I will admit I didn’t expect this particularly, but Electronic Arts has back peddled wildly and removed its scandalous micro transactions from this year’s version of College Football.
, why exactly the whole thing stank to high heaven last week, but the basic gist is, that progression in single player mode was slowed down unless you coughed up close on $100 in micro transactions to boost your coach and player XP, and then, after 30 in-game years you lost the lot and had to buy more to do it all over again. Something which last year could be done for free with the use of in-game sliders.
Somebody who probably gets off on the P&L sheet came out with a better idea to charge for that kind of bonus , and well, players didn’t like it and have forced a reversal of that silly, silly decision. See? We can do it when we band together kids. We are celebrating a win over the Empire here. Are you listening Sony?
In a statement on social media, EA said:
“Happy College Football 27 Launch Week
Thank you for your continued passion and for the incredible response to College Football 27.
We love this game and this sport. College Football is and always will be about the sights, sounds, pageantry, traditions, and atmospheres of Saturday. In College Football 27, we aspired to deliver the deepest experience to date with all-new Dynasty Blueprint, new positions in Road to Glory, and the best College Football gameplay yet. However, your feedback on Road to Glory and Dynasty is that we’ve missed the mark with the introduction of paid progression options. This was added independent of deeper mode progression with the aim to give players more choice, but what you’ve said is that they’re not adding the value we intended.
Tomorrow morning, we will remove all paid progression options from Road to Glory and Online Dynasty. An unfortunate side effect of removing paid progression is that players that have College Point balances in their wallets will not be able to apply the balances in Road to Glory or Dynasty – so jump in between now and then and apply your points!
Our goal for live service plans in CFB28 and beyond will be to deliver valuable features and content with greater transparency and communication.
We’re moving fast to respond to your feedback in-game so stay tuned for follow-up communications next week where we’ll take you through more design details and share our goals for College Football 27.
We love this game. We love this community. We love college football. CFB27 is our third and best CFB ever and we can’t wait to see you on the field.
– Your Dev Team #CFBGoPlay“
Ah. Plenty of people have moved to thank EA for the decision. As, you can imagine, being grumpy as a rule, I am not going to do that. I’m not thanking a company for doing something right. That’s the baseline we should expect. Stop simping. This is the best line from the statement “but what you’ve said is that they’re not adding the value we intended.” The only obvious value to players seemed to be the value it added to EA’s bank balance. Stop it.
The whole thing is just really sad and avoidable. It was a crass money-making move and was caught and called out for what it was. The interesting thing now is what happens to EA’s other plans for other sports game in its stable. Does it let angry gamers stop all of its micro transaction schemes going forward?
So, do we think that’s the end of it? Does big company no longer want more money? The statement already says CFB28 will be more transparent. So just this but not hiding it from reviewers then? Well, I guess we can wait and see, but we probably all know the answer. Keep your eyes peeled squad. We have them on the run.
Authored by
Paul McNally
Paul McNally has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title. Paul has written high-end gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine, PlayStation Pro, Amiga Action, Mega Action, ST Action, GQ, Loaded, and the The Mirror. He has also hosted panels at retro-gaming conventions and can regularly be found guesting on gaming podcasts and Twitch shows. Believing that the reader deserves actually to enjoy what they are reading is a big part of Paul’s ethos when it comes to gaming journalism, elevating the sites he works on above the norm.
