EA account linking to a new Xbox Account

[tmase83]

Hi,

I have an EA account, have had so for years. I have a reasonable amount of paid content on it, 20+ titles.

I also have an Xbox Game Pass for PC subscription and have been eagerly awaiting access to the EA Play library since it was announced last year.

The EA play content comes up on my Xbox Game pass for PC as being available, that's great! Looks like I have to install a Beta of EA Desktop which appears to be replacing Origin. Fine I guess, another launcher, but hopefully it will play nice with GOG Galaxy 2.0.

Go to sign in and it tells me that my EA account is already linked to a different Xbox Account. I have to think about this as I don't recognise it, then I recall this is an old, old, Xbox account from when I had an Xbox 360. I don't ever recall linking this to my EA account, but no big deal, or so I thought, I'll unlink this old Xbox account that I don't use and link it to my current Xbox Game Pass for PC account that I use and pay a subscription for when I log back in.

No dice, I know see a message that says I can't link my EA account with my current Xbox account because it has previously linked to another Xbox account in the past.

 So I think this is a bit odd, I know I can't merge my Xbox accounts, the old one with the new, I've been down this road with Microsoft before. So maybe I think I'll create a new EA account and link this with my current Xbox Game Pass account and then have that merged to my current EA Account - the one with all my content.

Time to head to help.ea.com - I have a lengthy discussion with someone on the chat. Apparently, no, they cannot merge a new EA account with my existing EA account because I have linked my existing EA account with Steam. This happened out of necessity I think when I purchased EA content on Steam last year.

Okay, so maybe I can have my existing EA account signed into Origin and the new account signed into EA Desktop Beta? Nope, the credentials are shared.

So creating a new EA account won't help.

Okay, maybe tech support can assist me with linking my current EA account with my current Xbox Game Pass account? No, this is restricted because I have at some point in the past linked my EA account with an Xbox account, one that I don't use.

I asked the tech support rep about this restriction, what is the reasoning behind this restriction, will this restriction be reviewed in the future, and if so will I be contacted about this?

I was informed that I should make a post here.

I am a bit frustrated by the experience. It seems like an arbitrary restriction, all I want is to access all my EA content in one place, the stuff I paid for and the EA Play content I am entitled to with my Xbox Game Pass for PC subscription. Two EA accounts is not the answer, especially as I own multiple devices and EA Desktop Beta and Origin share credentials.

Can anyone help with this? Who can I contact regarding this restriction?

I know I might be a bit of an edge case, but I figure that with the EA Play content available through Xbox Game Pass for PC now that I can't be the only person in this predicament. 

Thanks

[AssassinXDAhmed · Accepted solution]

I had the same issue today, I had a live chat with EA Help Agent and he told me to unlink my old account link your new account.

I tried to convince him that I can't link another account to this account due to EA terms but he insisted to do it. I unlinked my old account and I told him what I should do next.

He told me wait and I waited. after literally one minute he told me to try to link my new account and it magically LINKED. I wanted to thank him but he closed the case and marked it as "Fixed". His name is Ajay M.

[thekurse]

I am in the exact same boat.  My EA account is 13 years old and I have a decent amount of purchases on it (was an avid Battlefield player, my fiancé loves the Sims, I've enjoyed some of the latest Star Wars offerings as well as the occasional sports game).  I understand that this restriction is in place for security reasons, but the inability to EVER change the linked account for the lifetime of the EA account for ANY reason is insane.  The chat agent told me "You may try to link your new Gamertag with an another EA Account as there is no way to link it with the same EA Account." which is basically "Create a burner EA account so you can use EA Play".  What good can this honestly do?  This makes it so I will never spend a dime on DLC for any game in EA Play as I do not want to have to worry about security on yet another account (I already have to keep an eye on: EA, Ubisoft, Steam, EGS, Xbox, GOG, and Blizzard... now I add a SECOND EA account to that... no way).  It also makes it so if I ever cancel EA Play I won't be able to carry over my progress to games that I may end up wanting to buy after my membership ends therefore... I won't buy games on the burner account.

This kind of policy makes me never want to spend another cent on an EA product considering the awful customer service. Googling this issue turns up stuff from as far back as 2016 so I'm not too hopeful this will ever change and that the "feedback" will always go to their "teams" (aka the recycle bin).  

If anyone has been able to find an agent somewhere in the labyrinth of EA support that is actually willing and able to help them with this... please let us know. 

Chat transcript for those that are curious (I didn't want to put the chat agent on blast or anything so I just replaced their name): 

( 31m 39s ) Agent: Thank you for contacting EA HELP, my name is Agent, may I start with your first name please?

( 31m 49s ) Visitor: Hi Agent, my name is ____

( 32m 2s ) Agent: Hello ____, hope you are doing good. How may I help you today ?

( 33m 23s ) Visitor: I am attempting to link my Xbox Gamepass PC account to my EA account to activate EA Play. Unfortunately when I first attempted to link them, my EA account was linked to an old Xbox account that I no longer have access to. I unlinked the Xbox account and attempted to link to my new account and it is telling me I can only have one Xbox account linked in my EA account's lifetime.

( 33m 51s ) Agent: I see, thank you for confirming the issue.

( 34m 2s ) Agent: I will share the correct details about this issue.

( 34m 41s ) Agent: I would like to let you know that a player can link only one console ID (One Gamertag in Xbox console) on an EA account.

( 35m 9s ) Agent: If they unlink a Gamertag and try to link the another Gamertag on the same EA Account, it will not work.

