Last week, EA College Football 25 launched and people went wild, with the game already becoming one of the biggest titles of 2024. But some fans on Xbox, perhaps not as familiar with video games, are frustrated after buying the new college football simulator and discovering that it doesn’t play on their console. Let us explain.
EA College Football 25 launched on July 19 after a short early access period for those willing to pay the publisher’s ransom fee. The game is a big deal, as the last major college football game developed by EA, NCAA Football 14, was released in 2013, more than a decade ago. Since then players have used mods to try and keep the aging Xbox 360/PS3-era football game up-to-date with the real world. Thankfully, fans got a new game this month. However, due to a confusing situation, some people are buying the game, only to discover they’re not actually able to play EA College Football 25.
If you look at Amazon, Walmart, Reddit, and EA’s official forums, you’ll find that some Xbox One owners purchased College Football 25 and can’t play it. That’s because the new football sim is only available on current-gen platforms, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. On PlayStation, this is fairly simple. PS5 games can’t work on PS4. They look different, too. But on Xbox, it’s a mess. Microsoft sells an Xbox Series X, an Xbox Series S, an Xbox One X, an Xbox One S, and even at one point sold a basic Xbox One. So it’s not surprising to see so many Xbox players leaving negative reviews online after buying the game and realizing they can’t play it.
“I have an Xbox One X. I did research and saw the X/S and Ones can use Series X games and it doesn’t even allow me to play. It says it is not compatible and you can’t even return the item because once you open the packaging it’s no good and considered used. Waited so long for this game and used to play the old ones just to find out I spent $75 on a game I can’t play,” said one user on Amazon.
“I don’t play video games but my son wanted the game so I bought it for them. Now it doesn’t work and I spent $65 on it,” said someone on Reddit.
“I need to return this I don’t have the right Xbox for this,” posted a person on Walmart’s website.
Over on Target’s store page for the game, you can find tons of questions about which Xbox console it will work on, which one has a disc drive, which one doesn’t, if the digital version works on last-gen machines, and so on.
This is a really confusing situation
Now, you are someone who reads Kotaku. You likely understand that while almost all Xbox One games are playable on Series X, no Series X games are natively playable on the older consoles. But it’s a pretty confusing mess for people who might only play a few games a year, which could be a large chunk of EA College Football’s fanbase.
However, things get even more confusing when you look at how some Xbox games come in plastic cases that list both Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. In fact, what with the ever-increasing blurring of console generations, a lot of games are playable on both and sold as such. And then you have the other wrinkle that, technically you can play some Xbox Series X/S games on an Xbox One via cloud streaming.
Oh and let’s add even more confusion to the mix. Madden 25, which is out in August, is launching on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. And EA’s Madden series has been playable on Xbox One since 2013’s entry, which was confusingly named Madden 25, which is also the name of the new one coming out later this year. Sigh. Anyway, I imagine a ton of people playing Madden every year on Xbox One are the same people excited to play EA College Football 25 this year.
In fact, those people might have bought the currently available bundle that comes with both Madden NFL 25 and EA College Football 25. Here’s the weird catch: Madden NFL 25 is still coming out on Xbox One this year. So that bundle contains a game playable on both generations of console and a game playable on only one. Phew. It’s enough to make even my head start to spin.
Should these buyers have done more research? Maybe. Does Xbox’s store state directly that you can’t play EA College Football 25 on Xbox One? Yes—in somewhat small print, but yes. The warning is there. But this whole situation is so confusing and silly that I don’t blame folks for thinking EA’s latest sports game would, like Maddens before and upcoming, play on Xbox One. And I don’t blame them for getting frustrated to find out that’s not the case.
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