For the first time, EA Sports FC 25 will feature a paid season pass on a free-to-play track. The Premium Tier Pass will persist across Career Mode, Pro Club, and Ultimate Team, and offer pack, player, and cosmetic customization items.
The premium tier, which can be purchased using FC Points and Ultimate Team coins, functions similarly to the current free season track in FC 24 Ultimate Team, where Ultimate Team players complete objectives to earn XP and unlock rewards such as coin boosts, player packs, and specials player and icon items.
In screenshots seen by VG247, premium tiers will appear as an additional reward once players reach certain reward levels in the free season track. As players complete objectives and earn XP, they unlock both free and premium rewards.
“The free tier is essentially what players will see in the game today,” Ultimate Team producer Karthik Venkateshan told VG247 at an EA Sports FC 25 preview event.
“Just like you can go back into the game and see the free tier, like 24 hours a day – then the Premium Pass is what we add on top of that. It’s going to be a common mission for Clubs, Careers and Ultimate Team. It’s going to be great for 25 It’s new for people aged 10 to 20.
“At a high level, there’s nothing in the paid tier that you can’t get in the free tier,” explains Ultimate Team game design director Richard Waltz. “No exclusive rewards mean you have to do this. We will provide customization options for players, packages and so on in the club.
“It’s worth noting that it’s also available for coins and FC points, so you can make your decision.”
No exact pricing was given for the Premium Season Pass.
EA Sports also announced a slew of new features for FC 25 Ultimate Team, as well as an overall look at the game for the new season. A long-requested quality-of-life feature added is duplicate storage of non-tradable items, which can then be used in the SBC.
You can now downgrade from a Rivals tier so you don’t get stuck in a match above your own level, while friendly matchmaking has also been decoupled from the Rivals ELO system to reduce the over-competition expected of casual game types.
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Weekly rewards will also be rescaled, unlocked through a points-based system, with three points awarded for a win and one point for a tie, allowing players to still feel like they are making progress at the end of the match. The rewards for higher tiers will obviously also be better than in the past.
Then, with Evolutions, EA is also looking at relaxing access requirements so that you can use your favorite players more often and focus less on meta players being the “best” option (who would then immediately disappear from the market) .
EA Sports FC 25 also introduces a 5-player game type called Rush, which will be implemented in Career Mode, Pro Club, and Ultimate Team. Ultimate Team Rush replaces VOLTA and is a 4-player social space where everyone can bring an item from their UT collection to play mini-games.
For more information on new features, including further updates like FC IQ – a complete revamp of the underlying tactics engine that underpins EA Sports FC gameplay – check out our EA Sports FC 25 hands-on preview.
EA Sports FC 25 will be released on September 27th.