( 36m 44s ) Visitor: I understand that but I do not have access to my old Xbox account. There is no way to link my new Xbox account to my EA account at all?

( 37m 36s ) Agent: You may try to link your new Gamertag with an another EA Account as there is no way to link it with the same EA Account.

( 38m 4s ) Agent: Thanks for understanding.

( 38m 5s ) Visitor: Even though all of my Origin purchases are on my current EA account? That seems like an incredibly restrictive policy.

( 39m 38s ) Visitor: That also really incentivizes me to no longer purchase anything through EA's storefront if I'm going to have to juggle multiple EA accounts.

( 40m 16s ) Agent: I can understand but unfortunately there is no option to link the another Gamertag on the same EA Account but if you want, I can take this as a feedback and share it with my team.

( 41m 28s ) Visitor: Feel free. I will also be sure to share this with my connected social platforms. This policy is not well communicated and honestly if there is no way to fix this for people like me with legitimate use cases it seems like EA's apps should be avoided.

( 42m 26s ) Agent: I totally understand your point and be assured, I will share your feedback from my end.

( 42m 27s ) Agent: Please let me know if I can help you with anything else.

( 42m 39s ) Visitor: Nope that was all. Have a good day.

[tmase83]

I don't even fully see the security implications of linking a new account. I mean there is a six month cool down period relating to unlinking the same account twice;

"Once you unlink a platform account from your EA Account and link it to a new one, you cannot unlink it again for six months. Make sure unlinking is the best choice for you and that you understand the risks before you follow these steps." - https://help.ea.com/en/help/account/unlink-gaming-accounts-from-ea-account/

I can't see why this same six month cool down period couldn't apply to linking a new Xbox account to an EA account that has previously had an Xbox account linked. i.e. One xbox account every six months per EA account.

I'm sure there are other like us out there. Probably dozens!

Let me know if you get a resolution

[thekurse]

I guess I don't really even understand why "unlinking" is an option if you can't link a new account.  Do people just unlink and never use that service ever again?   It's baffling.

I will definitely let you know if my yelling on social media or here uproots anything.  So far it looks like EA's "official" channels are useless.

[EA_Jason]

It says that you can unlink an account and link a new account, but you won't be able to link another account for 6 months @thekurse.

Are you having trouble linking a new account after you unlinked your account?

[PlutoniusX]

I have the same issue. When EA Play was added to the Game Pass on Xbox I installed EA Play on it which must have created a sort of "ghost EA account" and linked to it, I can't even see details of this account in EA Play since it sends me to the Xbox account instead.

When I try to link on my EA Desktop account I get the message that it's already linked. If I remove the link on my Microsoft account, EA Play on Xbox keeps on working, so it seems that only appears when I link it on PC, so removing it from the MS account doesn't work either.

This is a pretty obvious use case and EA will get more and more users with this issue, so they should develop a solution ASAP.

[tastyjerk]

I'm having the same issue as well. The rep I talked to was actually very helpful and was trying to link the correct accounts together after unlinking my other accounts, but it seems like even he was unable to at this point. He told me he was treating it as a bug report for now and I should check back in a week. I'm thankful he was helpful but what a strange headache all of this is. I'm excited to use EA Play with my Xbox Game Pass but it seems like I may never get to use my actual EA account at this point.

[EA_Jason]

@PlutoniusX Are you certain that you didn't link an account previously?

Whenever you launch an EA game for the first time on Xbox, it will ask you to create an EA Account.

You can log in with your Xbox account through EA Help and check which EA Account was linked to your Xbox account.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/im-locked-out-of-my-ea-account/

[Qrusher14242]

@thekurseThe only reason i can see is to unlink and relink to a new EA account. I wish it would have a big warning when saying you could never link another Xbox account. I don't get the point either, i have access to my email and access to all accounts involved, who cares if i link another xbox to an EA account?? just a baffling choice to limit it to 1 account ever.

@EA_Jason I did see one way i could maybe get it linked was to launch an EA game on an xbox console, but i dont own a current gen one. I mean, i have a 360, but not sure any of those EA games servers still work or if i could get it working again. So that probably wouldn't work. 

How was issue not foreseen? You would think this would have come up in the testing stages, but who knows.

[thekurse]

@EA_Jason 

I linked Xbox Account #1 to my EA Account 10 years ago.  I no longer access Xbox Account #1, and have used Xbox Account #2 (which has numerous purchases and my Gamepass attached to it) for some time.  When I went to link Xbox Account #2 to my EA account, it told me Xbox Account #1 was already linked.  So I unlinked Xbox Account #1 and attempted to link Xbox Account #2 and it is telling me I may only EVER link Xbox Account #1 to my EA account.  When I went onto chat and asked for the ability to link Xbox Account #2 I was told that it wasn't possible and that my best course of action was to link Xbox Account #2 to a new EA Account (essentially EA Account #2).  What I am saying is that is unacceptable considering all of my Origin purchases and credit card information are on my current EA Account and opening a second one just to utilize my EA Play benefits on Xbox Account #2 is ridiculous. 

So yes.  I am having problems linking Xbox Account #2 to my EA Account because it is telling me that I may ONLY EVER link Xbox Account #1 to it, even though I no longer ever use that Xbox Account and have essentially shut it down.   Nowhere has it said "Wait 6 months" and your chat agent told me the same: that I may only ever link ONE Xbox Account to my EA Account for the LIFETIME of my EA Account.  

EDIT: I've attached an image of the error I get when I attempt to link Xbox Account #2 to my EA Account.