Infinite "Preparing game..." rendering Titanfall 2 inoperable

I've gone through every single one of these steps and even tried to sort out what was happening with windbg and all I can find is a nest of services trying to talk to one another. Near as I can tell I can't launch any EA games similar to your scenario.

Here is all that I was able to find on my own. I apologize for such a big data dump to your topic, but this is clearly an ongoing issue with EA's app post-origin shutdown.

Worth noting this same behavior happens when running the error reporter, EA flavored splash screen, crashes, same ntdll.dll in the event log. Ironically enough.

Some hits in relation to token impersonation - but even after checking run as admin for every exe in ea's directory + the fact my user is a local admin these errors still spam the logs. It's unclear if that's a red herring. 

   249    [2025-05-18T19:37:42.089Z]    PID: 21332     TID:  7748     ERROR     (eax::WinUtils::getUserImpersonationToken)   Failed to query user token probably because process is running under non-SYSTEM account; error=[A required privilege is not held by the client.]

   250    [2025-05-18T19:37:42.089Z]    PID: 21332     TID:  7748     ERROR     (eax::WinUtils::getUserImpersonationToken)   Failed to query user token probably because process is running under non-SYSTEM account; error=[A required privilege is not held by the client.]

   251    [2025-05-18T19:37:42.089Z]    PID: 21332     TID:  7748     ERROR     (eax::WinUtils::getUserImpersonationToken)   Failed to query user token probably because process is running under non-SYSTEM account; error=[A required privilege is not held by the client.]

Not sure why impersonation would fail without digging much deeper / code access

Some time later from EADesktop.log it says 200 ok - and then fails:

206    [2025-05-18T19:48:50.172Z]    PID: 28448     TID: 20864     INFO      (eax::components::auth::AuthViewHolder::handlePageLoading)  Login page load started

   207    [2025-05-18T19:48:50.173Z]    PID: 28448     TID: 18596     INFO      (eax::foundation::StateMachineBase::dispatchQueued)    DesktopFSM[awaitingAuthentication]: dequeue event 'EventExtActionQdListenerStarted'

   208    [2025-05-18T19:48:50.173Z]    PID: 28448     TID: 18596     INFO      (eax::foundation::StateMachineBase::dispatchEvent)     DesktopFSM[awaitingAuthentication]: dispatch event 'EventExtActionQdListenerStarted'

   209    [2025-05-18T19:48:50.173Z]    PID: 28448     TID: 18596     INFO      (eax::foundation::StateMachineBase::dispatchEvent)     DesktopFSM[awaitingAuthentication]:     rejected (isPendingLink2EA == false)

   210    [2025-05-18T19:48:50.175Z]    PID: 28448     TID:  8492     INFO      (eax::components::clientLibrary::ClientCatalogCache::cacheCatalogStore)    cacheCatalogStore(serializedContent) called, here we'll create ClientCatalogStore out of passed parameter serializedContent.

   211    [2025-05-18T19:48:50.189Z]    PID: 28448     TID:  8492     INFO      (eax::components::clientLibrary::ClientCatalogStore::updateInfos)     Client catalog cache: SYNC COMPLETE

   212    [2025-05-18T19:48:51.442Z]    PID: 28448     TID: 20864     INFO      (eax::components::auth::AuthViewHolder::handlePageLoadSuccess)   Login page load succeeded, HttpStatus:[200]

From Verbose - redacted some hashes that might be identifying from cookie values: 

   601  [2025-05-18T19:48:51.458Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 18596  VERBOSE   (eax::foundation::messaging::Mailbox::depositMessage) [Message] --- Mailbox [AuthenticationComponent Outbox], added message [ChangeSplashVisibility][:0]

   602  [2025-05-18T19:48:51.458Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 18596  VERBOSE   (eax::foundation::messaging::Mailbox::depositMessage) [Message] --- Mailbox [DesktopComponent Inbox], added message [ChangeSplashVisibility][:0]

   603  [2025-05-18T19:48:51.458Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 18596  VERBOSE   (eax::foundation::messaging::Mailbox::depositMessage) [Message] --- Mailbox [AuthenticationComponent Outbox], added message [FocusMainWindow][:0]

   604  [2025-05-18T19:48:51.458Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 18596  VERBOSE   (eax::foundation::messaging::Mailbox::depositMessage) [Message] --- Mailbox [UiComponent Inbox], added message [FocusMainWindow][:0]

