Just because EA has a monopoly doesn't force us to buy it, even if we've been fanboys of the game for years...
Personally, I've been very, very disappointed with the game this year...
Of all the modes, the only one I play is Squad Battle; all the other online modes are unplayable because of their unbalanced matchmaking. So I spent over €100 in August to play one mode...
As always, in their promotional campaigns, they try to hype up the user base as much as possible, and you have to admit, it's one of the few things they do well. Every year, it seems like they turn the game upside down, but then, when it comes down to it, they change practically nothing and, in fact, become worse than the previous year...
In this forum, you read a lot of complaints about competitions, gameplay, matchmaking, and servers, but they're completely ignored. The only ones who manage to get themselves heard are the pro players!
This year, the game's stated problem was the CPU and overly automatic defenses, and in recent months they've released several patches.
Now they haven't complained for a while, so everything's fine with EA!
Unfortunately, we regular users have little, if anything, say nothing.
In conclusion, as far as I'm concerned, I won't be pre-ordering the game again this year, and if I do, I'll only do so after hearing some feedback, perhaps at a discounted price. This company no longer deserves my trust!
I hope others will follow my example!