One week before the release of FIFA 21, the first players can already access the game. However, the start of Early Access went off to a rough start.
What was the plan for Early Access? The Early Access for FIFA 21 was supposed to start on Thursday evening, a little over a week before the official release. EA Play members were supposed to have access to the 10-hour trial of FIFA 21 starting October 1st at 5 PM. However, that didn’t quite work out.
EA Play with Issues, Companion App Leaves Players Waiting
Here was the problem: At 5 PM, many players wanted to access the early version – apparently too many. The EA Play app was overloaded and the path to the FIFA 21 trial version was blocked. Players on PC also reported being unable to load the game.
On PS4 and Xbox One, there was a workaround via the respective stores. There, EA members could also download the trial. However, while this seemed to work well on PS4, there were still issues on Xbox. Among other things, the store was simply overloaded or there were cases where the respective download button was not available.
Finally, in some cases, there were also error messages stating that it was still too early. In short, many players looking to utilize the trial through their EA Play membership simply couldn’t access the game. Additionally, there were further issues. For instance, the Volta mode, which is supposed to be more exciting this year, was initially not accessible in the trial for some players.
What was happening with the Companion App? Also on Thursday, the Companion App was supposed to be released. An official time wasn’t provided – it ultimately appeared just before 8 PM. But this only applied to iOS; Android players had to wait nearly another hour.
But even here, the demand was apparently high, and players reported again – as had been the case with the web app launch – experiencing login issues. Among other things, the problem arose again that a verification code needed to be entered, but it arrived significantly delayed in the inbox.
While players were waiting for trial access and the app, FIFA published a new launch trailer via Twitter. However, the timing was difficult: comments on Twitter often addressed the overall botched start and were quite negative.
What happens now? Anyone who is currently in Early Access can test the game for 10 hours, and via the web and Companion App, players can manage their Ultimate Team.
The next important date is October 6 – then the Champions Edition and Ultimate Edition will be released with three days of early access. The start of Early Access went quite challenging – will the release next week go smoother?
