College Football 27 Has Single-Player Microtransactions And It’s Only The Beginning

There’s another EA controversy brewing, this time involving its College Football franchise. College Football 27 was released on July 2 for those who spent $150 on its MVP+ membership, and while players are praising the game for how it plays on the field, there’s a lot of anger in the community for what many believe is a massive overstep by the studio.

Players who’ve had the game for a week have noticed that EA has added microtransactions within their main single-player modes, Dynasty and Road to Glory. And they did so without previously letting fans, or creators who attended a special preview event in Chicago in June, know about the additions.

You Can Spend More Than The Price Of The Game

While microtransactions have been in games for nearly two decades at this point, these specific ones have many up in arms. EA has added the ability to pay real money to upgrade your player or coach, depending on the mode. For example, if you want to upgrade your coach in Dynasty to the max level at the beginning, it would cost you $100, which is more than the cost of the base game.

What’s more frustrating to players, and this is the real point of contention, is what EA removed from the game while adding the extra costs.

In College Football 25 and 26, players were able to adjust specific sliders to increase the amount of XP earned. This would allow players who may not have the time or simply don’t want to grind to level up quicker and play how they want. In College Football 27, those options have all been removed. The only way you can level up quicker now is by spending the money.

Pushback From Creators

Over the last 24-48 hours, several creators, many of them who have been partnered with EA as part of its creator program, have publicly called out these new microtransactions in the game.

Bordeaux put out the first video and started the hashtag “#CFBPlayDontPay” that reached as far as 9th in the United States.

“You can’t just sneak microtransactions in, have us creators super excited to play the game, say nothing about it in Chicago, and just expect this to be cool; expect us to all be so excited and happy about the game still,” Bordeaux said.

Other large creators have also put out public videos condemning the decision by EA to put them in, and are demanding a response from the company on the issue. The company, however, has yet to respond on the issue, though I’ve been told the developers have seen the growing pushback. A blog from the developers is expected to come on Thursday, July 9.

This Isn’t Out Of Nowhere

For those who’ve been out of the loop for a while, EA is set to change in a major way in the near future. Last year, it was announced that the company was being sold to a group that included the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake in a $55 billion deal.

The sale, which was originally scheduled to close by June 30, 2027, but hasn’t yet, would take the company private. It would also see EA take on $20 billion in new debt as a company.

And that’s a significant factor in everything.

Sources tell me that EA has been looking at ways to add more monetization options to all of the games and franchises in its portfolio. Whether it be College Football 27 and its single-player modes; UFC 6, which will have paid expansions for the first time; Madden 27, which will have more monetization as well; or EA FC with its upcoming The Grounds mode, everything is on the table regarding how EA is preparing to pay off that new debt. Even future single-player-only titles from EA will have more monetization options implemented.

Going back to College Football 27, these decisions, as you’d expect, didn’t come from the core team who’s responsible for the game. Speaking to multiple people who will remain anonymous due to not being permitted to talk to the press, many developers working on College Football 27, who knew about this implementation for months, were “livid”. Even the player response that has happened was expected, and there was a worry from at least some of those who spoke that it would “be loudest its ever been”.

But, those same sources say that it likely won’t result in much and EA is just waiting for things to blow over.

“It doesn’t matter how loud the noise is, unfortunately,” one source said. “A band-aid might be put out to make people happy in the short term, but additional costs for players are going to be added moving forward. It’ll all just have the messaging of, ‘Well, you don’t have to spend the money if you don’t want to.’”

EA did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

In other news, read about Sony’s CEO selling over half of his stock in the company after the PlayStation disc announcement. And for even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.