would be immensely grateful – even if you haven’t been able to fix it, at least I can feel validated in that it is not just me.
TLDR;
- Bought a game through Steam, requires Origin to run.
- Origin forces game to be installed via Steam, Steam forces game to be played via Origin.
- Origin won’t recognise install. Can’t play the game. Sadface.jpg
- Spoke to EA; couldn’t provide a workaround.
- Spoke to Steam; told me to speak to EA.
Actions attempted:
- Reinstalled game
- Reinstalled Origin client
- Tried running game in compatibility mode / as admin
- Verified game file integrity through Steam
- Cleared download cache through Steam
- Repaired library folders through Steam
- Modified game access pathway through Origin both directly to Steam directory and default Origin directory
- Beat head against desk
