Re: FC 26 activate error on PC with EA Play Pro

I’m raising this because EA Sports FC 26 Ultimate Edition early access is completely broken on PC via the EA App. It appears to be an issue with the Ultimate Edition & EA Play Pro authentication. 

• I purchased the Ultimate Edition through the EA App back in July.
• I also have EA Play Pro, signed into the correct account, which I purchased earlier this week.
• When I launch the game, I get an outdated Origin-style activation window asking me to authenticate the purchase.
• The window is also cut off, so I can’t even enter my password. The game is unplayable in this state and cannot be accessed.

I’ve already tried:

• Clearing the EA App cache.
• Running the EA App as administrator.
• Repairing the installation.
• Logging out / back in.

None of these fix the issue.

This means I cannot access the early access I paid my hard earned money for (£16.99 p/m for EA Play Pro), nor access the content I paid for within the Ultimate Edition at £89.99. This is money wasted, because the advertised product is not being delivered, and the time frame for early access is being chewed up each passing second making the EA Play Pro incentive completely redundant. Anyone with EA Play Pro should be offered refunds immediately and some form of in-game compensation should be awarded for those players affected who cannot enjoy the launch of the game during early access.

Incidents like this happen every single year with EA launches, primarily on EA FC/FIFA where the company is more than content taking our money during pre-order windows, yet fails to deliver the bare-minimum and basics of a functional gaming experience at launch. Servers, authentication, and entitlement systems are not tested properly, and paying customers are left locked out. EA has a proven track record of launch failures, and once again players who invest the most money are the ones punished.

We are entitled to refunds or compensation.

• Those who purchased EA Play Pro solely to access early access should be refunded, as the service has not been delivered.
• Those who paid extra for Ultimate Edition early access should also be compensated, as we cannot log in and play during the promised period.

This isn’t just a minor inconvenience — it’s a breach of consumer trust and a failure to provide the product as advertised. At the very least, EA needs to publicly commit to refunding/compensating all affected players. I anticipate a solution and fix to be provided to address the bug/error with account authentication as urgently as possible.

I also expect EA to escalate this immediately and offer comment on what meaningful action they are going to take and be accountable for these persistent issues year upon year.