EA’s Epic Mistake Allowed FIFA 23 to Be Pre-Purchased for $0.06

EA offered what must be the largest pre-purchase game discount ever when it accidentally listed FIFA 23 Ultimate Edition for just $0.06.

As PC Gamer reports(Opens in a new window), the game won’t be released until Sept. 30, but EA is listing it for pre-purchase in different markets around the world. The pricing screw up occurred in India when the game listing went live on the Epic Game Store. Rather than the expected 4,799 rupees, the price was set at 4.8 rupees.

In the US, the standard edition of the game will cost $60 and the Ultimate Edition is $70, so that’s a huge saving for anyone who spotted the mistake and completed the pre-purchase before EA realized.

EA has admitted it screwed up, explaining in a letter that, “A few weeks back, we scored a pretty spectacular own-goal when we inadvertently offered FIFA 23 pre-purchase on the Epic Games Store at an incorrect price … It was our mistake, and we wanted to let you know that we’ll be honoring all pre-purchases made at that price.”

The number of sales made at this very low price is unknown, but at the time it was suggested on Twitter(Opens in a new window) that gamers outside of India could take advantage simply by changing their Epic Game Store region to India. It’s unclear if that actually worked.

By deciding to honor the price, EA has avoided an angry backlash and turned this into a small PR win. The publisher may lose a lot of money on those $0.06 pre-purchase sales, but the cash has probably already been recouped from the additional pre-purchases coverage of the blunder no doubt generated.