We installed Apex Legends on my son's Nintendo Switch. When we ran the game, he was prompted to create or login to an EA account. He didn't have one, so we created one on his Switch by following the prompts on the Switch. When prompted for an e-mail address, we entered his only e-mail address. I'm sure we entered it correctly. After that, he was able to play. We proceeded to purchase some cosmetic items on his Switch (which I didn't know won't be available if he plays on PC as it is in EVERY other online game he plays - I'm pretty angry about not being warned about this in-game beforehand, as I certainly WOULD NOT have wasted money on ANYTHING on the Switch if I'd known that - much less ~$60 worth of stuff, but that's a separate issue). Everything seemed to be working well.
Next, when I finally got time to try out the game, I installed the game through Steam on my PC, logged into my pre-existing EA account (I've been a steady EA customer for over 35 years - started on a Commodore 64), and ran the game. We tried for quite a while to figure out how to be friends in-game. When we searched for each other, we couldn't find each other. We tried every username and alternate linked account ID we could think of, and none worked. I checked my EA account on the EA web site, and my Steam account appears to be linked correctly. I then tried to check into the linked account situation for my son's EA account, and was stymied. He never received any kind of confirmation e-mail from EA when he created his account. When I attempt to log into his account on the EA website, it says his credentials are invalid (they're not - I wrote them down when we created his account and was careful to double-check everything...I work in tech for a living, so this process isn't new to me). When I try to use the account recovery feature at the EA web site, it says his account doesn't exist, although it clearly does since he uses it every day to play Apex Legends on his Nintendo Switch. I can't find any way from his Switch to confirm his EA account information...it just directs me to the EA web site, which doesn't acknowledge that his account exists.
After waiting a few days, we tried again. I still can't find him when I search for friends, but now he appears to be able to find me. When he sends me a friend request, however, I never receive anything. I then installed Apex Legends on my Nintendo Switch (logging into my same pre-existing EA account), and we can find each other just fine and become friends in the game. I still can't link to him on the PC using the same EA account, however (and it's frustrating that my same EA account is friends with him on one platform but not the other).
This really shouldn't be this hard. The implementation of crossplay and user accounts in this game seems to have been totally botched. We play many other online games together, and we've never had an issue setting this stuff up (nor have we had problems with cosmetics and entitlements transferring between platforms, but again, that's a separate issue). What gives, EA? It seems this has been an issue for many months. Are there any plans to fix it? I've been designing software for decades, so I know things like this don't get fixed overnight, but it's getting kind of ridiculous at this point. Not happy over here. Needless to say, I'm very reluctant to invest any more time or money into this game until this stuff is working. It's crazy to me that EA can't make this work when everyone else seems to be able to.
