College Football 27 Folds Under Pressure Over Microtransactions

If there's been one sports game fans have been waiting years to return, it's EA Sports College Football.

That wish came true a few years ago to rave reviews. Since then, however, it's been as bad as Penn State's 2025 season. (Spoiler alert: it was atrocious)

Our very own Ethan Krieger had the pleasure of reviewing this year's outing, and while we enjoyed the gameplay, he pretty much hated everything else.

"EA Sports College Football 27 is fun to play when you're actually on the field and engaging with the game, but there's too much going on off the field to look past anymore," he said in his closing comments. "It's a patch or two away from running as it should, and peppered with quirks and inconsistencies that should've been ironed out by now."

The biggest issue is the game's predatory microtransactions, of which there are far too many. Public outcry has been quite vocal, and it seems like EA has been listening.

EA Sports: "We've Missed the Mark"

In an announcement on social media, the EA Sports College Football account said that it will be removing all paid progression options in both Road to Glory and Online Dynasty.

They start by talking about how they aimed to deliver "the deepest [College Football] experience to date," backed by Dynasty Blueprint, new positions in Road to Glory, and "the best College Football gameplay yet." Again, when it came to the gameplay side of things, we liked what we saw! It's just the rest of the game that left a sour taste in our mouths. We weren't the only ones to feel that way, either.

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 independently 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.

On the morning of July 11th, 2026, EA Sports will remove all paid progression options from Road To Glory and Dynasty. They also add that the team is "moving fast to respond to feedback-in game," and more communications are expected next week to share the overall goal for College Football 27.

It's been a busy week for online backlash against unpopular decisions in gaming.

In response to Sony's decision to halt production of physical PlayStation games in 2028, there's an online petition on gaming steam in hopes of reversing their decision. Unfortunately, I wouldn't expect much to change there, even as people cancel their PlayStation Plus subscriptions. That lost money is a drop in a very large bucket of cash Sony will be saving by going 100% digital with their games.

EA Sports College Football is a little different, though. First is the fact that the game is backed by one of the most passionate fan bases in all of gaming. Combine that with the fact that College Football fans, in general, are some of the most rabid fan bases you'll ever see, and it's the perfect storm for a community rallying with one another to force EA's hands.

During a celebration on the game's subreddit, one comment says, "Yall really bullied them into taking it out W community wish 2k community was like this." Indeed, this is a big fan for sports fans everywhere. Yes, microtransactions are always going to exist in these games, and as others are pointing out in that thread, if it's just cosmetics, that's one thing. One person says, Yeah like a $4.99 jersey pack with 100+ uniforms would be digestible. It would be more in line with regular 'DLC.'" What EA Sports did in College Football 27, though, was beyond unacceptable. Thankfully, they've reversed course.