Last year, a lawsuit put a common FIFA fan theory into legal action. Three people sued EA for allegedly using a technology called 'Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment' to make good teams underperform in Ultimate Team mode, leading to players buying more loot boxes so they can build better teams. EA have always denied that. Well, now that lawsuit has been dropped, apparently after speaking with EA engineers about how the game works.
]]>Brace yourself. It is once again time to talk about boxes. When questioned yesterday by the UK government's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the vice president of EA's legal and government affairs insisted on describing loot boxes as "surprise mechanics". I read her language choice as partly a doomed attempt to move away from the stigma attached to loot boxes, and partly to do with an as yet un-passed US bill attempting to legally define the term, with the intention of banning both them and pay-to-win mechanics.
It also ties into her argument that loot boxes are more akin to Kinder Eggs than slot machines. Not that she'd ever mention the latter.
]]>A Republican senator is set to introduce a bill that would restrict loot boxes and other predatory business models specifically aimed at children, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. The "Protecting Children From Abusive Games Act" is the brain-child of Senator Josh Hawley, and would put the American FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in charge of enforcing the new rules. If this law were to pass, then games aimed at children would be outright prohibited from letting kids buy loot boxes, microtransaction currency and more, and additional restrictions would wall them off from younger buyers in other games.
]]>Electronic Arts have thrown in the towel in their battle with Belgium over whether or not paid loot boxes in FIFA's Ultimate Team mode constitute illegal gambling. Without admitting to anything, EA today announced that they will soon stop selling Belgian players the 'FIFA Points' microtransaction currency used to buy Ultimate Team 'packs', effectively stopping selling them. Technically if someone is sitting on €657965468476 of virtuacash they'll still be able to buy loot boxes until the cows come home, but no new Points will be sold.
"After further discussions with the Belgian authorities, we have decided to stop offering FIFA Points for sale in Belgium," EA said today. I can relate. After further discussions with the Scottish authorities, I myself recently decided to stop stabbing tourists in Scotland.
]]>For a series that’s been running for over 20 years, it’s no minor statement to say that the latest iteration has brought back the fun. You already know how enormous the series is, you are likely aware of how much it’s become “Sky Sports Presents FIFA” over the years, and you certainly know how much of a heaving beast it is in terms of #content. But what you won’t know yet is just how phenomenal FIFA 19 is, and that’s why you’re reading this review. Thank you.
]]>I return from my week off work to discover that I have evidently replaced our departed Adam (RPS in peace) as the RPS Football Correspondent, because none of these squares mentioned that a free demo for FIFA 19 launched on Thursday. I've ironically become less interested in digital ballkicking since I started going to matches again (mon the Hibs!) but I appreciate some will want to see what's new with EA's latest annualised kick 'em up. As ever, it's a year of tweaks, fiddling, and airbrushing built upon rules which have barely changed in a century, as you can see for yourself by downloading the demo.
]]>EA made a show of cutting loot boxes from games such as Star Wars Battlefront 2, but they seem willing to go to court to fight for their presence in FIFA 18 and 19, and it might result in a legal battle.
After the Belgian Gaming Commission declared many kinds of loot box to be gambling, some studios restricted sales of random virtual rewards in the country. EA opted to disclose the odds on FIFA 19 loot boxes, but ignored the Commission's orders otherwise - continuing to sell packs of random virtual footballers. According to Belgian papers Nieuwsblad and Metro, this is now a criminal issue, and seems likely to end up in court.
]]>Football... Football never changes. Well, maybe this time. Among a slew of features expounded on in this development blog post, EA have let slip some rather exciting alternate playmodes for their upcoming hyper-budget football sim FIFA 19. All gathered under the broad 'House Rules' tag, they sound a little like mutators as you'd see in a competitive FPS, putting strange new spins on the mechanics, including a no-holds-barred mode bereft of referees. Truly, this is football as god intended.
]]>EA say they plan to disclose odds of loot box items in FIFA 19 and other sport 'em ups, though it's unclear quite how specific they'll get. Loot boxes in FIFA? Yup, those are the 'packs' of random players and power-ups for FIFA's long-running Ultimate Team mode (FUT), sold for a virtuacash or a premium microtransaction currency, which players use to build and boost a team. The packs give a vague indication of what might be inside (a bit like Mass Effect multiplayer, if that's a more illuminating reference point to you) but doesn't actually tell players odds on getting the specific shinies they long for - a common but still shoddy loot box practice.
]]>EA have landed the Champions League license for FIFA 19, taking possession from Konami's rival Pro Evolution Soccer series after its 10-year deal expired. Y'know, the Champions League, the Pan-European football competition with the sixth-best theme song in sporting television (after Formula 1, the Test Match Cricket, Football Italia, BBC Snooker, and Monday Night Handegg). The Champions League will be splattered all across FIFA 19, getting its own mode, sending Alex Hunter to play in it during its story mode 'The Journey', and popping up in FIFA Ultimate Team and all that too. And most importantly, it has that song. Well, kind of. Here, give this trailer a listen.
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