An anonymous insider has provided CBC News a 54-page internal document from publisher Electronic Arts, which indicates that the company is actively driving players towards microtransactions.
With reference to FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT), a bullet point in an EA presentation states that “all roads lead to FUT.” “We are doing everything we can to drive players there,” the document reads. Apparently, FUT is the “cornerstone” of FIFA, and EA wants to “drive excitement & funnel players towards FUT from other modes.”
The insider told CBC that they leaked the document because it’s “getting harder and harder to defend what is very obviously unregulated gambling.” “For years they’ve been able to act with a layer of plausible deniability,” they continued. “Yet in their internal documents, they’re saying, ‘This is our goal. We want people driven to the card pack mode.'”
In its defense, EA has issued a statement claiming that the presentation has been taken out of context and CBC has “sensationalized” the story. Part of the statement reads:
We always look for opportunities to introduce more players to modes in our games. Our FIFA players are expecting fresh content that makes the service exciting, so that’s a constant focus for us. We do not ‘push’ people to spend in our games. Where we provide that choice, we are very careful not to promote spending over earning in the game, and the majority of FIFA players never spend money on in-game items.
EA also disputed the claim that its games involve gambling.
