The tail end of 2017 saw a big scandal in the gaming community with uproar towards microtransactions in video games, this outrage was mainly for the EA published title Star Wars Battlefront 2. The specific focus was the cost of unlocking hero characters within the game, adding to that was the fact in-game loot boxes could help speed that process up, aswell as offering in-game cards that gave gameplay enhancements. This was part of the increasing negativity towards microtransactions by gamers and actually led to changes in Star Wars Battlefront 2 including a temporary removal of the microtransactions. However another EA published game bypassed a lot of this ‘hate’, that game was FIFA 18, specifically the Ultimate Team mode in FIFA. At the same time as this controversy there was a small movement started by players of FIFA called ‘FIXFIFA’, it had a trending hashtag and caught the attention of a number of news outlets for a couple of days but eventually fizzled out to absolutely nothing.
This small movement against the way FIFA is handled by its developers had a point, it intended to gain attention so the developers would fix the game which has been in a poor state since shortly after release. The biggest problem though is that FIFA Ultimate Team has become a pay-to-win game with the only real way to progress to the very top is to have the best possible players, in turn to get the best players you would likely have to buy FIFA Points. This would mean players have to spend lots of hard-earned money to get more players, no matter what pack you open with the points there is no guarantee you will get a good player. On the UK store 12,000 FIFA points costs more than £70, despite the cost you could end up with very little to show for it. This means you would have to spend even more money to try to get the better players without any guarantee at all.
The way EA puts out special cards and special promo events entices people to spend more on packs in the hope of getting one of these lucrative cards. All these special events and cards are released to tempt people to buy more FIFA Points, this is shown by EA giving some players undeserved special cards so players will try to get them from packs. Some players can’t seem to stop themselves from buying packs as if they have an addiction, even spending thousands of pounds on a game that will be obselete in a years time. It also doesn’t help seeing all the Youtube content creators buying packs and getting the best cards possible, many of who are in partnership with EA and are given free FIFA points and cards. The current model of FIFA with its heavy reliance on microtransactions leads to people spending unnecessarily large amounts of money to potentially get nothing in return, it isn’t a fair model for the consumers and one that damages the already ludicrous competitivity of FIFA.
FIFA 18 and its use of microtransactions needs to be clearly addressed by EA and changed especially as people are already spending full price on a new version of what is essentially the same game with the same issues every year. The game now preys upon those who want the best teams possible with stories of children spending thousands of pounds worth in money on the game, money they can’t afford to spend or in some cases isn’t even their own money. The practice of microtransactions has grown in gaming for a few years now and EA are firmly at the forefront and in FIFA they are the worst culprit for the excessive reliance on microtransactions in an already expensive game. The trend is one that really needs to stop and with all the fuss given to the Star Wars controversy the issues in FIFA were clearly overlooked despite the microtransaction heavy and very popular Ultimate Team mode which has earned millions just from people buying FIFA Points. Clearly this is something that has to change in FIFA.