Some call it #Icongate, others call it #EAGate, but whatever name you want to give it, one of the world’s software giants has been rocked by one of the biggest scandals to hit the video games industry in some time. To make things that bit more incendiary, it involves a franchise that’s already been triggering fierce debate for years: FIFA.
The focus is specifically on the football game’s hugely controversial Ultimate Team mode. For those who don’t know, Ultimate Team – also known as FUT – lets players build and customise their own dream squads. The emphasis is squarely on improving your team with better players, which you can do by opening Ultimate Team packs. It’s possible to earn packs containing new players by actually playing the game and meeting daily or weekly objectives. Or, you can speed things up by simply purchase packs using real-world money, crossing your fingers and hoping the next one you buy will contain a top-level player.
First launched back in 2009, FUT has become a gaming behemoth, raking in vast revenues for EA. In 2020 alone, the mode generated $1.49 billion for the gaming colossus. But earlier this year, EA was rocked by allegations that employees have been selling elite-tier player packs to players on the sly. Damning screenshots were posted on Twitter showing text conversations between an alleged EA insider, or insiders, and prospective buyers. The alleged employee(s) boasted about the lucrative nature of legends like Ronaldo Nazario and Ruud Gullit, and how the cards of such players could be had for up to 1,700 euros. An alleged employee promised one buyer there was “no risk”, but that they couldn’t go into further details “for security reasons”.
These embarrassing revelations forced EA to release a suitably mortified response promising to delve into the matter urgently. The company followed that up with an update saying that they’d uncovered “questionable activity involving a very small number of accounts and items” and that appropriate action will be taken. Yet the damage of #EAGate has very much been done, with widespread outrage from gamers across the world.
The popular YouTuber NepentheZ, who has close to two million subscribers, tweeted that the scandal highlighted a “huge” problem with FUT. Prominent Twitch streamer Nick28T said that he felt “bad for people who have put thousands of dollars into Fifa points or thousands of hours into grinding the game… To not be able to get a single one of these players when someone who has a bit of money or just has the knowledge that this is even possible can basically go over to a WhatsApp group or rogue.”
What makes the scandal even more potent is that FUT has long come in for serious criticism from gamers, journalists and politicians across the world. That’s because of the randomised nature of the Ultimate Team packs, with many critics describing it as nothing more than a form of gambling. The controversy over video game loot boxes – items you can purchase with real money without knowing what they actually contain – has engulfed numerous titles, but the sheer popularity of Fifa has made its Ultimate Team mode particularly notorious among campaigners.
Indeed, it could be fairly argued that gambling outlets like casinos actually offer greater transparency regarding the odds of a player’s success, with terms and conditions clearly laid out, like on this curated list of offers. Can the same honestly be said of Ultimate Team?
Stories have hit the media of players getting swept up in a pack-buying frenzy. Last year, the BBC reported the story of Jonathan Peniket, a young Fifa fan who described getting hooked on Ultimate Team purchases. “I was spending £30 at a time, then £40, then £50. By the time my card began to block my transactions, I was throwing £80 into the game four or five times a night,” said Peniket, who eventually spent £3,000 of savings earmarked for university.
EA itself has defended the packs. In 2019, a senior executive at the company, Kerry Hopkins, downplayed the “gambling” association when speaking to British MPs. Comparing them to Kinder Eggs, she described Fifa Ultimate Team packs as “quite ethical and fun”. So-called “pack probabilities” are now also displayed, showing players the percentage chance of a pack containing valuable and sought-after players. In the wake of #Icongate, the company issued a fresh defence of its game mechanics, emphasising how Ultimate Team is about “skill”, and that “you can acquire all items in the game without ever spending money, with purchases being entirely optional.”
Many view this argument as disingenuous, pointing out that while it’s of course possible to play Ultimate Team without splurging cash, in practice it’s incredibly difficult to “grind” your way to assembling a dream team. Recently, a Twitter thread by Twitch streamer ScudzTV went viral because of its frank look at just what it takes to create an “ultimate team” on Ultimate Team. Crunching the numbers, he calculated that in order to earn a squad featuring the likes of Pele, Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand and Paolo Maldini, a FUT player would have to rack up 22,000 hours of gameplay, or spend a hefty £79,990.
Talking to the NME, ScudzTV said he’d painstakingly worked this all out to disprove EA’s notion that “anyone can get any player they want”. He emphasised that it wasn’t the financial outlay that was the issue, but the uncertainty of what you’re buying. “I’m more than happy to buy a player or in-game item for say £15,” he said, “but I don’t want to have to spend £100 and open four boxes in the hope I might get it.”
In response to this, some might say that, despite its name, playing Ultimate Team mode shouldn’t be about obsessively piecing together a team of titans. Scarcity and greatness go hand in hand, after all, and it’s only right and proper that it can take a lot of graft and dedicated playing to build up your Fifa prowess. But one prominent name in esports, Zelonius, discounts this take completely.
“It’s nigh-on impossible to get these players without spending lots of money,” he told Eurogamer. “This year I personally spent two grand. For me it’s a business expense. It’s part of my job and I’ve just accepted it… Once I retire as a pro, I’ll spend nothing on the game.”
It’s unclear what the future holds for FUT pack mechanics as they currently stand. In Belgium, for example, EA has had to adhere to anti-loot box legislation by removing the ability to pay for packs with real-world money. In the UK, meanwhile, there is growing pressure for a crackdown on loot boxes, with a House of Lords committee last year calling for more stringent regulation. “If a product looks like gambling and feels like gambling, it should be regulated as gambling,” its report stated. Currently, the UK government is assessing how best to overhaul general gambling laws, and loot boxes may well fall foul of a toughened-up Gambling Act.