Multiple EA games disappeared from my account! *Resolved*

[RJGrayLight]

So I have had multiple games from EA that have been on my account since 2021 according to my purchase history just disappear when the latest sale for EA games started a few days ago. I've played all of these games for multiple hours, and two of these were even actively downloaded too.

When I try the steam support to get the games back on my account, it claims that I "requested to permanently remove this game", which I distinctly did not, would not have, and would not have been able to even if I had wanted to because of the amount of time I've had these games, and the number of hours I played on them. So now I have no idea what to do, because it seems like I'm getting scammed into repurchasing these games or to just not have them on my account anymore.

And the thing is, this isn't even the first time this has happened either, because there are apparently reports of this happening back in 2021 as well when a different EA sale happened. This is also reflected on my account history with the Dragon Age games which, apparently, I have now purchased three separate times since 2021! And yet, despite this, it appears that my purchase history doesn't reflect this for some reason? What is going on?!?

The games I lost (that I've noticed) are the following. There are likely more, but these are the ones I know of for certain.
Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate edition
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age Inquisition
Mass Effect 1
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect Andromeda
Dead Space (2008)
Dead Space 2
Spore

So what can be done to fix this, or am I, and anyone else who's struggling with this issue, just getting scammed because Steam is removing games from accounts without our knowledge or consent?
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*Update 5/5/24.
Unless I'm misunderstanding the Steam Rep, it appears that the issue has been figured out. The issue was 3-fold.

1 - If you purchase a subscription service on steam, such as to EA, all the games that you gain access to are added to your account history, but not your purchase history. These games appear in the same format that purchased games do, though show as having been purchased from $0.00.

2 - For whatever reason, the games remained in my library for 8 weeks after the expiration of the subscription service and I was able to play them without interruption. Apparently, I should have lost access to them immediately, but I didn't. According to the Steam Rep, there is no Grace Period to renew a subscription.

3 - Steam doesn't provide an error message for when games are removed from your account due to a subscription service expiring, and only has the one message saying "you asked us to permanently remove the package ( [package name] ) which included [this product] from your account". Apparently, "the package" is referring to the EA subscription service in this case, and was supposed supposed to be included in the brackets, but wasn't.

So that appears to be what happened. It was a mixture of confusing account messages from steam, an extended grace period, my misunderstanding the difference between account and purchase histories on Steam, and steam's organization systems not properly reporting what caused the loss of my games.
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TL;DR
I thought I had owned the games because of three bugs occurring at the same time.
1. 8 week extended free access to the games.
2. Account and Download History showing transactions that never occurred.
3. Steam mislabeled the reason for the sudden loss of my games.
The EA sale fixed the bug giving me extended free access.
I lost all the EA games.
I was wrong when I believed I owned the EA games.

[xarvn]

He is missing at least three games:

• Dead Space 2
  
• Mass Effect Andromeda
  
• Spore

But I assumed he may have repurchased the others either recently or in the past.

[Lumberjackson]

I was going by the list he posted, and since he mentioned Mass Effect 1-3 individually, i assumed he meant the original versions, not the ones included in the Legendary Edition. And also Dead Space 2008, the one visible in his library is the 2023 remake.

[xarvn]

Lumberjackson님이 먼저 게시:

I was going by the list he posted, and since he mentioned Mass Effect 1-3 individually, i assumed he meant the original versions, not the ones included in the Legendary Edition. And also Dead Space 2008, the one visible in his library is the 2023 remake.

Thanks for the correction. Will edit my post.

[RJGrayLight]

Lumberjackson님이 먼저 게시:

I'm only seeing the 3 Dragon Age games, not the others he listed.

That's because I re-bought the three dragon age games. lol

[RJGrayLight]

Update. Unless I'm misunderstanding the Steam Rep, it appears that the issue has been figured out. The issue was 3-fold.

1 - If you purchase a subscription service on steam, such as to EA, all the games that you gain access to are added to your account history, but not your purchase history. These games appear in the same format that purchased games do, though show as having been purchased from $0.00.

2 - For whatever reason, the games remained in my library for 8 weeks after the expiration of the subscription service and I was able to play them without interruption. Apparently, I should have lost access to them immediately, but I didn't. According to the Steam Rep, there is no Grace Period to renew a subscription.

3 - Steam doesn't provide an error message for when games are removed from your account due to a subscription service expiring, and only has the one message saying "you asked us to permanently remove the package ( [package name] ) which included [this product] from your account". Apparently, "the package" is referring to the EA subscription service in this case, and was supposed supposed to be included in the brackets, but wasn't.

So that appears to be what happened. It was a mixture of confusing account messages from steam, an extended grace period, my misunderstanding the difference between account and purchase histories on Steam, and steam's organization systems not properly reporting what caused the loss of my games.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Did you lose the games? Or just got confused by the message?

