Four years later Star Wars: Battlefront II‘s disastrous start galvanized the world against loot cratesEA still defends the exploitative microtransaction in its crown jewel: FIFA. In-game card packs not only bring in billions for the publisher, EA swears players love them too.
“We wholeheartedly believe that Ultimate Team and FUT Packs, which have been a part of the game for well over a decade, are a part of FIFA the players love”, EA said Eurogamer in a statement yesterday. “Fans love that the game reflects the real-world excitement and strategy of building and managing a team. It’s fair to give players the choice to spend money if they want to.”
The latest support from the loot box publisher comes as he prepares for launch FIFA 23the last game of the series with the FIFA license before being renamed EA Sports FC. EA confirmed to Eurogamer that FUT Packs will return in the new game this fall, an announcement coming a month later revealed the British government It wouldn’t regulate loot boxes as gambling, even though the people using them are more likely to experience “Gambling, mental health, financial and problematic gambling-related harm.”
For those who don’t know, Ultimate Team is FIFA‘s most popular online mode. It’s about creating a dream team made up of players acquired by opening card packs. Higher rated stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and former icon Pelé perform better in matches and are also extremely hard to come by. The company calls it an innocent funny”surprise mechanic‘ and has claimed in the past that it’s definitely not gambling.
EA says it encourages players to earn packs by playing the game, but it still gives them the option to purchase them directly for real money. Given the competitive nature of the mode, and the fact that there’s a whole market around YouTubers and influencers glamorizing opening packs in search of the rarest soccer stars, it’s not hard to see why this could be a bad idea.
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While some major gaming companies have seen slumps in their business this year, EA has continued to soar, in large part due to the continued success its loot box-based Ultimate Team modes. EA tells Eurogamer only 1 in 10 players buy FUT packs with real money, but the earnings speak for themselves. In 2020, the mode was introduced in Driving me crazy and NHL brought the company $1.62 billion. However, we don’t know how much it earned last year because EA decided to do it omit the figure in its 2021 report. So it’s no wonder EA continues to do so Running disruption for the controversial mechanic Years after many other big games dropped it.
As Eurogamer points out that there is regulatory pressure in Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and other European countries FIFA is most popular for targeting gameplay mechanics in games. In Belgium, where loot boxes have been completely banned, EA has removed them from the game.
