BF3 Launching Match error

I just played BF3 on 10/30/25 for at least 4 hours. I quit a match, came back in an hour, and suddenly when I click Join Match, it says "Joining Server", then that toolbar at the bottom of the screen disappears and takes me to EA Play, which says: "Failed to launch game. An error on our end caused the launch to fail. Try again a little later".

Not sure why there's not a dedicated BF3 desktop application as with all other BF games from then on but maybe me launching through Steam is somehow now randomly causing this issue I haven't had after at least 100 hours going through steam. 

When I try to launch a match going solely through EA Play it brings up the BF3 server website, click "Join Server", the Joining Server toolbar disappears, then the EA Play app says again "Failed to launch game. An error on our end caused the launch to fail. Try again a little later".

I was going to uninstall EA Play to get fresh install but decided to go the easy route of choosing the Fix option instead, to no avail.

Please let me play BF3 again. I well exceed the system requirements.