Steam Deck: Installing EA App - Configure, Install Game Internally and Externally (New for 2023)

NOTE 2: When this video was made, Proton Experimental was required. Now, Proton 7.0-6 may be required. Please make note of it. The rules change on this frequently.

New and updated for 2023!

Electronic Arts is phasing out Origin (the locker that actually worked on the Steam Deck) in favor of the EA App (which doesn't work right on Steam Deck). While Origin is not discontinued quite yet, we might as well get ready ...

We'll also do the bonus of installing Titanfall 2 on the SD card as well as showing you how to install games internally on your SSD.

FILES TO DOWNLOAD
=================
EA App Installer

MOUNT SD CARD COMMAND
STEAM_COMPAT_MOUNTS=/run/media/mmcblk0p1/ %command%

COMPATDATA LOCATION
\home\deck\.local\share\Steam\steamapps\compatdata

CHAPTER JUMPS
00:00 - Opener
00:05 - Intro
00:15 - Downloading EA Installer
00:48 - Adding Installer as a Non-Steam Game
01:18 - Opening CompatData Folder
01:33 - Setting Compatibility
01:47 - Installing from EAappInstaller
02:35 - Error message?
02:58 - How to Close it
03:15 - Finding the Launcher EXE in Proton Folder
03:42 - Shifting the Non-Steam Game to point to launcher instead of installer
04:16 - Running EA Launcher First Time
04:51 - Setting Up Steam Mount for SD Card
05:23 - Installing TitanFall 2 to SD card
07:25 - Trying to Mount an Internal Location (FAIL)
09:39 - Installing TitanFall 2 Internally (Part 1)
10:35 - Setting up for Moving TF2 (and discussion WHY)
11:39 - Moving and Relinking TF2 in another folder
12:48 - Let's Test It in Gaming Mode
13:45 - Final Thoughts

[jss]

Legend! Great video man, I love seeing your helpful guides and comments on Reddit as well. I'm glad I found this and was able to get EA games running on my Deck without going through Lutris, I prefer to have as few programs installed as I can to keep things clean. I suddenly wanted to play Dead Space after all the hype with the new remaster, and I already own the original game which was free on Origin a while back, so I figured might as well play the original which will run perfectly on the Deck. I got it working with this guide and even my cloud saves work perfectly so far so I picked up from the last save I made on my PC. Made another save on the Deck and confirmed that the save also syncs back to the cloud as I logged back in on my PC again. Thanks for the help, I'm slowly getting better at navigating Linux with these guides :)

[KingMajet]

Thanks for your efforts. Really appreciate it. Still it is a bit frustrating if you demonstrate errors instead of the happy path. I did it step by step just to see "aaah he made a mistake on his own, great..." or "aaah it does not work for him, so I can undo the last steps". I was using your last video on this topic and it took me 4 hours just to realize it does not work at all.

Installing the ea-app in desktop mode using proton experimental does work. I can log in and even install in my case jedi fallen order on my sd card (which i mounted in steam itself in the options). I can choose the sd-card-folder, there is no error with the 7, 53 GB, i can easily install the game. I tried your steps with the compatdata linking the proton-ID for jedi fallen order to the compatdata-folder of ea app (i totally agree with you, I hate it!); and thats it. I cannot open the game neither in the ea crapp nor in steam. the ea crapp gives me a random error (thank you ea for nothing) and opening in gaming mode on steam just opens the ea crapp but no game. It is really frustrating and I hope from the deepest of my heart that EA games goes bankrupt and just dies as a company.

omfg 1 minute after having written this post it finally works. In steam i again added jedi fallen order as non steam app, but did not link to the regular .exe but to the SwGame-Win64-Shipping.exe - I immediately saw a star wars logo (good) followed by a 1950s TV test screen. 5 seconds later the game started. It does work now, still really frustrating.

[jamesony]

Simple, clear and informative!
What I love is all your videos are similar in layout and explanation... So I know what to expect and how to do all the basics having watched only 2 other videos on similar steamdeck setups. Love your work!

[EjectoSeato]

absolute god send!!! your amazing and we all appreciate you for this. been wanting to play EA titles like fight night, madden, or need for speed on the steam deck ever since I lost my PSP.

[thesensman]

This is a super helpful video solution to a super frustrating problem but honestly some of these file paths are too complex for me to follow. I feel extremely stupid but as an example I was able to download the EA App file and even found it in downloads to execute but I cant find the home/deck file path despite having Dolphin downloaded already. Might be better if I use a keyboard to type vs. simply trying to find the specific paths but they (EA, NOT Steam) really make this process brutal to get through vs. simply downloading and go play as most of my Steam games do.

