EA Link

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

EA (Electronic Arts) Link is an electronic content delivery system that brings the company's products directly to the consumer over the Internet like a purchased download would. The system also keeps gamers up to date with more of EA's products, patches, trailers, etc. in a manner similar to iTunes or Napster, except the transaction is for games, not music. In that way, the EA LINKbears more resemblance to Valve Corporation's service called Steam which is used to distribute games such as Half-Life 2.

EA Link was originally known as EA Downloader, but was renamed and upgraded.

How EA Link Works

1. Make your purchase.
2. Download EA Link to your computer. (EA Link is 11.9MB)
3. Install EA Link. Your purchased games will be displayed when you open EA Link.
4. Download your game by selecting "download now" button.
5. Install your game on release day to begin playing. A system tray reminder will indicate when game is ready for installation.

EA Link Advantages

• Easy Downloading
  • Downloading is often faster than visiting a store.
  • If your download is interrupted, EA Link will automatically resume where it left off.
• Easy Patching
  • Any new patches for your games will appear in your downloads list.
• Expansion Pack Pre-loading
  • Pre-download of new games for install when the game is released.
• No Additional Discs Required to Play
  • No need for a physical CD.
  • Install your games on multiple computers. Get EA Link from the website and use it to download your expansion packs to another PC if you already have the original game installed.
• Game Replacement for Lost Copies
  • If your game is bought on EA Link you can always re-download it. Even if your hard drive is formatted or the game is accidentally deleted.

EA Link Disadvantages

• Slow downloads
  • If the user has to re-install a downloaded game for some reason, the downloading process can sometimes go really slow or not at all if the pressure is high on the servers. This is often seen when new patches or new upgrades for i.e. Battlefield 2 is released.

[edit] Bugs

Since many of these bugs concerns EA Downloader and not EA Link, a lot of them are supposedly solved.

• With the release of Battlefield 2: Special Forces, and Battlefield 2142 some users have reported having problems with the programs internal CD-Key protection, due to corrupted files from either the download, or the EA Downloader itself.

• EA Downloader does not run in Vista RC2 x64, giving InstallShield 1628 errors and "IDriverT Module failed to respond" errors, even when ran as administrator and/or in WinXP SP2 compatibility mode.

• EA Downloader does not work with the Opera browser, returning an OS incompatibility error message when trying to purchase downloads, even when using the recommended operating systems.

• It is not possible to use EA Downloader via VNC as the Downloader window is not shown in VNC terminal.

• The EA Downloader occasionally gives people malfunctional downloads. These such were reported from downloads of BF2 patch 1.4, the BF2142 demo and even the retail of BF2142.

• When using EA Downloader, several users have had problems downloading any of the files. Error 7049:0 and 7049:5 are the most common errors that make downloading a file with EAD near impossible. EA has claimed that they are working on finding a fix since March 2006, but they have still (10/21/06) not found a solution to these problems.

• When purchasing through EA Downloader, make sure that you are able to download files with it in your region. Many people have purchased a game through EA Downloader, and then have been informed that EA Downloaderr is not supported in their region.

[edit] External links

• EA Link