It appears that loot boxes.
EA immediately denied the leak, but the company has long maintained microtransactions within its sports game – for better or worse. With 's release date recently announced, EA took the time to post a Q&A on its site regarding the topic of Dual Entitlement. While most companies have embraced free upgrades to next-gen versions of an existing game, it would appear as if EA's sports titles will not be following suit.
On EA Sports' website, the company has dedicated an entire page to answering questions about current-gen console upgrades A.K.A. Dual Entitlement. After explaining what Dual Entitlement is, EA begins explaining how it works and, right off the bat, it says that, "Dual Entitlement is only available with the purchase of the FIFA 22 Ultimate Edition. The Standard Edition of FIFA 22 does not include Dual Entitlement." Just in case there is any confusion after reading that quote, EA then proceeds to very plainly state that, "if you purchase FIFA 22 Standard Edition on PS4 and PS5 later, you would need to purchase the PS5 version of the game to play."
For context, FIFA 22's Ultimate Edition is currently available for pre-order for $99.99 USD ($89.99 USD for those that have an EA Play subscription), while the Standard Edition is going for $69.99 USD. The FIFA 22 Ultimate Edition pre-order also grants players other bonuses such as access to the game four days early, and additional FUT boosts in the form of players and exclusive items. The release also mentions that still will not have crossplay.
As stated above, EA is no stranger to making moves that fans would call, "greedy," but something about putting a console upgrade behind a paywall feels extra egregious. Both the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5 will still be less than one year old when FIFA 22 releases (not by much for the Xbox, but still), and many still have not been able to get their hands on their preferred console due to shortages and scalpers. Making this sort of move this early into the console generation is sure to be viewed as anti-consumer by many fans, and it does read like EA Sports trying to get as many FIFA 22 Ultimate Editions sales as possible.
Source: EA Sports
