2023 was a year of transition for the FIFA series, which morphed into the EA Sports FC series. That brand change resulted in a hit for returning players, who suddenly lost their loyalty rewards—but EA FC 25 fixes this issue and will bring back FIFA’s loyalty system.
Returning EA FC 24 players will be thrilled to learn that EA has officially confirmed loyalty rewards for the EA FC 25 launch. The exact rewards are yet to be defined, but we hope this signals the glorious return of Welcome Back packs. These were given out at the beginning of each new FIFA cycle in the series’ last few years and gave the most loyal portion of the community a nice kickstart.
In a Sept. 15 blog post that broke down EA FC 25’s game modes and various features, EA Sports FC product manager Gordon Farquhar described the returning loyalty rewards as follows: “Players who are re-joining us from Football Ultimate Team 24 will also get a little something extra with returning user rewards, which I’m pleased to announce are back for Football Ultimate Team 25!”
We should always be cautious when interpreting corporate language, and we can’t guarantee that the exact old format will be replicated frame for frame. What we do know is that fans will be massively disappointed if they get anything less than Welcome Back packs.
Unfortunately, the rebranding from FIFA to EA Sports FC did away with Welcome Back packs because EA FC is technically a new IP and not something you can “return” to. Instead, EA Sports FC Founder status was granted to early adopters who played EA FC 24 before the end of October 2023. The rewards given to FC Founders were supposed to fill the void left by Welcome Back packs, but it wasn’t quite the same.
FUT Founders were already an existing exclusive club in FIFA, these being the players who played in every single edition of Ultimate Team since its inception in FIFA 09. Bizarrely, there were no known benefits for being a FUT Founder besides a badge you can display to other players.
FC Founders also received a badge of honor, and EA has promised that Founder benefits will extend beyond EA FC 24, so maybe being a Founder will mean more this time around. For now, we’d be very happy to welcome back the Welcome Back packs and go from there.
