FC 26 PC (Steam) Version Unable to Launch - Error: "your computer is offline..."
I know now is a busy time with the release of a new FC game, however I can't help but get frustrated at the fact that I paid $130 for this game, with the promise of being able to play early, and haven't been able to. I preordered the ultimate edition on Steam, and have a friend that did the same as well. He's been able to open the game and play just fine, however I haven't.
My problem:
I downloaded EA FC 26 Ultimate Edition on Steam. Whenever I open the game (either from my desktop, Steam, or the EA App), I get an EA popup saying "Preparing game..." while it loads. After a while, it disappears and I'm greeted with an error that says "We've noticed your computer is currently offline. To activate your game on this computer using your EA Account, you'll need to connect to the Internet," with the option to press okay. When I press okay, the popup disappears and I'm greeted with an FC 26 Anti-cheat popup. A green bar loads at the bottom, and once it's full, the popup disappears and I'm greeted with the same error from before. After I press okay this time, the EA app opens up to the FC 26 page, with the error popup that says "Failed to launch game - An error on our end caused the launch to fail. Try again a little later."
Things to address:
My computer is very much not offline, as if it was, I wouldn't be able to write here. Even still, I've unplugged my ethernet cable and tried to run the game while connected wirelessly to the internet, to no avail. Here are some of the other things I've tried to fix this problem that hasn't worked:
- Verified file integrity multiple times
- Reset my computer multiple times
- Moved the game from my solid state drive to my hard disk drive
- Uninstalled and reinstalled the game
- Installed Visual C++ Files x86 and x64 (according to a YouTube video with a similar error)
- Ran the game as an administrator from the game installation folder
- Enabled compatibility mode in the game's properties
- Disabled full-screen optimization in the game's properties
- Checked computer for new driver updates
None of these have worked, and I eventually gave up as the error that the YouTube video was providing help with was similar but not the same one I had. I'll look back at the video and try the other stuff it suggests after I upload this, however based on the error I keep receiving, the issue has something to do with my EA account (I have also made sure my steam and EA account were linked). My computer is also very capable of running the game.
My computer specs are:
- CPU: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
- Memory: 32.0 GB
- 1 TB SSD
- 1 TB HDD
- OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Home
Below are screenshots of the popups I receive during the launching process. I hope this detailed explanation can gather people with the same issue I'm having, as well as make the support process for the EA employees as easy as possible.
Sidenote: It's not fair for a multi-million dollar company to charge $130 for early access to a game, for the game to just not work. However, it's equally as unfair to the employees of EA (who are still human beings), to be expected to solve each individual's problem immediately, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY GET HATE FOR NOT DOING SO!!! These are real human beings that do their best to do their job while getting cussed out the second something doesn't go right. How about us as customers, collectively recognize that it'll be easier for them to respond to our problems if their forums aren't filled with stupid posts like "game not opening" "F*CK YOU EA!!!" "controller not working".
