• Join SGO
  • Meet Our Team
  • Review Policy
Friday, March 24, 2023
  • Login
Sports Gamers Online
  • News
  • Features
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Previews
  • Esports
  • Games
PATREON
No Result
View All Result
Sports Gamers Online
  • News
  • Features
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Previews
  • Esports
  • Games
PATREON
No Result
View All Result
Sports Gamers Online
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Features
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Previews
  • Esports
  • Games

Home » Games » Soccer » EA Sued Over FIFA Ultimate Team

fifa 16 title update ultimate team

EA Sued Over FIFA Ultimate Team

Jake Jacobson by Jake Jacobson
Aug 16, 2022
Reading Time: 4 mins read
4 0
A A
0
5
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterPost on Reddit

On August 13, a California law firm filed a class-action lawsuit against EA. In the lawsuit, plaintiff Kevin Ramirez alleges that the packs available for purchase in FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) violate California gambling laws. The lawsuit is another in a growing trend of legal issues with “loot boxes” in games.

The History of FIFA Ultimate Team

FUT Gold and Premium Gold Booster Packs
FUT Gold and Premium Gold Booster Packs

If you play an EA Sports game, you’ve probably heard of Ultimate Team. FIFA 09 was the first game to introduce Ultimate Team as a downloadable game mode expansion. Back then, Ultimate Team gave you the freedom to build a team with any players you owned. You could buy, sell, trade, and auction players online. However, the fastest way to get more players was to buy FUT booster packs. FUT booster packs came in three categories (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) at different price points.  Gold packs cost 100x more than a bronze pack, but players had a higher chance to pull rare cards. In FIFA 09 you could use in-game currency earned playing matches to buy packs, or you could spend real-life money on Microsoft points use those to buy the packs.

You might also like

FIFA 23 Legacy Edition Free for Nintendo Online Members

Choosing the Right Soccer Game for Your Platform

FIFA 23 New Kits Look to will help spread Anti-Hate Messages

The option to spend real money on FUT boosters is a staple of Ultimate Team. It is also the crux of Ramirez’ lawsuit. As reported by Video Game Chronicle, the lawsuit against EA’s Ultimate Team alleges that EA “relies on creating addictive behaviors in consumers to generate huge revenues” and that FIFA Ultimate Team packs “are predatory and designed to entice gamers to gamble.” Honestly, it’s an accusation worth looking at.

Money Talks

EA revealed its net revenue from the Ultimate Team platform in a report filed last November. Ultimate team revenue for the first half of fiscal year 2020 was $716 million. That’s a 40% increase over the $509 million in first half of fiscal year 2019. Daniel Ahmad, a Senior Analyst at Nike Partners, tweeted in May that EA had made over $1 billion on Ultimate Team in fiscal year 2020. That’s three consecutive years of $1 billion+ revenue off of Ultimate Team alone.

EA Net Revenue from Ultimate Team

FY 2020: $1.49bn
FY 2019: $1.37bn
FY 2018: $1.18bn
FY 2017: $775m
FY 2016: $660m
FY 2015: $587m

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 20, 2020

It’s hard to deny that EA is finding a ton of success selling randomized booster packs to FIFA players. Free-to-play games find similar success selling semi- or completely randomized “loot box”-style packs to players who can’t stop rolling until they find what they’re looking for. In the EA suit, Ramirez estimates he has spent more than $600 on Ultimate Team alone since 2011.

The Road to “Loot Box” Regulation

Overall, there is no legal consensus on whether or not “loot boxes” are considered gambling. Not for a lack of trying, though. In 2018, legislators in Hawaii drew up two different bills to try and regulate “loot boxes.” House Bill 2686 proposed that retailers not be allowed to sell video games that included “a system of further purchasing a randomized reward or rewards,” to anyone under 21 years of age. House Bill 2727 would have required game publishers to post publicly the odds of obtaining items in “loot boxes,” or in-game booster packs.  It’s worth noting that several games already do this, thanks to legislation passed in China in 2017. HB 2727 would require publishers to put “a prominent, easily legible, bright red label,” on their packaging warning of randomized in-game purchases.

EA’s Experience With Regulation

EA is no stranger to microtransaction controversy. In fact, calls to regulate randomized in-game purchases in the United States began in response to another EA game. Star Wars Battlefront 2 handled its “loot boxes” so notoriously poorly that they removed them from the game entirely. Despite this, EA Vice President of legal and government affairs Kerry Hopkins defended the use of these mechanics in the UK’s House of Commons in 2019.

“Well first, we don’t call them loot boxes. So what we look at as surprise mechanics… If you go to a – I don’t know what your version of Target is – but a store that sells a lot of toys and you do a search for surprise toys, what you’ll find is that this is something people enjoy, they enjoy surprises. And so it’s something that’s been part of toys for years, whether it’s Kinder Eggs or Hatchimals or LOL Surprise.

“We do think the way that we have implemented these kind of mechanics – and FIFA of course is our big one, our FIFA Ultimate Team and our packs – is actually quite ethical and quite fun, enjoyable to people.”

In September of that same year, UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee released a report in which they suggest bringing “loot boxes” under gambling legislation and regulation.

More information on the lawsuit against EA’s FIFA Ultimate Team will be available by November at the earliest. The initial case management conference is set for November 19.

Tags: EA SPORTSfifa 21FIFA Ultimate TeamfrontpagenewsFUT
Share2Tweet1Share
Previous Post

Madden 21 Makes New Additions to Ultimate Team

Next Post

PGA Tour 2K21 Review: Stroke Play

Jake Jacobson

Jake Jacobson

Jake Jacobson is a writer, reporter, and content creator from cozy Bloomington, Indiana. He's a casual speedrunner, the number 1 Raichu fan, and took the Indiana Hoosiers to the National Title game in NCAA Football '11 six consecutive years. Go Packers.

Recommended For You

FIFA 23 Latest Update Brings A New World Cup Experience
Soccer

FIFA 23 Legacy Edition Free for Nintendo Online Members

Mar 24, 2023
soccer
Sports

Choosing the Right Soccer Game for Your Platform

Mar 24, 2023
Next Post
PGA Tour 2K21 Review

PGA Tour 2K21 Review: Stroke Play

Upcoming Games
March 14 Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC WWE 2K23
March 24 Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch MLB The Show 23
April 7 Xbox Series X|S, PS5 EA Sports PGA Tour
October 13 Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch WRC Generations
March 24 PC Franchise Hockey Manager 9
VIEW ALL GAMES

Recent reviews

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Meet Our Team
  • Join SGO
  • Privacy Policy
  • Review Policy
  • Store
Contact us: [email protected]

© 2014-2022 SGO Entertainment

  • News
  • Features
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Previews
  • Esports
  • Games

© 2014-2022 SGO Entertainment

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Facebook
Sign In with Google
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In