Live Chat Support lied to me, and Steam+Origin In-game lockup issue

[RolandHazoto]

While reporting on case number #63426736 (https://help.ea.com/en/my-cases/?id=5002S00001Chzb2QAB) I was told there is Email support when chat is offline, but there isn't. I have no option at all for email on ea.help.com, it only suggest Answers HQ and says Chat is offline. So the tech support guy responding to me from the case I am trying to update lied to me.

Moving on I would like to update my previous case.
To best summarize the situation I'm going to quote myself and add the update:

I have been using Steam to launch Origin games for years for the controller support. As of a few months ago one of the Origin updates caused it to crash launching games if Steam overlay and Origin In-game were both enabled. So I disbaled origin in-game and continued to enjoy the ability to play my games with my controller. Recently I discovered without Origin In-game I cannot join friends or create parties in games like Titanfall 2 or Battlefront 2. To make sure it wasn't something with my software, I purchased Titanfall 2 a second time via Steam. Steam overlay and Origin In-game worked flawlessly together there. So I tried again on my non-Steam games and they crashed. So I'm left with 3 choices, I either buy all my games a second time just so I can play with my friends and use controller support, have controller support but no ability to play with friends because no Origin In-game, or not play Origin games at all.
Update: As of the newest version of Origin and Steam instead of the game crashing it hardlocks all input and I can do nothing but alt-tab and force close the game via task manager. Keyboard doesn't respond, mouse moves around screen but doesn't click, and controller doesn't respond. Game just plays vids till the main menu then sits at menu unless I force close it.
Still works fine if i disable Origin in-game.
And when I talked to Steam about this after the last case they said it's you guys (like I thought it was before ever even contacting you guys but your low level guy refused to listen to me, god forbid a customer has 20 years in tech support) I'm attaching their reply so you guys stop pushing it off on them and address the issue you broke

[EA_Darko]

Hey @RolandHazoto does the game launch and work without issue if you launch it from Origin?

If you are using a third-party launcher to run an EA game that you own in Origin then you can run into issues such as this. The best thing we can recommend is to launch the game from Origin rather than using Steam to launch it.

Just to add, contact options may change based on your issue, as such if your issue requires that you speak with live support then the option to email may not be present. 

Darko 

[RolandHazoto]

Doing that means I can't use my controller.
You seem to be overlooking the entire reason I am launching the games through Steam. Yes obviously they launch fine through Origin, but that completely ignores the fact the Origin In game works fine with Steam Purchased games, but if you own those EXACT SAME games outside of Steam they no longer work.
And the biggest point of it all IT WORKED FOR YEARS WITHOUT ANY ISSUES AT ALL.

And for the record, due to physical disabilities, I play every game with a controller because it's the only way I can without pain. Steam allows me to map things as I need and is more of an Accessibility Tool than a choice. In other words in order for me to play EA games I have to launch them via Steam. (yes there are other tools out there but none of them have certain features like chords, action layers, mode shifting, negative deadzone, negative outer rings, etc.)

This is only an issue because of Origin in-game being required to play with friends. Games run fine if I disable it but I can't play with friends then. If I could at the very least join friends from the main Origin window by alt-tabbing I could workaround this but for some reason that's not a thing. At the end of the day this is something that needs fixed, because you (Origin dev team) suddenly and abruptly started screwing over fans all because you wanted to make a special Lite launcher for the Steam games. (This all started just a few months or so before the Steam re-launch and they play nice if bought on Steam and suddenly don't if not)

Like if you think I'm letting this go I'm not. I spent hundreds on games I can no longer comfortably play? Yea, OHkay. And on top of it I even bought one of them a second time JUST to test and make sure it wasn't a software conflict on my end. So no, it won't be as simple as "just stop using Steam"

You can pass this on to the team

btw @EA_Darko thank you for explaining that. I suspected that and tried a few of the options that I could kinda shoehorn it technically falling under, but none gave me an email option. I guess I just didn't get lucky enough to pick the right one

[EA_Darko]

Hey @RolandHazoto when using third party software in this way to launch a game you can run into all kinds of issues as the game is meant to run through Origin and not Steam. I understand the reasons why you use Steam to launch the games and I've raised this with the Origin team to look into and will let you know what I find out. 

Darko

[RolandHazoto]

You realize even games that can do both have issues here?
Titanfall 2 was having the issue.
I bought it a second time on Steam and it was no longer having the issue.
So why are the devs changing the way the overlay hooks when they don't have to? (and again it was working fine just in December for example where I could use both without any issue, and ONLY changed right before the Steam re-launch) Yes obviously issues can come up, it's called developer error for 0 gains. (especially when given there's no functional difference at all between the Steam origin and the non-steam Orgin) I'm starting to get the impression it's Origins company policy to pretend they can do no wrong when everyone is saying they are doing wrong. Just stop man. It's weird.
I'm just here to tell the dev team what they broke and hopefully they either fix it or come back with a workaround I haven't already tried. Did you miss the part in my first post where I said I've been in tech support for 20 years? And you're still talking to me like a child? C'mon man. Just pass the messages along since your silly company won't allow me to email them.