[RJGrayLight]

Muppet among Puppets님이 먼저 게시:

Did you lose the games? Or just got confused by the message?

Both.

[Muppet among Puppets]

So why did you lose games you bought?
Still do not understand.

[RJGrayLight]

Muppet among Puppets님이 먼저 게시:

So why did you lose games you bought?
Still do not understand.

Ah, that's what I was mistaken about. Apparently, I never actually owned the games.

The receipts I have are from my account and download histories, which apparently mean nothing as to actual ownership of a game according the the Steam rep. It only means that I had access to the game and have downloaded it before, nothing more. I was confused by this because I thought they were proof that I had purchased the games, especially since they show up as having been purchased for $0.00, which I thought meant that I had used store credit. Instead, that's just how Steam flags the games.

The other thing that was confusing me, causing me to believe that I owned the games, was the fact that I was still able to play the games 2 months after my EA subscription had ended. The only explanation I've been able to come up with was that there was a hiccup in Steam's systems which gave me an extra 8 weeks of the subscription that I didn't actually pay for.

Ultimately, my confusion about the games suddenly disappearing was because I thought I had owned the games given my account and download histories and the fact I was able to access them 8 weeks after my subscription had ended. It's possible that the bug I was experiencing could have gone on indefinitely, but due to the EA sale updating all EA games, that updated all the EA games in the Steam system, causing me to lose access to the games that I should have lost access to back in March.

The other thing that confused me was the fact that Steam didn't include the name of the package that gave me the games. I thought it was because I bought them as part of a discount bundle, but apparently the package that the error messages were referring to was the EA subscription. That was apparently another bug/hiccup in the Steam Systems for not including the name of the package, aka the ea subscription, in the error message. Which led to me believing my account to have been hacked or that steam was doing something funky, claiming that I had requested the removal of the games when I had not.

In the end though, it's been resolved. I apparently had never owned the games, I've officially purchased the games I want, and I understand what went wrong now. :)

[Nx Machina]

A subscription such as EA Play only gives you access to the games.

Removal of games in the subscription also happens on the EA Play app, where you get a notification of them being removed.

[RJGrayLight]

Nx Machina님이 먼저 게시:

A subscription such as EA Play only gives you access to the games..

Yes.

Nx Machina님이 먼저 게시:

Removal of games in the subscription also happens on the EA Play app, where you get a notification of them being removed.

Nope. If that were true, I wouldn't have made this thread in the first place. The games were removed by Steam, not EA, and I had access to the games on both Steam and the EA app for 8 weeks after I should have lost access to them.

[Nx Machina]

RJGrayLight님이 먼저 게시:

Nope. If that were true, I wouldn't have made this thread in the first place. The games were removed by Steam, not EA, and I had access to the games on both Steam and the EA app for 8 weeks after I should have lost access to them.

The games were removed because your subscription to EA Play lapsed and the subscription is with EA via Steam, hence why those games were removed by EA as you no longer can access them without the subscription.

I had a subscription to Gamepass which included EA Play and i cancelled it. Yesterday i had a notification in the EA Play App of games being removed. When i checked it was all the games in EA Play were removed excluding ones i already previously purchased the licences for before getting Gamepass, such as the Mass Effect games and the Dragon Age games as i play games on their own platforms.

EDIT:

After checking my emails i cancelled Gamepass with EA Play included back in March and lost access to the games in Gamepass in April, but for EA Play i lost access in May, so there is a delay with EA Play updating the status of the subscription.

[RJGrayLight]

Nx Machina님이 먼저 게시:

Dude, really?
Read the title of this thread.
Read the Original Post.
Read the Thread's content.
The issue is resolved and what you're saying isn't relevant to the original post.

There was an error with Steam's systems that didn't list how I had those games in the first place.
There was confusion with how Steam handles a user's account, purchase, and download histories.
There was a glitch in my favor that allowed me an extra 8 weeks access to all EA games free of charge on both Steam and the EA app.

Those three factors resulted in my confusion as to why my games suddenly disappeared from my account 2 months after my EA subscription expired and whether or not I owned the games.
Now please, let it rest. Don't be a troll.

[Muppet among Puppets]

This sounds like a bug.
Normally you should not get any note, just the games appear as "not owned" or in ea " time expired" or so.

I still had some games in my list that i could not play. A while ago.
I only tried the steam ea when it was cheap, as it has less games than in ea. So maybe my memory is mainly about ea.

[Muppet among Puppets]

In ea app i got these removed games as well. Even ones i own were mentioned, but are still there.
Useless prompt. Maybe they "fight" the bug of games still running after end of subscription like this.....
That bug is new. And ea did before things that fix something but are not ideal for the user.