For a while now, if you got banned from Electronic Arts’ Origin service (and, sometimes, even their message boards), you might also find yourself unable to access the single-player content from the games you’ve purchased. That rubbed people the wrong way, and EA has apparently worked out the backend hiccups to fix it.

Cinema Blend received a notification from EA about an update to Origin policy that notes “offline content” will now be available by enabling an offline mode within Origin. Read it in full here.

“If you find yourself with a disabled account, please note that you can still play EA games in single-player mode. For PC games you will need to enable Origin's offline mode to play games with a disabled account. Go to the settings tab in Origin (the gear icon) and select Go Offline.”

Getting banned isn’t a scenario most users will find themselves in, but besides the broader philosophical issues, banning mistakes do happen, and to find yourself unable to play the games you bought sounds incredibly frustrating.

It’s easy to forget nobody really liked Steam when it originally launched alongside Half-Life 2, but the service has come a long way since then, and Steam has since raised expectations for digital delivery services to the point that when Electronic Arts decided to get into the game with Origin, its missteps have been rightly criticized.

For a while now, if you got banned from Electronic Arts’ Origin service (and, sometimes, even their message boards), you might also find yourself unable to access the single-player content from the games you’ve purchased. That rubbed people the wrong way, and EA has apparently worked out the backend hiccups to fix it.

Cinema Blend received a notification from EA about an update to Origin policy that notes “offline content” will now be available by enabling an offline mode within Origin. Read it in full here.

“If you find yourself with a disabled account, please note that you can still play EA games in single-player mode. For PC games you will need to enable Origin's offline mode to play games with a disabled account. Go to the settings tab in Origin (the gear icon) and select Go Offline.”

Getting banned isn’t a scenario most users will find themselves in, but besides the broader philosophical issues, banning mistakes do happen, and to find yourself unable to play the games you bought sounds incredibly frustrating.

It’s easy to forget nobody really liked Steam when it originally launched alongside Half-Life 2, but the service has come a long way since then, and Steam has since raised expectations for digital delivery services to the point that when Electronic Arts decided to get into the game with Origin, its missteps have been rightly criticized.

Probably cause of worst company in America rating...

Seem strange EA being nice about this. Have fans really hurt EA now? We have seen it in the past and EA actually Repent. Lets hope this is a golden age were EA bucks up....again.

cool, i might try Origin now

@Dagbiker: So you expected to be banned? Since modding a game on origin counts as fiddling with the content and will ban you. So yes its likely to happen. If no mp games you w\nt come out on origin only, your golden if you dont care about mp.

I think the lesson we should all take from this is to stay away from the EA message boards.

Thank god for small miracles? That still doesn't explain why my conduct on a forum should be tied to my ability to play an online game, though.

Also, what's the deal with Cinema Blend getting all these EA and BBB report scoops lately?

@Reuters said:

The embattled game publisher's stock has shed close to 40 percent of its value since November. E.A. shares were down 5 percent at $15.30 in midday trading on Monday.

Isn't November about the time that Origin came out...

Good move on EA's part anyway.

Wow, EA actually did something nice?

@Kidavenger said:

@Reuters said:

The embattled game publisher's stock has shed close to 40 percent of its value since November. E.A. shares were down 5 percent at $15.30 in midday trading on Monday.

Isn't November about the time that Origin came out...

Good move on EA's part anyway.

Origin was launched in June i think.

@Mister_V said:

@Kidavenger said:

@Reuters said:

The embattled game publisher's stock has shed close to 40 percent of its value since November. E.A. shares were down 5 percent at $15.30 in midday trading on Monday.

Isn't November about the time that Origin came out...

Good move on EA's part anyway.

Origin was launched in June i think.

Yeah, you're right. Battlefield 3 was the first big push for Origin, but the service had been up for months before. You needed it for the open beta.

@Mister_V said:

@Kidavenger said:

@Reuters said:

The embattled game publisher's stock has shed close to 40 percent of its value since November. E.A. shares were down 5 percent at $15.30 in midday trading on Monday.

Isn't November about the time that Origin came out...

Good move on EA's part anyway.

Origin was launched in June i think.

