Hi all, I had the same exact issue with both Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 on launch day, and many days after launch for BF1. I tried seemingly *EVERYTHING* to get the game to simply start up or launch at all to no avail... until I went to the game install directories and right-clicked on the executable files for BF1 and Titanfall 2 and made them run "as administrator" and in "compatibility mode for Windows 7". I also had to make IDS, HIPS, and firewall exceptions in ESET Smart Security 9 under advanced settings for the game executables as well as for the "ActivationUI.exe" executables, as well as forward ports on my router 80, 443, 20000-20099, 30000-30099, 80000-80099, 1800-1900, 800-900 (both TCP and UDP).
If you have Windows 10 or Windows 10 Pro (as I do) then the following steps might work to get BF1 and or Titanfall 2 or any other Origin game to start/launch successfully...
Steps:
1. Navigate to your BF1 or Titanfall 2 installation directory.
2. Right-click on BF1.exe, left-click on "Properties". In the Properties Window under the compatibility tab, check the box for "run this program as an administrator" and also select "run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 7".
3. Inside the BF1 install directory open the directory called "Core", right-click on the "ActivationUI.exe" file, left-click "Properties", left-click on the "Compatibility" tab and repeat what you did in Step 2. above, make it run as administrator and also make it run in compatibility mode for Windows 7 or 8, either one works.
4. If you have ESET Smart Security 9, or another Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware program, make sure to add "Program Exceptions" for the game executable files (such as "BF1.exe", "BF1Trial.exe") and also add program exceptions and firewall exclusions for "ActivationUI.exe" inside the "Core" directory, which is inside every Origin game's main installation directory.
5. Forward ports on your router and also in any anti-virus software and firewalls, if you have Windows Firewall and Defender, add exceptions and firewall exclusions/permissions in both of those and any other Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware software, in addition to any hardware firewalls like your router and or network devices.
6. Next, close Origin completely, go into your game(s) directory, go inside the "Core" folder, right click on "ActivationUI.exe" and left-click on "Run this Program as an Administrator", and then just double-left-click on "ActivationUI.exe" and run it. Nothing should happen after you run "ActivationUI.exe", nothing visible, you might get a command prompt/terminal window that pops up briefly, or not, either way make sure you run this executable before the next step. If you Anti-Virus or Firewall programs pop-up a window asking for permission for "ActivationUI.exe" make sure to grant permission to the executable!
7. Start up Origin
8. Make sure Origin is in "Online Mode", make sure your internet connection is up and working.
9. Run the game or games you are having trouble with launching.
10. The game should now activate properly and run, your Anti-Virus software, such as ESET, BitDefender, etc... might now display a pop-up window after trying to run the game this time, if it does, make sure to click "allow permanently", "allow", "give permission" or whatever similar button/option it may present you with after trying to run the game.
11. The game should now start/launch successfully after properly activating and you should be able to play.
12. If your game still didn't start/launch after these steps, make sure to fully shutdown and restart your PC, when it reboots, try running the "ActivationUI.exe" as an administrator again, and then open Origin and try running the game again after your reboot, this time your game should launch successfully.
If it still doesn't start or launch, then you have a different problem than I did and I wish you the best of luck!
I hope this helps someone with their Origin game failure to launch problem!
Thanks,
Yopo