It appears that Electronic Arts has banned an entire country from accessing its Origin PC game service and it’s unclear right now whether this was due to some glitch or something that the company did on purpose. Origin users in Myanmar have not been able to access their EA PC games today, they are being prevented from playing any and all games they purchased from this digital service including recent titles like Titanfall 2.
Reddit is full of reports from gamers in Myanmar who have been facing this problem today. When they try to sign into Origin they are getting a message which says “Access Denied.” One reddit user claims to have been told by a customer service representative that U.S. law is to blame for this regional ban.
Even if it did take this action on purpose, Electronic Arts is now setting things right again. A spokesperson for the company has confirmed that “We are working to restore access to Origin for our players in Myanmar. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and we’ll share updates on timing as soon as possible.”
The reasons for this ban are unclear right now and even puzzling because the United States government recently lifted trade sanctions that were imposed on Myanmar a few decades ago. Origin was launched in the country when the sanctions were in place which is why it’s puzzling to find out that users there are being actively blocked from accessing the service.