Technically Origin was launched years ago, it was just under a different name - the EA Download Manager. The fundamentals of the program haven't changed, they just rebranded it and marketed it a lot more.

It still crashes every time I open the overlay in a game. Terrible piece of software.

@MattyFTM said:

@Mister_V said:

@Kidavenger said:

@Reuters said:

The embattled game publisher's stock has shed close to 40 percent of its value since November. E.A. shares were down 5 percent at $15.30 in midday trading on Monday.

Isn't November about the time that Origin came out...

Good move on EA's part anyway.

Origin was launched in June i think.

Technically Origin was launched years ago, it was just under a different name - the EA Download Manager. The fundamentals of the program haven't changed, they just rebranded it and marketed it a lot more.

WHAT!!! the origins of Origin... Then whats the origins of origins origin... ARRRGHHHHHH!!!!

@Jumbs said:

It still crashes every time I open the overlay in a game. Terrible piece of software.

so does it crash for everyone that uses it.

@Nautilus1515 said:

Probably cause of worst company in America rating...

Voted on an internet poll.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

@Nautilus1515 said:

Probably cause of worst company in America rating...

Voted on an internet poll.

It's an internet world, baby.

I kinda like Origin, haven't had any problems.

Of course, the hate from internets and constant need to catch up to Steam makes it an even better service. Which is good for consumers.

For me, it runs much smoother than Steam.

I think they did this less about public appearance and more about the competition. They already know that their service isn't any where near where it should be to compete with Valve. They gotta do what they can to seem like a better alternative. Seriously though, an offline mode should have been in place from the start.

This sounds less like they worked out a problem on the back end and more like some kind of sloppy fix. Reading the headline, I honestly thought it was some kind of trick somebody had discovered, not some officially sanctioned EA solution.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

@Nautilus1515 said:

Probably cause of worst company in America rating...

Voted on an internet poll.

Yep. Because who cares about killing America's economy or indebting millions of students, making nerds angry is clearly worse.

@paulunga said:

@Mr_Skeleton said:

@Nautilus1515 said:

Probably cause of worst company in America rating...

Voted on an internet poll.

Yep. Because who cares about killing America's economy or indebting millions of students, making nerds angry is clearly worse.

No there just happens to more of us on the internet where the poll is taking place. Now if it happened to help maybe at a all public libraries nation way, the results would be wayyyy different.

This will greatly affect the 5 game library I have

@dr_mantas said:

I kinda like Origin, haven't had any problems.

Of course, the hate from internets and constant need to catch up to Steam makes it an even better service. Which is good for consumers.

For me, it runs much smoother than Steam.

Valve: Beloved company

EA: "Worst company" and nerd-rage attractor

It's easy to see that the general mass will take this perspective and thus judge the services the same way.

Have they changed the terms and conditions to opt out of the spyware shit side of Origin yet?

Interestingly I was able to play Origin games offline even without enabling this mode. My broadband was out for a couple of days and I still was able to play ME3 just fine. It just took forever for the game to start but after it loaded I was able to play without issue.

@MattyFTM said:

@Mister_V said:

@Kidavenger said:

@Reuters said:

The embattled game publisher's stock has shed close to 40 percent of its value since November. E.A. shares were down 5 percent at $15.30 in midday trading on Monday.

Isn't November about the time that Origin came out...

Good move on EA's part anyway.

Origin was launched in June i think.

Technically Origin was launched years ago, it was just under a different name - the EA Download Manager. The fundamentals of the program haven't changed, they just rebranded it and marketed it a lot more.

Oh God the Download Manager. Say what you want about Origin and business policy, but at least Origin works.

yay they finally allow you to use the items you payed for wait a second why was it ever possible for them to not 

Wait, I can now play the games on my hard drive without an Inter Net connection?

What a marvellous idea!

well its good that they're fixing issues it has and listening to why people dont like it.

the blind EA hate is out of control. i mean theres valid reasons to hate them, but damn!

no matter what EA does to make Origin better.. i will always dislike them for forcibly splitting up my game library. even if it's just a handful of games

Am I the only one who thinks there should be bigger repercussions for misbehaving in an online environment? Wouldn't removing the ability for the wrong kinds of people to play games with or against individuals who know how to act be a good thing?

