Error 524 This account is not able to play online

[SykeV3]

Obviously this has not been resolved as my son got battlefront 2 for Xmas and he can’t play it. EA you are not my child’s parent so please resolve this as it is a joke.

[SantaClaus45678]

@EA_Joker

That link you provided to EA's support for child accounts (https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/give-your-child-access-to-games-on-their-child-account/) is helpful.  But I find it to be misleading information from EA.  

EA implies that "child accounts" are a legal issue and that they are simply following the law.  But their implementation in Battlefront 2 doesn't do that.  

1) They are not looking at accountholder age in Xbox; they are simply using the child indicator.   There are many accounts that are designated "child" in Xbox that are above the COPPA age designation (13) in the US.  I'd guess most of Battlefront 2's target demo falls in that bucket.  My older son certainly does.

2) They are ignoring parental permissions in Xbox, despite EA's own guidance that parental permissions can be used to fix this.  You can set access to 15+ and set all your child account permissions as open, but Origin still won't recognize the child account as an online participant.  So EA is actively offering incorrect help on this, both online and through their call support.

3) They are ignoring game-level permissions in Battlefront 2 specifically.  FIFA 18, another EA title, shows up in Xbox with a game level exception so that child accounts can play the game without problems.  Battlefront 2 does not do this.

4) They certainly aren't offering refunds for the significant portion of online content that isn't accessible by the game's target audience.

The reasons for this are readily apparent in my view:  EA doesn't want the potential liability of minors playing Battlefront 2 while the loot box gambling accusations are still being kicked around by US regulators.  So they've just locked out everyone under 18, the legal age for gambling permissions in the US.  It's easy for EA, but it's a terrible indicator of the regard EA has for its customers.

I completely agree that EA isn't going to fix this anytime soon and that it is purposeful, not a bug.  Parents can of course set up pretend alternate adult accounts for their kids and access the Battlefront 2 online content.  But that is a challenge for pre-existing child accounts with substantial time investment, it cuts around Microsoft's parental permissions system which is actually of some value, and it's quasi-legal.  (That last is why I'm not posting how to do that here),

More on this in the Bug Reports section: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Xbox-Attempt-to-connect-to-online-error-code-524/td-p/6431848/...

[yp2dprpa7ja3]

Does the issue resolve itself when the child turns 13? My son will be 13 in a couple of months, so he can probably wait that long to play. A little patience by him may be easier than all the changes it looks like we'll have to make so he can play the game on-line.

[Wanamatran05]

I have an account with no restrictions but I am still having this problem.

PLEASE HELP!

[TrendyNinja]

After spending well over 4hrs yesterday trying to sort this for my 11yr old lad I finally conceded to defeat and got a refund from MS this morning for the game.  Like everybody has mentioned in this thread, all the correct settings and permissions have been granted to my son so that he can play the game but still the error 524 message is given.

I decided to take it to the next step and purchased a full gold membership account for himself and purchased the game again for his gold account.  Removed him from the Microsoft family and STILL this did not work.

Altered his age for his Microsoft/Xbox Live account so that he was the same age as me and still this did not resolve the issue.  I also noticed that when I was signing in as his gamertag on his Xbox One I was still getting a message to "ask a parent or mum or dad" to sign the account in even though his account is set to be the same age as me.  It's almost as if this date of birth change is not being fully accepted/recognised. Is there somewhere else that this needs changing?

I also checked my EA Origins account and I'm somewhat confused as to how EA has this information about my child being underage when there is nothing in my origins account to show this?  No separate linked account or anything? How is this information being seen, known or provided to EA that I have a son that is of a particular age?  There is no transparency with this whatsoever and I also find it a tad unnerving that EA have a hold of this information.  If MS are relinquishing this information to EA from my Microsoft Family account is this legal?

[Gwyndolium]

You probably made an EA account before which you might not remember where you put in his age. Does he play any other EA titles like Plants vs Zombies 2 or Fifa 18?

And yes, the EA account needs to be overage as well to be able to play I'm afraid.

[TrendyNinja]

Never played any of the Fifa games and Plants Vs Zombies was played on my PS4 of which he has no account of his own set up, he plays games on that console under my gaming profile.  The games he has played on the Xbox One have been through the Microsoft family so no new EA account is created when he plays an EA game this way.

EA accounts obviously have to be created with an email address and he only has one email address so attempting to log in or go through the forgotten password process nothing is received via email because an account has never been created with his email address.  To test this I then created a new EA account using his single and only email address and username, nothing was stated that this email address or username is already in use/exists during the account creation.  Trust me, no EA account has ever been created previously for my son.

[Gwyndolium]

Underage accounts don't go via mail addresses but via a username with a parental mail coupled to it. They can also not login on the Origin/EA website but can login with their username on the Origin program.

If he has his own gamertag playing EA games (family or not) he pretty surely also has an EA account coupled to it unless he plays on your adult account all the time in which case he shouldn't have issues as your account is overage and has xbox live gold. 

[frasbot27]

Thanks for the feedback.
EA have overly complicated this.

[Q_Bal11]

I've tried this but if you try to access the EA account from the origin client (signed in as my sons id you get this error).

Luckily for me my son has turned 13 now .. so I had to send in a legal document to EA to get them to update his account within 72 hours.