[EA_Darko]

Hey @RolandHazoto as I advised you above, I have raised this with the team to look into. 

I took a look there and I am not seeing other reports of this issue so it may be a system issue that you are having, have you ensured that your firewall and anti-virus, for example, are not interfering with Origin or Steam. Is it possible to try using a different network, even using your phone as a hotspot and connecting using mobile data can help narrow down the cause of an issue.

If you can let me know what troubleshooting your tried that would be great as the more info we have the better we can help.

Darko

[RolandHazoto]

IF it's a system or software issue on my end why did it work fine when I bought Titanfall 2 a second time entirely just to test that?

And no, obviously nothing has changed on my end or I would have looked into that first. Same network, hardware, OS, etc.

And no one else is probably reporting it because most people either did what I did at first and waited a bit to see if Origin just fixes it one day, or they switched to Joy2Key or DS4Windows, or one of the many other feature-lacking controller mapping options. And now that you guys re-released on Steam you're not going to get reports, because the few people that are like me and want to run their Origin games through Steam probably just bought them all on Steam with the new sales.

I stopped waiting for this to just get fixed one day when I saw this was still an issue after the Steam releases because I'm aware I'm becoming more and more of an edge case user.

SO here I am, making very sure your dev team gets  the point, as right now I own 39 EA games, and my controller natively works with like 2 of them. Subtracting the other 2 I already owned on Steam, that mean's there's 35 games in my Origin library I used to be able to play no problem that I can no longer play with inflicting pain on myself. (wait, I lied 5 of them are single-player, so I don't need Origin In Game for anything and can disable it for those 5.) Well, or play alone forever and never join my friends, since the only thing I'm losing by disabling Origin in-game is the joining friends.

[EA_Darko]

Hey @RolandHazoto I normally never post outside of my work hours but I was playing some Rage 2 and thinking of your issue so decided to reinstall Titanfall 2 and test how it is working for me when launched through Steam. Now it's not fully installed but it is playable and as such, I added it to my Steam account and launched it from Steam. I have both the Steam and Origin overlays enabled and when I tested in the main menu I was able to use Origin In-Game without any issues. You can see from the images below that my friend's list is working as it should and I was able to navigate the menus, launch the campaign and play the game with Origin In-Game working without any issues. I also tried it with a couple of other EA games and didn't run into any issues with having both Origin In-Game and the Steam overlay running at the same time. 

If you let me know what controller you are using then if I own the same one I can test it to see if it works for me, I've about 10 different controllers here that I'll test with a couple of my EA games through Steam tomorrow. 

It may be no harm to grab me a DxDiag so that I can take a look at your system to see what I can see: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

If Titanfall 2 and Battlefront 2 are fully installed after I finish up playing Rage 2 in a bit then I'll test them again through Steam to see if I see any issue.

Darko

[RolandHazoto]

Hmm. That's curious. To answer your question, it's a Dualshock 4, model CUH-ZCT2U. It is connected via a bluetooth adapter wirelessly NOT the Official Sony Dongle.

Honestly I'm kind of speechless it just worked for you. Like I wouldn't have bought Titanfall 2 on Steam when I already owned it otherwise, but I did so to eliminate my end, and it went a little something like this: Couldn't get TF2 working with both overlays, made sure Steam version was working for roommate, bought game on Steam and installed immediately. Made absolutely no changes and did not restart, tested Steam version worked fine. Again with no changes made I go back to Origin, this time launching SWBF2, since I couldn't test with TF2 anymore, and the issue persisted.

Anyway, DXdiag is attached.
I'm on the verge of making a Youtube vid of all this happening just to like show you guys it's weird. And I run a VERY tight ship with only the background processes I use runnning, no bloatware or software monitoring or RGB/fan controls, none of that jazz. Just what is essential and needed for properly functioning hardware (which as you're about to see in DXDiag, none of that is weird either)

Edit: Also, thank you for taking that time outside of your hours. I do appreciate it

[EA_Darko]

Couple of errors showing their @RolandHazoto nothing major but no harm in running the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files:https://support.microsoft.com/en-ie/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-o...

Can you try connecting your controller to your PC using a cable to see if you see the same issue? Can you also try using your phone as a hotspot and connect your system to mobile data to see if you see the same issue? No harm checking for any updates for your GPU, yours is from May so while it's not essential there's no harm in it. 

You mentioned a roommate, I assume that you are both connected to the same network, can you try the games both when your roommate is online and when their system is offline to see if there is any difference. I think that from everything so far this issue is a system or network issue so really it's a case of trying to narrow down the cause and work from there, as such some of my suggestions may seem a little simplistic but bear with me.

Darko