Last week, a scandal broke out around FIFA 21, which has already been called EAGate. Electronic Arts employees were accused of selling rare Ultimate Team player cards to individual users. The company launched an internal audit and promised to punish those responsible. However, the problem with loot boxes in FIFA is much deeper.What started EAGate?
On March 10, several users posted screenshots of correspondence presumably with one of the employees of Electronic Arts.
In them, people agreed to buy rare player cards from the Ultimate Team mode. The price reached several thousand dollars.
#EAGATE
A special thanks to @RiberaRibell for the picture , he did an amazing work❤️
(continue in the comments)#fut #fifa pic.twitter.com/bJIg2rpWtI
— Arcade-Fut (@FutArcade) March 10, 2021Ultimate Team is one of the key features of the FIFA series.
This mode allows users to assemble and manage their team and play online. For various actions (played matches, completing tests, etc.), players receive rewards — including the same sets with player cards. These are, in fact, loot boxes that can be bought for in-game currency or real money.
In the case of the latest scandal, we are talking about the sale by EA employees of so-called “idol cards” (Icon cards) with the greatest football players in history. Due to the low chance of falling out, it is almost impossible for a simple player to get them even through the purchase of a lot of loot boxes.
So we grind/trade/open packs and can’t touch these PIM players but EA employees sell them to people secretly for $1,700?!?! LOL I respect the grind but my god… pic.twitter.com/CCnhjZbcgH
— Nick ????????
In 2014, several journalists were accused of giving good ratings to the Depression Quest game after they allegedly slept with its developer Zoë Quinn.
How did EA react to the scandal?Over the weekend, the company released an official statement.
- EA recognized the problem and announced the beginning of an internal investigation.The publisher confirmed that one or several internal accounts were either hacked or intentionally used to sell items by one of the developers.
- Now EA promises to punish the employees involved in this corruption scheme and permanently ban the players who bought cards from them.
- During the investigation, the company also temporarily imposed a ban on the transfer of so-called “discretionary content” to FIFA Ultimate Team.
- What is discretionary content?
We are talking about a system that allows Electronic Arts employees to transfer certain cards and in-game items to individual players’ accounts.
EA assures that this system is used exclusively for testing and quality control purposes, as well as to help users who have lost their cards by mistake, or as a gift for celebrities and partners.
In response to the players’ fears that such a system basically breaks the balance online, EA gave an interesting figure. Allegedly discretionary content is less than 0.0006% of all items inside FIFA 21. However, not all users were satisfied with this explanation.
Other Ultimate Team Mode IssuesThe policy of Electronic Arts has been criticized for several years.
In particular, gamers complain about the use by real athletes of special cards with a rating of 99 online. Whether this kills the competitive element in the Ultimate Team is a rhetorical question. However, EA itself does not comment on this problem in any way.
In response to criticism of the loot boxes, the publisher continues to call them simply “surprise mechanics” and claims that players receive most of the sets not for money, but for gameplay achievements. At the same time, especially rare cards of iconic football players still have a chance of falling out of less than 1%.
EAGate not only revealed serious problems of the in-game mechanics of FIFA 21, but also raised the issue of loot boxes in premium titles again. The authorities of several countries are actively trying to equate them with gambling. For example, a reform was recently discussed in Germany banning the sale of projects with loot boxes to minors.
At the same time, the FIFA series still has no alternatives. The market of football simulators cannot be called saturated. If we talk about AAA products, then FIFA has no competitors at all today. So, despite such a scandal, and no matter how loud it turns out to be, EA is hardly worth worrying about the future of the game.
It is unknown how the investigation of Electronic Arts will end. However, while the so-called “surprise mechanics” bring billions of dollars to the company, it is unlikely to change its policy.