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.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

RJGrayLight の投稿を引用：

Steam/EA scam? Multiple older EA games disappearing from accounts! Again! HELP!

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
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?

I have never heard of random EA titles being completely deleted from accounts with no history of the transactions, since Valve cannot legally delete transactions on the account.

[magicISO Sweden]

its not steam that doing it only the person them self can do it

[RJGrayLight]

magicISO Sweden の投稿を引用：

its not steam that doing it only the person them self can do it

Haha! Good one. Claiming that the platform that hosts the games can't forcibly remove it from a user's account without their knowledge or consent is quite amusing. They shouldn't, but they absolutely can and have before. Now can we not joke around and actually try to be helpful here?

But seriously, your claim is definitely not true. I had those games in my library for years, I have them in my account history, but they're not on my account anymore. Even if I had wanted to remove them from my account, I wouldn't have been able to due to how Steam works. Besides, this isn't even the first time it's happened, not just to me, but to others too. Just a quick google search can show that.

[xarvn]

I wonder if you obtained the games from the site in your name history. I suspect the site's legitimacy is somewhat dubious at least from reading this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/1643170903490805949/?ctp=2

[magicISO Sweden]

xarvn の投稿を引用：

I wonder if you obtained the games from the site in your name history. I suspect the site's legitimacy is somewhat dubious at least from reading this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/1643170903490805949/?ctp=2

yeah there we have it

[RJGrayLight]

xarvn の投稿を引用：

I wonder if you obtained the games from the site in your name history. I suspect the site's legitimacy is somewhat dubious at least from reading this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/1643170903490805949/?ctp=2

I definitely don't think so since there are pings on my account history, as well as emailed purchase receipts from steam for those games in my email history, that I purchased the games directly from steam.

As for the gamekit thing, I think I only got a few free game codes from them as the result of participating in a few science surveys, and none of the games that I got from them were any good. IDK if any of those have been on my account for the last few years, that's how little I play or care about the games I got from them. xD
I think the only game I actually tried playing that I got from gamekit was called Shadow Hunters, or something like that.

But thanks for pointing that out. I haven't updated my name history in years, and I think the last time I used Gamekit for anything was back in 2019 or so. xD

[halfmonkey]

The games you listed were all part of EA's "big breakout" when they launched their now maligned Origin system. The games were de-listed on Steam, then only recently re-listed.

It might be as stupid an issue as "they changed the Steam IDs" for your games.

[RJGrayLight]

halfmonkey の投稿を引用：

The games you listed were all part of EA's "big breakout" when they launched their now maligned Origin system. The games were de-listed on Steam, then only recently re-listed.

It might be as stupid an issue as "they changed the Steam IDs" for your games.

That's what I'm thinking, but if that's the case, would steam classify that as permanently removing the games from my account?

[d3str0y3r]

So far all i see is a whole lot of empty claims with no REAL proof.

Do you really think Valve is going to risk their business, legally deleting transactions just to make a few extra dollars making a select few people re-buy some cheap games?

Stop and think about how dumb that sounds...

[halfmonkey]

RJGrayLight の投稿を引用：

halfmonkey の投稿を引用：

The games you listed were all part of EA's "big breakout" when they launched their now maligned Origin system. The games were de-listed on Steam, then only recently re-listed.

It might be as stupid an issue as "they changed the Steam IDs" for your games.

That's what I'm thinking, but if that's the case, would steam classify that as permanently removing the games from my account?

I'd suggest writing to Steam and explaining this. They aren't obligated to fix it, but if it is an issue of the EA Origin delisting/relisting, you might get new keys if you enlist their help.
The "licensing" of games is tricky, but you paid for the titles originally and should expect them to still be available-- no matter what shenanigans EA was up to back then.

Edit: By "contacting Steam" I mean directly contacting Steam support, versus these forums.

[RJGrayLight]

d3str0y3r の投稿を引用：

So far all i see is a whole lot of empty claims with no REAL proof.

Do you really think Valve is going to risk their business, legally deleting transactions just to make a few extra dollars making a select few people re-buy some cheap games?

Stop and think about how dumb that sounds...

1. This has happened before. A quick google search will show that to anyone. I believe it was the result of a coding error with EA's games when they did a big sale, as is happening right now. So likely not intentional. And as halfmonkey mentioned, it's possibly the fact that EA changed the steam IDs for some of their older games, which again has happened before.
2. EA is involved. And everyone knows that they have some of the shadiest practices in the entire gaming industry.
3. It would be far more than just "a few extra dollars". Try a few hundred thousand or a few million dollars since this is a world-wide platform.
4. As for the proof, what do you want? For me to dox myself by publicly posting my purchase history to strangers? My email receipts? My bank records? Yeah, no thanks. I wasn't born yesterday.
5. You realize that including the word "scam" in the title was meant to draw attention to this issue, right? To help people who are or will be experiencing this same issue in the future? Keyword search uses titles, so including that word in the title will hopefully help others in the future since this isn't the first time it's happened, and likely won't be the last. I don't actually think it was intentional on Steam's part. EA, maybe, but not Steam.

[RJGrayLight]

halfmonkey の投稿を引用：

RJGrayLight の投稿を引用：

That's what I'm thinking, but if that's the case, would steam classify that as permanently removing the games from my account?

I'd suggest writing to Steam and explaining this. They aren't obligated to fix it, but if it is an issue of the EA Origin delisting/relisting, you might get new keys if you enlist their help.
The "licensing" of games is tricky, but you paid for the titles originally and should expect them to still be available-- no matter what shenanigans EA was up to back then.

Good idea. But do you know where or how I can write to them? Like, what email do I send my issue to? Steam's issue reporting and help section is a labyrinth to me, with nothing that can connect me to an actual person as far as I can find.

[halfmonkey]

RJGrayLight の投稿を引用：

halfmonkey の投稿を引用：

I'd suggest writing to Steam and explaining this. They aren't obligated to fix it, but if it is an issue of the EA Origin delisting/relisting, you might get new keys if you enlist their help.
The "licensing" of games is tricky, but you paid for the titles originally and should expect them to still be available-- no matter what shenanigans EA was up to back then.

Good idea. But do you know where or how I can write to them? Like, what email do I send my issue to? Steam's issue reporting and help section is a labyrinth to me, with nothing that can connect me to an actual person as far as I can find.

You'll never speak to or message a real person unless it is a legal issue that directly involves Steam. Instead, go to: Help > Steam Support > Purchases > (name of game) > I have a question about this purchase.

Under that, you should find space to explain your issue.

[RJGrayLight]

halfmonkey の投稿を引用：

RJGrayLight の投稿を引用：

Good idea. But do you know where or how I can write to them? Like, what email do I send my issue to? Steam's issue reporting and help section is a labyrinth to me, with nothing that can connect me to an actual person as far as I can find.

You'll never speak to or message a real person unless it is a legal issue that directly involves Steam. Instead, go to: Help > Steam Support > Purchases > (name of game) > I have a question about this purchase.

Under that, you should find space to explain your issue.

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. Hopefully that works. :)

[halfmonkey]

^ Good luck! If you have any email receipts of your original purchases, prep them links/screenshots for that conversation. I know I just aged myself, but keeping records of purchases (no matter how small) is a godsend when stuff goes wrong.