FC 26 Pre-Order Rewards: 93 OVR Icon Pick & Evolution

We have known since last week that pre-orders for the EA Sports FC 27 Ultimate Plus Edition close on 31 August. What EA only spelled out across two separate announcements, three days apart, is what that purchase pays straight into your FC 26 Football Ultimate Team — and that is enough to give pause to a player who had no intention of pre-ordering at all.

Here is the full list, as EA publishes it, split in two: what lands in the game you already own, and what will not arrive until September.

What lands in FC 26, right now

The 18 August announcement is the most interesting and the least reported. Official text:

"Pre-purchase EA SPORTS FC™ 27 Ultimate Plus Edition now to receive an untradeable 1 of 4 Player Pick 93+ OVR ICON and a Player Evolution that boosts any player's physical Attributes to 99 in EA SPORTS FC™ 26 (sold separately) Football Ultimate Team™."

Two things, then, and both need reading closely.

The 93+ OVR ICON Player Pick

This is a pick from among four ICON player items rated 93 or higher. The word that counts is "untradeable": the item cannot be sold on the transfer market, nor used as currency in an SBC you were planning to flip afterwards. You either play it or it sits in your club.

For a player building a squad, that is a considerable gift at this point in the year: ICON items of that calibre remain rare, and getting one for free at the end of a cycle saves committing a pile of coins to it. For a player who lives off the transfer market, on the other hand, the value is nil: a card you cannot resell finances nothing.

The physical Attributes Evolution to 99

EA's wording is very broad: the Evolution boosts "any player's physical Attributes to 99". No rating cap, no position, no league and no nationality restriction is stated in the announcement — which, in the language of FC 26 Evolutions, is unusual. Base-game Evolutions almost always impose a rating cap or a position.

Handle with some care all the same: EA systematically points to its detailed conditions, and a Steam announcement is not an Evolution rulebook. The exact requirements will only show up when the Evolution appears in your game.

What only arrives with FC 27

The rest of the edition's contents, announced on 21 August, concerns the game to come rather than the one you own. We covered its contents and its deadline in our 23 August article; the short version, then, without going over it again: a week of early access from 18 September, an FC Points allocation spread over five months, the Premium Pass for the first five seasons, a Hall of FUT player item to choose from five former professionals — from Adebayo Akinfenwa to Eljero Elia — and an "and more" that EA does not detail.

Two remarks on that bundle, because they change the maths. First, the FC Points are staged: you do not get the lot at launch, but in monthly instalments. Second, the Hall of FUT pick is made up of characters rather than superstars — nobody buys an Ultimate Plus edition for that choice, so it is as well to know in advance.

The caveat: this announcement does not set the release date

Beware an easy shortcut. "7 days early access starting 18 September" dates the early access, not the game's worldwide release. And we noted on 23 August that two EA pages did not give the same release date for FC 27. Until the publisher has reconciled its own pages, inferring a release date from this announcement alone would be a guess, not information.

The "sold separately" that cancels everything

Three words in EA's sentence deserve to be pulled out, because they decide the value of the whole operation: the rewards arrive "in EA SPORTS FC™ 26 (sold separately) Football Ultimate Team™".

In other words: pre-ordering FC 27 does not give you FC 26. If you do not already own this year's game, the 93+ ICON and the physical Evolution are two rewards deposited in a club you cannot reach. They do not convert, they do not carry over to FC 27, and they have no substitute.

The scenario to avoid is easy to describe and easy to fall into: buying the FC 27 Ultimate Plus Edition for the FUT 26 bonuses, without owning FC 26. You would then have to buy a second game to enjoy the bonus attached to the first. At this point in the year, with FC 27 less than a month from early access, that makes no sense at all.

A second precaution of the same order: the rewards are tied to the account used for the pre-order. A pre-order gift bought on a relative's account will not show up in your club, even on the same console.

Should you pre-order before 31 August?

The question is not "will FC 27 be any good". It is simpler than that: were you going to buy FC 27 anyway?

• Yes, and you still play FUT 26: the FC 26 bonuses are pure upside. The 93+ ICON and the physical Evolution arrive now, while end-of-cycle content is at its peak. The release-date question becomes secondary.
• Yes, but you have dropped FUT 26: the two FC 26 rewards are no use to you. That leaves only the FC 27 benefits, most of which do not hinge on 31 August — unless EA pulls them from its offer after that date, which it does not say.
• No, or you are unsure: two untradeable rewards in a mode you will leave within a month do not justify buying an Ultimate Plus edition. The maths only works if the game interests you in its own right.

One last reflex, following on from the previous one: check the platform before you pay. If you play FC 26 on console and pre-order FC 27 on PC, make sure you know which ecosystem EA promises to deliver the FUT items on. That is the kind of detail written only in the conditions, and it is very hard to sort out afterwards.