EA opened pre-orders for EA Sports FC 27 on July 24 with a tier that did not exist before. Ultimate Plus costs 149.99 dollars, which is 50 dollars more than the 99.99 dollar Ultimate edition of GTA 6 arriving in November. It is the most expensive single game EA has ever put on sale. The structure is worth reading before the outrage, because EA did not raise the price of the game. EA added a tier above it.
Where things stand
On July 24, 2026 EA opened pre-orders for EA Sports FC 27 with a new top edition, Ultimate Plus, at 149.99 dollars. Outlets covering the launch called it the most expensive single game EA has sold. Last year’s roughly 150 dollar bundle carried two games; this one is one game.
Source: GameSpot, Tom’s Hardware
The existing tiers did not move. Standard is still 69.99 dollars and the tier below the top is still 99.99, both unchanged from last year. Ultimate Plus is a new ceiling added above the lineup rather than a rise across it.
Source: Insider Gaming, PCGuide
The 50 dollars between the old top tier and the new one buys four more premium season passes and 10,000 FC Points in place of 6,000. FC Points are the currency you spend in Ultimate Team, so the extra 50 dollars buys more of what EA already sells you separately, not more football.
Source: GameSpot, Tom’s Hardware
FC 27 releases on September 25, 2026, with early access from September 18, and Ultimate Plus can only be pre-ordered until August 31. GTA 6 follows on November 19 at 79.99 dollars, or 99.99 for its Ultimate edition.
Source: PCGuide, GamingBible
EA has not publicly answered any of the criticism. We checked seven outlets covering the announcement on July 24 and found no company statement on the 149.99 dollar tier, so treat EA’s position as unstated rather than defended.
Source: PlayTheory review of launch-day coverage, July 24, 2026
What the extra fifty buys
Strip the wrapper off and the most expensive game in EA’s history is a standard football game plus a larger pile of Ultimate Team currency. The four extra premium season passes are the other half of the package, and those route back into Ultimate Team as well. Nothing in the 50 dollar gap is a mode, a licence, or a feature you could not otherwise reach by playing. That is the objection, and it is a fair one.
The reaction
It was quick and loud, across X, Reddit and the usual forums, and it landed on exactly that point. One player quoted by Tom’s Hardware summed it up as paying “150 for a roster update and some blue points.” EA has said nothing publicly since pre-orders opened.
One caution before you draw a line
FC 26 has not been selling like a game with pricing power. Its Ultimate edition was discounted 40% on Xbox, from 99.99 to 59.99 pounds, and its Steam concurrents fell from a launch peak above 100,000 to roughly 30,000. Steam is a small slice of a game played mostly on console, so do not lean on that figure too hard. Raising the ceiling while demand softens is still a choice about who you are pricing for, and the answer is the players who already spend the most.
It is also tempting to tie this to the 55 billion dollar deal taking EA private, which is waiting on a single US regulatory review that closes in late September. No reporting connects the two, edition prices have been climbing for years, and a decision like this is locked in months ahead. We are not making that link. We are noting that it is the first hard number to land while the deal is still open.
The PlayTheory take: 149.99 is the headline and 50 is the story. Fifty dollars for currency and season passes, sold at the top of a lineup whose other prices did not move, tells you who EA thinks is still paying. GTA 6 being the cheaper game this year is a strange sentence to write, and it probably will not stay strange for long.
Related: our GTA 6 hub · Sony put a $7 billion market on a clock