Some EA games on Steam come with it, and won’t launch without it. For example Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which it so happens I am playing currently and so I was affected by this bug.
In case it’s useful to anyone in the future there is a workaround to get playing again without waiting for a Proton update. You download the .exe of the current version of the EA app from EA directly, then use protontricks to uninstall the EA app version in your game’s wine prefix. Then again with protontricks you install the version you downloaded to replace it, after which the app should launch and you can sign in again and play the game.
If I’d known Mass Effect LE was forced to go through the EA app this way I’d never have bought it, but alas I got it on an opportunistic deep discount and didn’t play it until well outside the refund window. Live and learn I guess.
Some EA games on Steam come with it, and won’t launch without it. For example Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which it so happens I am playing currently and so I was affected by this bug.
In case it’s useful to anyone in the future there is a workaround to get playing again without waiting for a Proton update. You download the .exe of the current version of the EA app from EA directly, then use protontricks to uninstall the EA app version in your game’s wine prefix. Then again with protontricks you install the version you downloaded to replace it, after which the app should launch and you can sign in again and play the game.
If I’d known Mass Effect LE was forced to go through the EA app this way I’d never have bought it, but alas I got it on an opportunistic deep discount and didn’t play it until well outside the refund window. Live and learn I guess.