Coming from someone who finds the need to disable voice chat (as well as text when available) when playing multiplayer against random people online, imagine a world where you could go into a multiplayer gaming session without having to hear people assault and insult one another.

Maybe the individual on the other end of the mic would think twice about what they say when spouting endless profanities and the like could prevent them from playing that game not only in a multiplayer setting, but single player as well.

If you purchase a product, you're entitled to use it, sure, but I believe there are limits, and I'm not sure why the internet is given a free pass when someone says or does something socially unacceptable in our society.

If Origin were to ban offensive people from playing their available games, I for one would absolutely favor Origin over other online platforms, because the greater majority of the time, the folks who inhabit those games won't be intolerable idiots.

Meanwhile, Steam still locks you out if you have your account disabled. Or did that policy also change?

Origin isn't particularly bad- it's just immature compared to the more fully featured Steam. Besides, multiple platforms help prevent monopoly or monopsony.

This was probably the only thing i was worried about using Origin and EA in general.  Glad they reconsidered changing their stance on this.

Some part of me feels as if this should never been an issue from the start,.....

That's good, a small step on the road to a better Origin.

oh wow. how generous of them to let you use something you paid money for.

still don't trust origin i have a copy of battlefield 3 sitting and gathering dust still in the plastic wrapping. EA, Ubisoft, company's like that i don't have a lot of trust for. I know i wont get banned from anything but its the amount of power they have to screw you over is what i don't like.

I still think the EA Download Manager was a much better program, Origin has sucked since day one.

Got Mass Effect 3 on release date and have yet to be able to install it because of Origin, customer "support" sucks worse than a binary black hole system. They can "fix" Origin all they want, I will never buy anything that requires you use it again.

@Skald said:

Origin isn't particularly bad- it's just immature compared to the more fully featured Steam. Besides, multiple platforms help prevent monopoly or monopsony.

Monopsony?

@MrKlorox said:

Meanwhile, Steam still locks you out if you have your account disabled. Or did that policy also change?

How dare you say anything bad about Steam!

RAGE!!!!!

Hey maybe they'll get it right eventually.

@tourgen said:

oh wow. how generous of them to let you use something you paid money for.

Certainly took them long enough. 9 months?

When Origin lets me pay American dollars for English language games when I'm living abroad, then I'll give the service the chance. It didn't even have the right language for the 9 months I was in Switzerland after Origin came out. (And because these always turn into Steam -VS- Origin arguments in the comments, yes, Steam let me do that. It was that little part of home, a long with sites like Giant Bomb, that kept me from getting homesick).

If I'm banned from being naked in public I expect to still be allowed to be naked in private. Anything less is just stupid. This problem should have never occurred.

Is a month enough time for Blizzard to similarly alter their policy on Diablo 3?

I'm getting real sick of companies jumping the gun on internet services. Quality broadband still isn't ubiquitous, by any measure, and the even shadier business practices of the ISP conglomerates aren't going to make it so any time soon.

These jerks need to stop pretending like we're already plugged in to the Matrix.

When EA does it: Shameful business practice.

When Blizzard does it with D3: Well, you shouldn't have gotten banned then!

Predictable internet.

Oh, how wonderful, Origin. *yawn*

I finally decided to get back into BF3. It's a large download. On Steam, it would probably take two to four hours.

On Origin, it is currently at 30% after almost five hours.

@mrpandaman said:

@Skald said:

Origin isn't particularly bad- it's just immature compared to the more fully featured Steam. Besides, multiple platforms help prevent monopoly or monopsony.

Monopsony?

Not really.

All of the content across all of the platforms would help with that. Dividing them up so that some platforms get some and others get others does not. All it does is mean you either go without some stuff or you end up with Steam, Origin, Impulse, Direct2Drive, Desura, and GOG's client all installed and running and multiple accounts and credentials and libraries of game and all of that endless mind-searing bullshit.

The online distributors need to be more like stores. You can buy a Snickers Bar at 7-11, Safeway, Target, Albertsons, Kingsoopers, Plaid Pantry, CVS, Walmart, and every other fucking place on the planet. You get to choose what store you like doing your shopping at, but you can still get the fucking product at all of them.

EA mentioned, rage levels increasing.