Steam Deck

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/steamdeck by /u/d9wHatena on 2024-09-12 07:53:16+00:00.

This topic is not new; it shows how to use "F**k off EA App" to play EA games, avoiding EA App. I hope this guide is more readable than existing ones.

This method works both for Steam Deck (in fact for Linux) and Windows. I also posted this at my blog.

Edit: This thread got locked, but I can still edit. If you have a suggestion, send me a message.

The problem and some history

(Skip this section if you're already familiar.)

"EA App" is the sole, official way to launch EA games since 2022. It is nearly unusable, troubling many users. (Well, you can try it, but in a week or two you will be thrown into constant troubles.)

Historically EA first provided "Origin", and in 2020 they introduced a completely new launcher "EA Desktop", intending to replace Origin, which was full of problems.

Later EA Desktop was renamed to "EA App". (Confusingly, the launcher still has the executable file named "EA Desktop".)

The workaround: How it works

The workaround I present here manages to use Origin, i.e. instead of EA App, by patching with a DLL, named Fuc* off EA App. It's open source, hosted at GitHub.

Origin can still be downloaded, but when you run it as-is, it urges to update to EA App, and you can't use it a launcher. This hack fools Origin that update is unnecessary.

This way I can now run EA games I own. With EA App it was almost unplayable. Origin is said to be really buggy, but so far it's ok for me.

Is it safe?

**Always check the safety yourself**, but yes. Go to the repository at GitHub, and see the source code. It's small, and you can see nothing harms you. (As of v3, released in 2023-10.) I don't know its installer's safety, so I chose to download the file "version.dll", and put it manually. It is built by GitHub Actions CI, which I believe in, but you can compile it yourself.

Installation

If you run Origin directly in Windows, simply follow the instruction of the download page

In Steam Deck, you have to run Origin in the Steam client. In summary, add Origin as a non-Steam game, put the file version.dll in the same directory, and set the environment variable WINEDLLOVERRIDES.

A detailed procedure is this:

1. Download Origin. Add it to your library by "Add a non-Steam game". Any Proton version seems ok. Run, and it will install.
2. You have to know its installation path. Do "Browse local files", and see its directory. It's something like /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/``/pfx/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Origin. Probably differs for each user.
3. Download version.dll and save it in the same directory as Origin.exe.
4. Configure Origin in Steam. Go Properties -> Shortcut. Choose the directory you found before as "Start in", and choose Origin.exe as "Target". Both have to be put in quotation marks, like "...".
5. "Launch option" also has to be set to WINEDLLOVERRIDES="version=n,b".

Now you are done.