Okay so Dan at EA Help on Twitter DM'd me almost immediately this time. He's been the most forthcoming EA rep I've been in contact with.
Long story short, there is a system limitation at the EA end that is stopping us from linking another Xbox account. The system is still being developed but there is no guarantee that our issue will be resolved. The unlinking accounts page on EA Help - https://help.ea.com/en/help/account/unlink-gaming-accounts-from-ea-account/ will be the best place to look out for any changes to the linking restrictions.
The best place to try to get someone at EA to look at this issue is the forums, so post here I guess.
My DM conversation is below;
DAN: Hello again, thanks for getting back to me. OK you mentioned that you unlinked an old unused Xbox Gamertag from your EA account. Are you now trying to link another Gamertag to that same EA account? If so, what error message are you getting when you try to do that? -Dan
ME: Yes that's exactly it! I am just on my laptop, not my desktop, but I will try to replicate the error on EA Desktop. Basically EA Desktop won't let me sign in when directed from my Xbox Game Pass for PC account because it says that my EA account has been previously linked to another Xbox account, the old one that I unlinked.
I'll try to get you a screenshot
Okay, so this is the error that has been causing me so much grief!
"Your accounts can’t be linked because the EA Account for **********@********** was previously linked to the Xbox account for *****************. An EA Account can only be linked to one Xbox account in its lifetime."
DAN: Thanks for clarifying for me. And this may actually be the system working as intended. When you remove a linked 'Platform account' such as an XBL Gamertag, that Gamertag can be linked to another EA account but the EA account cannot be linked to another XBL Gamertag. Unlinking Platform accounts is a relatively new feature we have & it still has limitations, this being one of them. You can click the link below for some extra info on this & it explains the different scenarios a bit more clearly: - https://help.ea.com/en/help/account/unlink-gaming-accounts-from-ea-account/… This should work for you if you were to use a new EA account to link your new Xbox account. That would bypass the error & get you into the game -Dan
ME: This *************** account I haven't used since I owned an xbox 360 (remember those!), and I never recall linking my EA account to it
The deal is, I don't want two EA accounts, I have a reasonable paid library on my existing EA account. I know Origin and EA desktop can't be logged into separate accounts at the same time. Plus I am not keen on a second EA account being linked to my current Xbox account because this might make resolving the issue more difficult once your system matures
So, the question is will I be able to link my EA account and current Xbox account at some point in the future? Is this something you guys are working on?
I say this because there is a fairly lengthy forum thread on EA Answers with a bunch of people with the same issue.
DAN: Yeah I'm a big fan of the 360, still have mine in storage as a keepsake. Well the old Gamertag you unlinked recently is what's causing the issue. Since it was linked to your original EA account that you're trying to use now, the system won't allow for the new Microsoft account to be linked to it. And I can completely understand you not wanting to have another EA account, it's hard enough to keep track of all the other accounts we need these days. For now, it's not going to allow the linking to take place. But as I mentioned, this is a relatively new option that we've given to Users (the unlinking option) & it's been getting better & better each month since we added it. So it's always possible that it's going to improve again later on down the line but I can't guarantee that for you today. It's very possible that this is the limit & linking to a fresh EA account is the only option you're going to have for some time. I hope this provides some insight for you but if you have more questions let me know -Dan
ME: You have been the most helpful EA rep I've come across so far, so you might want someone to post a bit of an explanation for the guys on the forums.
Also there appears to be people that had two Xbox accounts linked to their EA account simultaneously and have had trouble unlinking one. That's a situation I would like to be in!
If you are happy, I wouldn't mind sharing your response on the forums
Is there anyone in EA I can appeal to about sorting the linking of new Xbox accounts?
DAN: You're very welcome for the help & I appreciate the feedback. And yes if you think my response would be useful to those you've seen on the forum threads, you can share it with them. And yes the multiple Xbox Gamertags on one EA account scenario is an easier one to fix as you can just remove one & then keep going with your main one. We can do that from the Support side if everything works as intended. Regarding you appealing to anyone else that could help, there isn't really anyone or any avenue I would suggest other than the forums. We're aware of this issue & it's a technical limitation for now more than anything else. As far as I'm aware. There are so many scenarios that you have to factor in & we've tried to accommodate as many as possible for now. -Dan
ME: Okay Dan, well thanks for the explanation, that's the most information I've been able to get on the subject from anyone official. But I know myself an others would appreciate if your guys could keep beavering away at this, and if a resolution rears it's head, I'd love to be informed.
DAN: That's no problem at all & I hope that info helps. The best place to keep an eye on actually is that help article about Unlinking EA Accounts. That's going to be updated whenever more options become available or we change how this whole process works. Take care & have a great day -Dan
