Gamers in Myanmar suddenly found themselves unable to access their EA PC games because EA and Origin blocked the entire country over U.S. embargo matters.
The ban on the Southeast Asian country prevented Origin players from accessing any of the games they'd bought via EA's digital service, including the freshly launched Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1.
Players simply hit an "Access Denied" message when trying to log into Origin, with no other explanation for their ban. Frustrated gamers quickly took to Reddit and EA's forum to complain of the issue and EA finally responded.
"I live in Myanmar, and I own about 20 games on Origin, and have spent hundreds of dollars on the platform. I've bought the full editions of all of the Battlefield games up to this point, with their season passes," one user explains on Reddit.
The user further notes that after hitting the "Access Denied" wall, a Google search revealed that Origin was no longer available in Myanmar. No warning, no notification, just full-on ban.
After more than a week, EA now says that it's working on solving the issue and restoring access in Myanmar. The company enforced the ban on the country in order to comply with U.S. embargo laws. However, the U.S. has lifted the embargo on Myanmar earlier this month, so EA should unblock the country.
"We are working to restore access to Origin for our players in Myanmar. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and we'll share updates on timing as soon as possible," writes an EA community manager.
The ban was in place for 19 years before the Obama administration lifted it in September, effective Oct. 7. EA seems to have fallen behind with the news and blocked Myanmar erroneously, although the embargo no longer applies.
It's also worth noting that players reported being able to access other U.S. games, despite being blocked out of EA's Origin.
While unfortunate, this situation highlights the perks of making purchases from stores that sell unprotected games, such as GOG. With such stores, the games will continue to work and be available to users even if the service itself shuts down altogether.
At the same time, this occurrence also draws attention to EA's practices. For such situations, EA should have some special policies in place to protect customers' purchases and refund them if they lose access.
In this case, EA shoved a country-wide ban and players were put in the unfair position of having paid good money on games they can't access. The ban will be lifted soon, but what if it weren't? Would that money spent on EA purchases just be wasted?
