The ongoing controversy surrounding what FIFA fans are calling “EA Gate” continues to grow. EA has now responded to accusations that official accounts were being used to sell rare, high-value FIFA Ultimate Team items for thousands of dollars. As its investigation begins, EA has also made an immediate decision to suspend the practice of rewarding discretionary items indefinitely. That’s unlikely to sate frustrations within the FIFA community, but it’s a start.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of discretionary content granting for FIFA by EA, the publisher provided a brief synopsis. Basically, it’s a way for EA to give FIFA Ultimate Team content to people automatically, bypassing the RNG elements of FIFA packs. These items are granted via EA employees or partners and cannot be traded. EA says they’re only given to professional football players, celebrity partners, and employees, and absolutely not to “professional video game influencers.”
Alternatively, EA says that discretionary items can be given by customer service agents to players who may have accidentally deleted items, or given by testing and quality verification users via test accounts when issues arrive. Obviously, these scenarios have very strict restrictions on them.
EA is clearly trying to head off the idea that it’s been using these FIFA Ultimate Team discretionary items without restraint. It’s easy to understand why FIFA Ultimate Team players would be worried that the YouTubers and Twitch streamers they follow are being manipulative and aren’t relying on the same systems they are. Further, they worried that EA could be manipulating the FIFA Ultimate Team market with these discretionary items.
What EA is trying to do is correct this mistaken assumption, as it would prove incredibly damaging to the perception of what’s become one of EA’s most lucrative games. If players can’t trust FIFA Ultimate Team packs, then they won’t buy them. EA wants players to know that, even while the controversy at hand is very bad, they can still trust the FIFA Ultimate Team market.
With that said, EA isn’t trying to deny the controversy itself. It’s acknowledged that the discretionary item redemption system has been abused and launched a full and “rigorous” investigation into how it happened. It has also promised to punish all accounts that have been involved in the illicit buying or selling of these discretionary items and will delete all illicit items. Lastly, EA has issued an apology for the impact the problem and controversy have had on the FIFA community. Hopefully, FIFA players will appreciate that as a start.
FIFA 21 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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