Drew Mestemaker says seeing himself in EA SPORTS College Football 27 is ‘really cool’
Oklahoma State quarterback Drew Mestemaker has gone from walk-on to breakout star at North Texas to being able to see himself in a video game with the Cowboys.
- College Football 27 first came out for early access July 2 before its worldwide release July 9. Early access cost $100 for the game and $150 for EA’s MVP+ membership.
- After fan outcry over microtransactions limiting offline progression in popular modes, EA Sports announced July 10 it would remove paid progression from the game.
Backlash from early players of the College Football 27 video game has caused EA Sports to backtrack on its paid progression model.
Gameplay for the latest installment in the popular college football video game franchise has been lauded as the best since the series’ revival in 2024. And its availability on PC for the first time since NCAA 14 back in 2013 was lauded by fans. Yet of the more than 1,000 reviews on Steam in the two days since its worldwide release July 9, more than 70% have been negative.
That’s largely in response to EA Sports’ microtransactions in its popular offline modes. In Dynasty mode, players can take over a program and build it over decades into a national powerhouse, while Road to Glory follows a created player’s path from high school recruit to Heisman Trophy contender. Gamers who purchased early access to CFB 27 were vocal about the changes Orlando-based EA Sports made to the progression models from last year’s College Football 26, notably that the only way to get good enough to win was to pay for the XP on top of the $70 it cost just for the game’s standard edition (earliest access would cost at least $100 for the Deluxe Edition plus a $150 MVP+ membership).
On July 9, EA Sports announced on its forum that it heard the feedback and was planning to put faster coach progression sliders back into the game in a future patch. And in a post on social media July 10, it said that during server maintenance Saturday, July 11, all paid progression options would be removed from both Dynasty and Road to Glory.
“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,” read the July 10 post. “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.”
What are microtransactions in CFB27?
Microtransactions, or small purchases made in games, have become an unwelcome regular feature in modern video games, forcing players to continue to spend real-world money to advance through games and improve characters rather than by simply getting better by playing. Gamers see it as a way companies continue to milk money from their audience.
In College Football 27, gamers found that building up experience for their coaches in Dynasty mode and players in Road to Glory wasn’t as fast as it was in College Football 26. In last year’s game, XP sliders were available to more quickly gain experience, something valuable for players who don’t have dozens and dozens of hours to kill grinding away in order to get good enough to compete.
That’s also something that reviewers said was no longer available without paying for “College Football Points” in CFB 27. An article by Kotaku also said that there is a cap on the amount of XP available without paying cash, and Insider Gaming noted that reviewers granted early access in previews said those versions did not include these changes.
The #CFBPlayDontPay hashtag caught fire as streamers and game reviewers, including YouTuber Bordeaux, who said he would no longer partner with EA after doing so with previous CFB editions, spread the word about the shady practice. “I really hope this is a lesson to a lot of the gaming companies out there: Do not take your community for granted,” he said in a video posted after EA’s announcement about removing the microtransactions. “Do not take your community like you can just charge up a little extra money and get away with it there.”
College Football 27 update
EA Sports gave its initial update July 9, the game’s wide release date, acknowledging some of the criticism and noting what changes would be coming down the line in future patches. It said the game’s new Dynasty Blueprint changed how coach progression worked depending on the coach archetype, perks and staff decisions, adding that Coach XP Speed Settings were available in both online and offline play, while XP accelerators were available in online play only. For Road to Glory, EA said progression was redesigned around earning weekly XP during gameplay and setting a player’s Weekly Agenda.
Here’s what the company said was in store in upcoming Title Updates, with more details coming next week:
- Three new Coach XP Speed Settings: Casual (1.5 times progression), Simulation (1.25x) and Career (“authentic” 1x)
- Gameplay: Decreasing pancake blocks and fixing a delay on Switch Stick timing on defense
- Dynasty: Fixing high-rated recruits getting passed up for offers
- Road to Glory: Fixing edge players not triggering position players to move up the depth chart
In announcing the removal of paid progressions, EA also said any College Points in their wallet wouldn’t be able to spend them in Dynasty and Road to Glory after the update.
