How to fix EA College Football 25 early access not working

After a decade-long absence, college football is finally back on PlayStation and Xbox with EA Sports College Football 25. Following in the footsteps of its professional counterpart, EA College Football 25 features an early access period just like Madden does.

Some players are having issues getting EA College Football 25 early access to work, though, and the root of the problem depends on the version of the game, your chosen platform, and other network issues. It sucks to pay extra for a game just to get locked out of it, so here’s what you can do if you’re having trouble with EA College Football 25 early access.

How to Play EA College Football 25 Early

There are two ways to play EA College Football 25 before the official release on Friday, July 19, 2024. The first method is to purchase the Deluxe Edition of the game. Priced at $100 on both PlayStation and Xbox, the Deluxe Edition of CFB 25 includes early access to the game beginning on Monday, July 15, 2024 in addition to other digital bonuses.

The second method to play EA Sports CFB 25 early is to sign up for EA Play. All EA Play members can download a 10-hour trial of the game as soon as the early access period starts, and those 10 hours of gameplay are enough to hold most people over until the full release on July 19. EA Play is included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, too, so you may not even need to buy anything if you’re already subscribed to that.

How to Fix EA College Football 25 Early Access Not Working

The Madden servers always get slammed hard during the early access release window, and EA College Football 25 is experiencing the same thing. PlayStation and Xbox users have a few fixes that they can try to remedy the issue, though.

If you’re not able to access CFB 25 early access on PS4 or PS5, then try restoring licenses on your console. On PlayStation, go to Settings > Users and Accounts > Other > Restore Licenses. This will verify your ownership and eligibility for early access. Just restart your console afterward and the game will ideally let you in. Xbox consoles don’t have a similar feature, so all Xbox gamers can do is restart their systems and hope for the best.

If you’re having issues with the 10-hour trial during EA College Football 25’s early access period, there are a few things you can try. First, ensure that you have an active EA Play subscription. If you’re playing via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, check that you have the correct EA account linked. Opening the EA Play app and redownloading the EA College Football 25 trial from there can also work, too.

If none of these solutions work, then you’ll unfortunately just have to wait for EA’s servers to sort themselves out. Problems always arise during the early access period, but EA usually gives players some in-game rewards as compensation at the very least. Things could be worse, though. You could be a PC gamer who doesn’t get to play EA CFB 25 at all.