Comment by Spivak
Because it's a good game and the new editions are literally seasons of the same game. World of Warcraft has adopted a model for the last few expansions and players love it. It's literally HN's darling pricing model where it's a subscription but you can stop and keep all the versions you have.
HN just doesn't skew really getting sports people.
I would have no issues with EA and this model if they didn't have the policy of switching off their online servers a few years after the next iteration comes out. Activision has never done this with afaik any Call of Duty (although they do have slightly lower overheads) and it's such a big joy stealer for the sake of costs.