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EA Sports announced it will remove all paid progression options from College Football 27's Dynasty and Road to Glory modes, reversing a decision that drew significant backlash from fans and content creators following the game's launch.

In a statement posted to social media during the game's launch week, the developer acknowledged that player feedback indicated the microtransactions "missed the mark."

The studio said the paid options had been "added independent of deeper mode progression with the aim to give players more choice," but conceded that "what you've said is that they're not adding the value we intended." EA said the changes would take effect the following morning, though it warned that players with existing College Point balances would lose the ability to apply them to Road to Glory or Dynasty once the features were removed, urging fans to spend their points beforehand.

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The reversal follows a wave of criticism after College Football 27's release, with fans organizing around the hashtag #CFBPlayDontPay to voice frustration over microtransactions appearing in the game's single-player offline modes. The system allowed players to spend real money to instantly boost their coach or player's development. For example, maxing out a coach in Dynasty from the start could cost as much as $100, more than the price of the game itself.

Compounding the frustration, EA also removed sliders that let players in College Football 25 and 26 manually adjust how much experience they earned, a feature that had let people level up faster without paying. With that option gone, spending money became the only way to speed up progression, which is what drove much of the backlash.

Notably, the statement stopped short of ruling out microtransactions from the franchise going forward. EA said its "goal for live service plans in CFB28 and beyond will be to deliver valuable features and content with greater transparency and communication" — language suggesting paid content will return in some form in next year's edition, even as the company walks back the current game's implementation.

Following a lighthearted week of quality time and family reunions, Love Island USA finally announced the four couples competing for the $100,000 first-place prize.

After Corbin and Parmida were dumped from the villa in Season 8, episode 29, there were six couples left standing: Aniya and Carl, Kayda and Zach, Kenzie and Dylan, Melanie and Sincere, Tierra and KC, and Trinity and Bryce. The next few days were full of fun challenges like The Girls pranking The Boys, The Girls enjoying a fun waterpark-themed getaway from the villa, and the Islanders meeting each other’s family members for the first time.

Season 8, Episode 33 kicked off with a "mouthwatering" couples’ challenge, in which each islander had to transfer food items in water (like sardines) or condiments (like ketchup) from their mouth into their partner’s mouth. After the challenge, the couples had a few more tough pills (or, in this case, fortune cookies) to swallow at dinner that night: they found out the results of a public vote that decided which four couples were heading to the finale, and which two couples were going home.

One by one, the couples cracked open their fortune cookies, revealing whether they were safe. The final four were revealed to be Aniya and Carl, Trinity and Bryce, Melanie and Sincere, and Kayda and Zach.

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This left two couples dumped from the villa: Kenzie and Dylan, and Tierra and KC.

X users were sad to see them go, especially those who thought that Tierra and KC had a stronger connection than other couples in the villa. KC had just asked Tierra to be his girlfriend in Season 8, episode 31, which made the dumping even more shocking to viewers.

However, viewers were elated that Kenzie didn’t say goodbye without squatting down for one last iconic split.

While the islanders shared an emotional goodbye with Kenzie, Dylan, Tierra, and KC, they took the time to appreciate the genuine friendships they built in the villa – embodying what viewers called "Friendship Island" this season.

What makes the final four couples especially memorable this season is that the four girls are each part of the original group of islanders that we were introduced to in Season 8, episode 1, with X users saying that we have a "core four" finale in our midst. 

Now that the final four couples have been revealed, we’re only a few episodes away from finding out which couple will be crowned the winners of Love Island USA Season 8.

The season finale is scheduled to air on Sunday, July 12, 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT on Peacock.