   605  [2025-05-18T19:48:51.458Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 18596  VERBOSE   (eax::foundation::messaging::Mailbox::dispatchToHandler)  Calling all handlers (1) for message [ChangeSplashVisibility]

   606  [2025-05-18T19:48:51.458Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 20864  DEBUG     (eax::services::cefQtUtils::DisplayHandler::OnTitleChange)  Title changed, browser=[1], title=[SIGN IN],

   607  [2025-05-18T19:48:51.458Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 18596  VERBOSE   (eax::foundation::messaging::Mailbox::dispatchToHandler)  Calling all handlers (1) for message [FocusMainWindow]

   608  [2025-05-18T19:48:51.821Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 20864  DEBUG     (?) [JS:1] [https://eaaccounts.akamaized.net/resource_signin_ea_com//p/statics/juno/js/jquery.juno-common.v_1745390734-min.js:1] [ORIGIN][WEBCHANNEL] connection established.

   609  [2025-05-18T19:48:52.540Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 20864  VERBOSE   (eax::services::qtUtils::CookieJar::onCookieAdded)  Cookie added: [name=[AWSALBTG], domain=[pin-river.data.ea.com], path=[/], secure=[false], http-only=[false],

   610  [2025-05-18T19:48:52.540Z]  PID: 28448  TID: 20864  VERBOSE   (eax::services::qtUtils::CookieJar::onCookieAdded)  Cookie added: [name=[AWSALBTGCORS], domain=[pin-river.data.ea.com], path=[/], secure=[true], http-only=[false],

Can confirm the pin-river.data.ea.com resolves without issue. 

EADesktop.exe.txt exception info, this also fails to write out a call stack.

[Application info]
App path: C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EA Desktop\EA Desktop\EADesktop.exe
Language: C++
Compiler: Microsoft Visual C++ compiler, version 1939
Addressing: 64 bit
App version: 13.464.0.5977

[Exception info]
Date: 2025-05-18
Time: 12.54.05
Thread: id: 912, sys id: 23244, name: external
Type: ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x24d00000080
Instruction address: 0x00007fff2aa3d99a "C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll":0x0001:0x000ac99a

Event viewer event information

Faulting application name: EADesktop.exe, version: 13.453.0.5966, time stamp: 0x680fb93f
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.22621.5262, time stamp: 0x3b213567
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x000000000010d539
Faulting process id: 0x0x5354

Responding again just to see if I can bump the topic back into someone's feed. The only solutions I've seen that aren't listed above are:

A:   cross your fingers and see if it fixes itself

or B:   disregard the EA app and use Origin

The latter seems to have been by far the most viable option of being able to actually play the game I payed tangible money for up until a handful of weeks ago when the method of using Origin was patched. The only solution to easily the most egregious issue I've ever seen in one of these parasitic little dinky pseudo-launchers (you cannot play the game you paid money for) was patched in a nice and timely manner whereas this problem has been showing since day 1 and has not been fixed.

If you're not going to do anything about the problem, at least let me go back to Origin.

To echo what kidsquidBTW​ is saying. Origin was a viable option for some time, but there's no method of authenticating via Origin with the backend services no spun down. 

I have no idea what changed between my deep dive and today - the app opened for a hot minute after starting the EAbackground service manually, but wasn't able to recreate the behavior after it crashed once.

2025-05 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5058405)

There are some very large megathreads about windows 11 updates that broke anticheat software but it's hard to tell if that's related to just the desktop app even launching.

No idea if this applies to you kidsquidBTW​ - I changed my upstream DNS provider from Cloudflare to google, and I'm now able to log into the EA app. I'm downloading a game now, will ping back if it fails. 

Best guess, Cloudflare doesn't like the domains that EA is using for telemetry? Not sure.

Ularm​ Changing from cloudflare DNS to Google DNS on my router appears to have solved the issue for me as well, I'll report back if it starts happening again. The odd thing however is I only actually changed my Router's DNS settings today- previously it was pulling DNS from my modem, which is locked to my ISP's DNS, and it was happening then too.

Best guess is your ISP is using cloudflare as their provider. I wouldn't be surprised. If I'm following your response correctly. 

Nevermind it started happening again.