Summary
College Football 25is a good game, but that doesn’t mean it’s free from some ofEA Sports' worst habits or bad trends in video games in general. One of the strongest indications of this isthe game’s Ultimate Team mode,which utilizes some of gaming’s worst trends: battle passes, loot boxes, and trading real money for in-game currency. There’s also the Deluxe Edition of the game that barely came with any extra content and was mostly just a way to pre-purchase in-game money or convince players that the MVP Bundle was actually a deal.
While these are the most obvious issues with the game,College Football 25also plays into another issue that has become more common in gaming. This issue is more subtly bad since, on the face of it, it seems like an exciting feature. However, once more thought is put into it, it becomes clear that this feature is actually just a cheap trick to squeeze more money out of customers.
College Football 25 Review: A Fresh Take Held Back By A Weird UI
College Football 25 is a largely successful return to the world of college football, held back from perfection by some clunky user interface.
EA College Football Charged Extra For Early Access
The Deluxe Edition Gave Players The Chance To Play Early
College Football 25’s $99.99Deluxe Edition gave players access to the game three days earlierthan those who bought the $69.99 Standard Edition. This has been a growing trend in video games, and one that is disappointing to see. Clearly, the game is ready to go when it’s given to players who spend more for the Deluxe Edition, so there’s no reason that shouldn’t just be the actual release date. Companies are just cashing in on FOMO, and independent content creators are trying to stay ahead of the curve to charge extra for their games.
This is just one of several predatory monetization strategies that some game companies have been engaging in recently to boost revenue. One would hope that players could see through these types of tactics and opt not to spend the extra money, simply getting companies to just have a firm release date for the game instead of pay-walling early access. Unfortunately,College Football 25seems to show that this isn’t the case.
10 Biggest EA Sports College Football 25 Differences & Changes From NCAA Football 14
EA Sports is returning to the world of College Football for the first time in 10 years, here are all the big changes College Football 25 has made.
College Football 25’s Deluxe Edition Sold Well
It Sold Over 2 Million Copies
According toIGN, 2.2 million unique users were playingCollege Football 25during this early access period. That means a huge number of players paid extra for the Deluxe Edition, encouraging EA and other companies to continue this disappointing trend. While some of these early access players may have bought the MVP bundle — which includes bothCollege Football 25andMadden NFL 25— those players were also overcharged for their games, though not as much.
The MVP bundle provides players with the Deluxe Edition of both games — a $200 value — for $150. While that seems like a deal, it’s worth remembering that this is $10 more than buying the Standard Edition of both games. So, players were still paying extra mostly for early access and some in-game currency that doesn’t actually costEAanything. As long as this strategy keeps working, it is likely that paying for early access is going to stick around.
