Summary
WhenEA Sports FC 25releases later this year, it’ll boast a wealth of new modes and features, including Rush, which will be replacing VOLTA. It’ll also apparently be launching with a paid season pass. That’s on top of its $69.99 price tag,even on last generation’s PS4.
Information about FC 25’s potential season pass comes from VG247, which notes that it personally saw screenshots of a would-be premium pass. Presumably titled as the “Premium Tier” pass, it’ll be across Career, Pro Clubs and Ultimate Team, making it a constant throughout the game. It’ll apparently provide players with packs, customization options and players, though it remains to be seen what exactly makes the “Premium Tier” pass, well, premium.
Players Can Purchase The Pass With Coins Or FC Points
According to the report, the new paid season pass can be purchased with either FC Points or Ultimate Team coins. For the uninitiated,FC Points are the paid-for currency in the football title, while Ultimate Team coins can be unlocked naturally via game progression and market play.
It’s an interesting wrinkle to make the pass unlockable via coins. That’s because in EA’s other live-service endeavor,Apex Legends,it recently made the decision to shift its battle pass to a real-life money-only model. It’s unclear what the cost will be for the pass, and whether there will be a price discrepancy between the two payment methods to account for the potential of unlocking it via natural game time.
Presently, there is a free track in FC 24, and this new track will play out similarly.Per the report, it’ll become available once players reach a certain level within the free track. From there, players will unlock stuff from the free and Premium Tier track concurrently.
While the prospect of a paid season pass for a game that already features heavy monetization and is also a yearly release is a tough pill to swallow, EA maintains that it won’t be as bad as it seems.
“At a high level, there will be nothing in the paid tier that can’t be earned in the free tier,” Richard Waltz, the FC Ulimate Team Game Design Director said. “There’s no exclusive rewards that will mean that you have to do that. We’re going to be having players, packs, that sort of thing, in Clubs, customization options."
Of course, it’s probably best to see how things are implemented before taking EA’s word on things. And if the pass concept is a rousing success, then could it make its way into other EA titles? After all, EA has a quasi monopoly on the sports video game landscape, releasing annual iterations of NHL, Madden NFL and FC (formerly FIFA) titles, with UFC titles coming every so often and F1 also in the mix. It also recently revived its college football title with College Football 25 set to be released Friday. In other words, the pass could eventually become EA’s next cash cow.
