Sports… Video Games?
#cfbplaydontpay spread like wildfire in the sports gaming community last week. I already typed up 2 pages by Friday the 10th about my feelings, the facts, the rumors, and what content creators were sharing. Things have changed since then.
I’m done with EA Sports. Okay, this is different from what we usually talk about. You can argue it’s not sports; I’ll show you EA Sports, you’ll say they aren’t athletes, I’ll say it’s still about sports. There, let's move on. We’re both right. Now I’ve owned at least one new EA sports game every year since 07. Madden, NHL, FIFA (now FC), Street, UFC, NCAA (now College Football), F1, and more. On a couple of occasions, I’ve bought all the new ones and in the same year.
Now these games have been doing something for well over a decade. Pay-to-win through microtransactions. They’ve been there for online play but not offline play. I don’t mind; I don’t play those online head-to-head battles because I KNOW ITS PAY-TO-WIN! And I’m not spending hundreds of real-life dollars to win. I’m also not good enough to beat them without it, I must admit. But alas, my favorite parts of these games were the franchises, which are offline. It’s always been gross and I sneer every time they try to get me to buy something. I already spent $60(now $70). So just leave me alone.
But something that has happened with the new College Football 27 game that has been stirring up the sports gaming community. EA has introduced microtransactions to offline play. Meaning to win against computer/NPC/bots you must now pay more than what you already had to play the game. Notice I didn’t say owned? Another topic, yes, but now when you pay those said $70 for the game, you’re only buying the license to play. So, they can take it away if they want. You don't own it anymore. “The EA Services are licensed to you, not sold.”. But now, if I want to win in an offline mode, I must pay more for a game I already don’t own.
Some of YouTube’s biggest sports (football primarily) content creators have already spoken out against this and have even started a hashtag, #cfbplaydontpay. Creators like Not The Expert, RBT, Bordeaux, and many more. They use words like gross, sneaky, and heinous when talking about EA’s choice to do this. IGN also called the microtransactions a “scumbag move”.
EA also removed the ability to make you gain your XP faster in offline mode. Sometimes people want to build monster teams or players in a short amount of time. But now they’ll be forced to pay real-life money to do that. You could’ve had success in a 3–4-year career as a player at a small school before. But because of this new thing they pulled, you are now forced to use top teams from the SEC, maybe B1G. And they’re expecting you to pay for what? 40-50 games and your career is over. That is absurd! Who is paying for that? Not The Expert in his “Why EA…” video says, “It feels like a strategy for a scummy mobile game.” @PAPAxC4 on X/twitter confirmed that the XP boosters for fast and faster are in the game files but have been turned off.
Papa C4 also confirmed that he won 10 national titles in 10 years. In the coach dynasty game mode, the max level is 100. Well after those 10 natties, he was only level 48. EA is trying to shovel as much money into their pockets as possible. To reach max level it would possibly take over 300 in real life hours to accomplish it without spending extra money. WHAT?? What does EA need all this money???
I mean they just were bought out for 55 million dollars last year! They were making all the right steps from CFB24-25. But this is disgusting. Thanks to Bordeaux for the new hashtag. And I agreed with Not The Expert, this is not a developer problem. They were actually listening to fans and trying to make it exactly how we wanted it. But someone somewhere higher up wanted more money. It really should be more of a sandbox style game! “It is a predatory model” – Not The Expert
Not mentioning the microtransactions… was on purpose because they knew we’d be upset. Corporate greed! Bordeaux believes we can fix this but only right now. All single player modes are now at risk against, probably at first, sports games. He’s saying spread the word, keep posting the hashtag. If you’re looking for a more heated and passionate reaction video, Bordeaux’s “EA… We Need to Talk” video is great and informative. Not The Expert is also very informative and more levelheaded but very honest.
But now as of the post of this blog, EA has apologized and fixed it! WHAT??? When has a big game dev company ever fully given us what we want? We won! Microtransactions have already been removed! Over the weekend EA sent out a message. They thanked the fans for their response. They apologized for “missing the mark with the introduction of paid progression options.” And saying it was meant “to give players more choice”. HA! Don’t make me laugh. Your introduction? Do you plan to attempt this with future projects? “You’ve said is that they’re not adding the value we intended.” Clearly. Yes. I just feel like they’re going to try and bring it back next year.
They made the post and said they would have all of it removed by the morning of the next day. They also stated, “Our goals for live service plans in CFB28 and beyond will be to deliver valuable features and content with greater transparency and communication”. EA, you have been pulling tricks like this for over a decade. And not just your sports games. Ask the Stars Wars gaming community how they feel about EA.
Bordeaux and Not The Expert made response videos to the statement release. Both still are standing on their words of deciding to never work with EA again. EA still tried to sneak this in though. They knew what they were doing. If they want to make us believe in this game they’re going to have to work hard. Everyone’s hoping for more of a sand box experience. After all this I plan on buying the game again. But just not yet. I want to see where this goes. I still want to be careful of course.
One win at a time. I feel like playing Sweet Victory, just like at the Bubble Bowl! They still don’t have my trust, but this win is huge for CFB gamers. All of this happened in roughly 72 hours. I honestly didn’t believe it would fully be fixed, and especially this fast.
So, thanks to moments like this and the Sonic movie trailer. Yes, bullying and being loud to these billionaires does work. Thousands of people were showing proof of them returning the game and getting their money back. Not The Expert and Bordeaux saved College Football, or at least got the foundation started. But what is EA going to try and attempt for CFB28? Not sure. Let’s just go play some Road to Glory.
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36 ESV
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