EA's College Football 27 is getting review-bombed over hidden single-player microtransactions

[DragonSlayer101]

What we know so far: College Football 27 is being review-bombed on Steam after gamers discovered that publisher EA Sports added microtransactions to the single-player modes without prior notice. The game currently has a "Mostly Negative" rating on Steam, with only 33% positive reviews.

The successor to College Football 26 initially earned high praise from both gamers and reviewers for engaging gameplay and immersive graphics, but it's now facing widespread backlash for introducing what some gamers are describing as "predatory" microtransactions in the offline single-player modes.

Gamer and content creator James Bordeaux was among the first to call out the microtransactions in two single-player offline modes, Dynasty and Road To Glory. According to Bordeaux, players can barely level up in either mode without buying XP, a major change from College Football 26, which included a free XP slider that let players customize the amount of XP they earned in offline modes.

– Bordeaux (@bordeauxyoutube) July 7, 2026

It's been calculated that players would need to spend around $100 to buy the estimated 2.5 million XP required to reach level 100. Accusing EA of blindsiding players with the microtransactions, Bordeaux urged fans to boycott the game until the company addressed the issue.

What seems to have infuriated gamers even more is that the microtransactions were kept out of the preview builds shared with early reviewers, meaning they couldn't flag the issue to their audience. Once the game released on July 9, players quickly discovered it was practically impossible to earn enough free XP through normal gameplay and started bombarding it with negative reviews.

EA initially released a statement denying that "core Coach level progression" had changed from College Football 26, but admitted to removing the Fast/Faster progression slider. An EA Sports College Football Team rep has since stated on the official EA forums that the company plans on "adding ... flexibility back" by introducing two new Coach XP speed settings in Dynasty.

College Football 27 is the latest installment in EA's College Football franchise, which debuted in 1993 as Bill Walsh College Football.

The series was renamed College Football USA in 1995, and again to NCAA Football in 1997, after EA acquired the licensing rights to the NCAA brand. The NCAA name was dropped in 2013 after the two parties decided not to renew the deal.

College Football 27 was officially released on July 9 for PS5, Xbox Series, and Windows PCs, following early access for MVP+ Members starting July 2 (EA Play subscribers got a shorter, 10-hour trial the same day). This is the first College Football title released on PC, and is available for $69.99 on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the EA app.

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EA's College Football 27 is getting review-bombed over hidden single-player microtransactions

 

[toooooot]

Vast majority of people playing the game are playing online which means they are already likely to buy in game goods to beat other suckers online.
EA knows and say, no; I want those who play offline to pay too.
Greedy, greedy c**ts. I expect every sports franchise they own
will have microtransactions added to singleplayer.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Anybody who buys an EA sports game in current year deserves to get fleeced. You knew what you signed up for, no complaining, open your wallet for daddy EA and be a good little paypig.

"BuT bUt BuT wHaT aBoUt NeW pLaYeRs"

If they cannot do 5 minutes of research to educate themselves on the swath of material out there discussing how bad EA is, they also deserve it for having an IQ squarely around room temperature.

 

[polord]

Anybody who buys an EA sports game in current year deserves to get fleeced. You knew what you signed up for, no complaining, open your wallet for daddy EA and be a good little paypig.

"BuT bUt BuT wHaT aBoUt NeW pLaYeRs"

If they cannot do 5 minutes of research to educate themselves on the swath of material out there discussing how bad EA is, they also deserve it for having an IQ squarely around room temperature.

In celsius I presume…

 

[yRaz]

There used to be these wonderful things called "cheats" but now they sell the cheats to us. Luckily I actually don't know the last EA game I bought. They used to be an awesome brand in the 2000s but they somehow continue to manage to surprise us how crappy and evil they can be

 

[axiomatic13]

Saudi backed trash.

 

[RudyBob]

Ya pay to play

 

[amghwk]

From the reviews I see that EA has reversed the micro transactions for single player mode. If it's true, please update your article. Don't continue to leave it as a clickbait.