EA account linking to a new Xbox Account

[Mephiston]

No, it is not a policy because of Microsoft. If anything it started with their re-partnership with Steam/Valve.

The Spiffing Brit made $3000+ dollars selling grey keys of spore on G2A by exploiting EAPlay on steam, where you could generate keys constantly and then sell them.

This was, presumably, a measure employed to stop that from happening, as you had to link your account multiple times in order for the exploit to work.

IT is silly that customer service are unable to help people in these edge cases (like they used to) and I do genuinely hope they can come to an agreement with everyone.

[-6thAD-Bogard]

The policy isn't because of their partnership with Microsoft, the number of users with legitimate complaints about said policy has become an issue because of their new partnership with Microsoft. If we weren't losing out on EA Play, none of us would care about linking our EA and MS accounts.

[thekurse]

---

@Mephiston wrote:

I have given up and I'm getting my old account transferred to a new account. Kat from @EAHelp has been super helpful

We can thank people like the spiffing brit for this policy. IT's there to prevent people generating thousands of keys to sell on scummy sites like G2A by exploiting the linking system, for anyone that's wondering.

---

Spiffing Brit exploits badly designed systems.  If this is the case then they need to hire better architects and engineers.  "Solving" the problem this way is like doing brain surgery with a shotgun.  It is very similar to anti-piracy measures like Denuvo that while yes, limit piracy, also harm legitimate customers in the process. 

[Mephiston]

---

@thekurse wrote:

---

@Mephiston wrote:

I have given up and I'm getting my old account transferred to a new account. Kat from @EAHelp has been super helpful

We can thank people like the spiffing brit for this policy. IT's there to prevent people generating thousands of keys to sell on scummy sites like G2A by exploiting the linking system, for anyone that's wondering.

---

Spiffing Brit exploits badly designed systems.  If this is the case then they need to hire better architects and engineers.  "Solving" the problem this way is like doing brain surgery with a shotgun.  It is very similar to anti-piracy measures like Denuvo that while yes, limit piracy, also harm legitimate customers in the process. 

---

Yep, I agree with you. I'm just explaining that this is most likely why they changed it, and that they have not addressed the issue just yet (it was a recent change, as @EA_Jason has said.

[-6thAD-Bogard]

I wouldn't care about that being the solution if they could manually override it when there are legitimate reasons to.

[thekurse]

---

@Mephiston wrote:

---

@thekurse wrote:

---

@Mephiston wrote:

I have given up and I'm getting my old account transferred to a new account. Kat from @EAHelp has been super helpful

We can thank people like the spiffing brit for this policy. IT's there to prevent people generating thousands of keys to sell on scummy sites like G2A by exploiting the linking system, for anyone that's wondering.

---

Spiffing Brit exploits badly designed systems.  If this is the case then they need to hire better architects and engineers.  "Solving" the problem this way is like doing brain surgery with a shotgun.  It is very similar to anti-piracy measures like Denuvo that while yes, limit piracy, also harm legitimate customers in the process. 

---

Yep, I agree with you. I'm just explaining that this is most likely why they changed it, and that they have not addressed the issue just yet (it was a recent change, as @EA_Jason has said.

---

Well let's hope that if enough customers continue to bring the issue to their attention that they move the story up in their sprint backlog.  At the very least they need to enable the ability for their support staff to well... support us legitimate customers in this matter.  Seems like if they kept the policy but allowed support engineers to override it it would solve this issue.  It'd be pretty obvious if someone is gaming the system if the support staff looked at their ticket list and saw 389 cases all about linking Xbox accounts. 

[-6thAD-Bogard]

I just hope it doesn't get swept under the rug because hey it's only affecting a small number of legacy accounts, and they're only long time customers. Why bother helping us? I don't think we're trying to change EA policy so much as trying to get them to make an acception. These dumb rules apparently didn't even exist when I linked my derelict Xbox account. The number of people who have given up and made a second account probably outnumber the number of people still hoping for a result.

They have to see how inconvenient that is. I don't even have a secondary email so I'd need that too. And then I'd need to swap accounts with 2FA everytime I wanted to play a different game. I mean.... COME ON.

[Zirocks]

For me, the only reason why this "system" is in place is to avoid people to have unlimited 1$ Gamepass to their EA account ( link GP with first month 1$ to EA, unlink at the end and link another one etc ... ) but this does not excuse their lack of support and tool to help us.

This problem should obviously be fixed in chat or call, I mean we're not pirate or trying to exploit their system, we're just legit users blocked by a nearly decade old account linking to a fresh new system...

[tmase83]

So it seems the 'technical limitation' was not one inherent in EA's account management system and needs to be overcome, but rather one that they have deliberately thrown up. I'm damned if I am making a second account, that kind of thing really grates me. I've said before that a bunch of duplicate accounts would serve to inflate EA's platform user numbers, maybe in this case in an insignificant way, but I am sure it looks better for EA to have an inflated number of users.

My experience with EA products goes back to LHX Attack Chopper in 1991, I've played every Battlefield Game since BF:1942, including BF:Vietnam, except BF Bad Company 1 (ironically because it was a console only launch and back then I didn't own one). I was one of the people that bought Hardline for goodness sake! The godawful state that BF4 launched in back in 2013 (https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-19-ea-addresses-unacceptable-battlefield-4-launch)  was probably the reason I decided I tried an EA product on console in the first place and had this bloody linking business come up in the first place. (If I recall it was terrible on console too - I glitched through the deck of that sinking aircraft carrier on single player one too many times and gave up in disgust)

My Origin library only tells part of the story of my relationship with EA's products. I am not making a second account to workaround some arbitrary restriction that they have placed in the system.

They could look at the age of the accounts in question, everyone here has mature accounts with lots of content on both sides and apply some judgement. I'm not trying to game the system, and I am sure that they could implement a process to weed out people who are.

The support ticket history seems obvious @thekurse , an annual or 6 monthly restriction on linking another Xbox account to your EA account, similar to unlinking is another, making the process only possible through a support agent who can verify the account activity. Nothing about this is insurmountable.

[Mephiston]

---

@Zirocks wrote:

For me, the only reason why this "system" is in place is to avoid people to have unlimited 1$ Gamepass to their EA account ( link GP with first month 1$ to EA, unlink at the end and link another one etc ... ) but this does not excuse their lack of support and tool to help us.

This problem should obviously be fixed in chat or call, I mean we're not pirate or trying to exploit their system, we're just legit users blocked by a nearly decade old account linking to a fresh new system...

---

That is an assumption born from frustration of a system that is not working as intended, in an unforseen circumstance. It is really unfortunate, yes, and this whole thing could be better explained as being a "beta" system, rather than a full working live system.

There is a limit to what CSRs can do when the system is engineered poorly and not able to adapt to current requirements, which is the case here.

Remember, this single account lockdown was a recent change for the reasons outlined earlier. I'm not excusing it in the slightest, as like I said before, I had to migrate to an entirely new account to get both working, thereby losing access to well over a decade's worth of saved games, online history, and the like, but hopefully like others have said this issue gains enough traction so that they can change the system.

System changes are slow, and usually need a body of evidence to back them up before they are implemented. The evidence is growing with everyone that complains here, but it won't be done overnight.

Hopefully soon though.