Some Nintendo Switch Online Users Can Now Play One of 2023's Most Popular Games for Free

Some Nintendo Switch Online users can now play one of 2023's most popular games for free, courtesy of the subscription service. In other words, this offer is exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online. Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED users without a Nintendo Switch Online subscription will not be able access this offer in any capacity. Unlike some Nintendo Switch Online offers though, this is not locked behind the Expansion Pack tier of the subscription service, meaning it is available to all subscribers. The major catch though is this offer is limited to Europe, at least right now. This could change over time, but right now this is the catch.

This is not the only catch though. In addition to this offer being limited to Europe, it is not a free download. Rather, it is a free trial. More specifically, a free trial until February 22, which means Nintendo Switch Online subscribers in Europe have a week with the game, for free. That said, it is the full game. So, if you ignore family, friends, and the outside world you can easily get your full share of the game in this amount of time. Meanwhile, your progress and save data will transfer over if you decide to buy the game outright after the trial. Unfortunately, right now, there is no sale to complete this offer. 

As for the mystery game in question, it is EA Sports FC 24. Released on September 29, 2023 by EA Vancouver and EA Romania, it was notably one of the best-selling games of last year, largely thanks to the European market. Beyond this, it was notably the first soccer/football game from EA without the FIFA branding, but it was still the same game as previous FIFA releases. And this is why its range of Metacritic scores is 67 to 77. And unfortunately, for Switch users, the low end of this range was the Nintendo Switch version of the game.

"EA FC 24 is great in spurts, but everything feels so by the numbers that it's impossible to recommend if you've been sticking with the series through the FIFA years," reads a snippet from our official review of the game. "Like most sports games these days, I'd recommend buying every three or four entries and maybe putting on some parental locks in Ultimate Team so you don't waste your money. Trust me, you can compete with the rest of us weekend warriors without dropping hundreds of dollars. And who knows, maybe next year EA FC will finally go from okay to great again."

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