[MrGalax]

Good video, I was having an error cause I skipped a step, but if you follow it step by step is really easy.

[TheDherron]

Love your videos always informative with the exact amount of information. But for this video may I make a helpful revision suggestion. When symlinking titanfall2 brilliant but instead of symlinking the game if you move the entire games install location to your internal games folder then symlink back that games folder when you install games now they will automatically end up in the location you want instead of having to manually move each game after install but achieving the exact same result. As Ubisoft will install it in the games folder which is actually a symlink to the internal location.

Edit: after thinking about it I believe I just realized your setup was for having the ability to split games between internal and external as wanted. Which I missed with my initial message.

[Specterno]

Symlinks are amazing. Been struggling for a while on this. Thanks!

[Shockpaddles]

couldnt get the launcher to load without the 'haywire' error message. the key thing for me to get the app to launch was to not remove the installer from steam and adding the launcher as a separate non steam game. it seems critical to amend the installer non steam game to the launcher.exe and not create a new one. this made it work and launches just fine. for anyone that comes across this

[grafd.]

Thank you for the guide. However, it does not work for me: The app only starts the first time during/after installing. When I then link the actual launcher (either via your copy and paste or as a newly added non steam app), and try to start it, it gives an error, asks to restart and then is stuck indefinitely at a splash screen "Connecting to the EA app"? Do you have any ideas? Thanks!

[bobbywrtm]

so.... FIFA 23 through SteamOS is possible now? or it still doesn't work due to the anti cheat?

[Razgriz_]

Tutorial worked. EA app launched and was able to play a game. Just wish I can just directly launch the game from it's exe through Steam, but doing so will just bring up a pop-up that the EA app needs to be installed.
I remember there was a tutorial that allowed that for Ubisoft games. Basically it was a command that'll start the launcher then automatically start the game you selecting from the non-steam menu. Think it was Ubisoft only, not sure if you can do that with EA.

[scruffboii]

Everything worked up until adding the text in the Launch box. Now the EA app doesn’t open at all.

[sluxx]

what a detailed review thank you so much

[NessiiBear]

Hello! Thank you so much for this video, it was really helpful after spending all day trying to get The Sims 3 installed (I have it on Steam but I had originally bought the game and DLC on Origin/EA so I wanted to get my packs back!!) and failing multiple times.. originally tried installing it through Lutris and playing it on desktop mode but that really failed and I had to shut down my steamdeck completely to be able to exit The Sims 3 😅 now after following your very helpful video, I loaded up TS3 and everything seems to be running smoothly.

I am having a couple issues though - I’m not able to use the trackpads or joycons as a mouse. And my right and left trigger don’t work either as a “left/right mouse click”. Any solutions for that? (I’m new to owning a steamdeck!)

And the last one - when I went to gaming mode, it didn’t show up as “EA App” like yours did; instead it showed up as “EAappInstaller.exe”. Is that okay? How do I change it? I would like to change it to The Sims 3 since that’s the only game I’ll be playing through EA.

Sorry for the long comment, very excited about FINALLY having all my packs back and not having to give money hungry EA more money (by buying them again through steam). Thanks again, will be subbing and checking out your other videos - specifically the emulator ones 🎉

[HandiNap]

Literally no matter what I do, the EA app will not let me sign into any account. I made an EA account with Xbox steam Google and even Facebook and not one of them will let me login no matter what I do. it will just say it can’t connect to EA. I don’t have any internet issues whatsoever so this is quite frustrating

[somebody]

Hi. I've seen your more recent vids. If I want to install my games to the sd card, I don't have to use the mount sd card command right? I can just symlink the games folder from my sd card to the compatdata folder for the launcher?

[kcspace]

I'm able to get it running but it shows me an error message that the background services aren't responding, and they're kicking off the update manually. It gives me an option to restart the ea app or cancel the process. When I hit restart it's stuck on the connecting to the ea app screen. Any ideas on what the problem is?

Thanks!

[swisherdragon]

For some reason it wouldn’t let me copy/paste the path for the launcher, so I did it manually. After I did it manually the past was not visible nor the EA app name as a non steam game, it is just blank. It still boots up but should I be worried?

[JosiahWatson-zigj]

I’ve found the appropriate directory for ‘EALauncher’ but the folder is empty with no EXE file in there… any idea where this might be?