The boycott against FC Points in FC 24 goes unheard. EA SPORTS goes one better with a new, exorbitant Points package. The community is divided: Cynicism meets temptation
It’s been a turbulent few days and weeks for EA SPORTS. This year’s “Team of the Season” (TOTS) event is causing more discussion than ever before. At first, it was only a matter of recurring debates regarding the general concept of the promo. But then the developer and publisher itself caused a wildfire in the community with some hair-raising missteps, which numerous content creators seized on to start a boycott.
EA SPORTS remains silent and responds via shop
The movement focused on “FC Points”, an in-game currency that can be purchased with real money and spent on packs in the soccer simulation’s store. Such in-game transactions are the largest source of revenue for Electronic Arts, which is why Nick ‘NicktRTFM’ Bartels and Co. deliberately decided against showing content purchased with FC Points in their streams and videos in mid-May. EA SPORTS did not react publicly to this development and also left a request from eSport unanswered.
Now, however, a good two weeks later, there seems to be some kind of reaction – which might seem like a slap in the face to the protesting part of the community. EA SPORTS is not taking its foot off the gas when it comes to in-game transactions, but rather putting the pedal to the metal.
In the last few days, a new points package has appeared in the game containing 18,500 units of the virtual currency. Not only does it eclipse the previous maximum of 12,000 FC Points, it also comes at a price of 100 euros. The cost of the new record offer: no less than a proud 150 euros – almost twice as much as the full price of the title at launch.
Community between cynicism and temptation
Although it has since disappeared from the store again, the record of the inglorious kind has nevertheless attracted some criticism. For example, X user ‘JakePritchardFC’ commented under a post by ‘FUTZONEFIFA’ that this was precisely the reason why he was playing “Football Manager or Career Mode” and ignoring Ultimate Team. “Once again EA is greedy and wants to empty people’s pockets with expensive in-game transactions,” he summarized. “54 percent more coins for 50 percent more money. This four percent is exactly what the community needed,” was the cynical conclusion of Reddit user ‘pcsrvc’.
In fact, there are also positive responses among the reactions. On Reddit, for example, ‘ProtocolEnthusiast’ stated that he didn’t have “many concerns about the price itself”. Rather, he had a problem with the fact that such an investment would not be sufficiently profitable unless it was made early on in the game. It would be different if the value was right: “If I knew that 150 euros would get me a few million coins or a guaranteed icon choice with a rating of at least 93, I would consider it.”
EA SPORTS is therefore also likely to find a buyer or two for the new excesses of in-game transactions – and could thus continue the paradoxical trend of increasing sales with decreasing player numbers. Record prices for packs mean that scandalous bugs and years of malpractice that make the game unplayable at times appear to have no financial consequences for the developer
