Update 2: An Iranian player on Reddit has reported that they also experienced their account access being revoked. Earlier today, a post made by an EA community manager in response to a support thread read, "In compliance with US embargoes and sanctions laws, Origin is not available in Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine (Crimea region)." It has since been updated with the following:
"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."
All of this news comes after US President Barack Obama lifted trade sanctions against Myanmar earlier this month.
Update: An Origin representative has acknowledged the outage in the thread, saying that EA is "internally reviewing the situation and looking into whether and when service can be restored." EA_Alex's comment follows:
Hey all,
The short answer here is that this occurred due to the US government trade embargo on Myanmar. In accordance with US law, EA is legally required to restrict online services to residents of countries that are embargoed. This isn't an EA-specific issue — it's an issue that impacts all companies offering services that are covered by trade embargoes. As the OP has noted, the embargo on Myanmar appear to have been lifted earlier this month. Accordingly, EA is internally reviewing the situation and looking into whether and when service can be restored to Myanmar residents.It's unclear to me whether we can do anything for residents of other countries that are still similarly embargoed, but I'll bring the topic up for discussion internally.
Original story follows:
EA appears to have blocked South East Asian country Myanmar from accessing Origin and any games that are purchased through it. Reddit user Trivial_sublime brought this to our attention today, saying they can no longer play their 20 or so games, of which they've "spent hundreds of dollars on."
"I was trying to log into Origin a few days ago and got a bizarre 'Access Denied' message," the user wrote in their post. "I googled it and found that 'Origin is no longer available in Myanmar.'"
What they found was a support thread on EA's site from September that brought up the same issue. An Origin Champion, the name for EA's volunteers who help with support, responded by saying, "I'm sorry, but Origin is no longer available in Myanmar," before going a little more in-depth later in the thread.
"[W]ith the Origin 10 update, US laws (which is where EA is based) forced them to block certain countries," Origin Champion DarkAmaranth1966 wrote. "Unfortunately, you live in one of those countries. I'm sorry, but there is nothing we [can] do here to allow you access again.
"We Heroes are not told why EA makes decisions like this nor what they might be planning to do about it."
We've contacted EA for official comment on this situation and will update this article with any information we receive. Meanwhile, you can read Trivial_sublime's full post here.
