After the release of some damning evidence which seemed to suggest that Electronic Arts was pushing FIFA players to purchase loot boxes, the game developer has now denied that this was ever its intent. Loot boxes, particularly those found in EA titles, have been the subject of controversy for years across the gaming industry and have even been labeled as gambling in some parts of the world.
Recently exposed internal company documents allegedly indicate that the game developer’s goal for the upcoming summer was to incentivize the FIFA player base to focus on FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT), a game mode heavily driven by loot boxes which spans across multiple EA Sports titles in some form. EA has often defended its stance on the inclusion of loot boxes in its games by saying that it is just a feature and not necessarily the focus of a particular title. These recently exposed documents, however, seem to suggest that this is not at all the case behind closed doors, and now the developer appears to be scrambling to do damage control.
A report from Eurogamer highlights some of the key points EA addressed in a lengthy statement regarding the exposed documents. The developer called the initial reporting of said evidence to be a “sensationalised story with a misrepresentation of the facts” and defended itself by declaring “we do not ‘push’ people to spend in our games.” EA further elaborated on its stance to give players “a safe and fun experience” and hoped that facts about the company would be represented more accurately going forward.
EA, understandably enough, does not seem happy with these developments. While the company no doubt has the resources for high-end legal representation, there is some language in these leaked documents that may be difficult to defend, with one particular statement standing out: “players will be actively messaged and incentivized to convert throughout the summer.” This could be further bad news for the game developer in countries where loot boxes have become legitimate legal concerns now that its stance appears so blatant.
It seems like a large portion of the gaming community suspected that this was EA’s plan for loot boxes all along, but seeing it laid out in such predatory language is a little disturbing. The gaming giant’s response to these leaks was expected as well and while it seems to have an uphill battle at present, things may not stay that way for long. This latest saga is just beginning for Electronic Arts, and FIFA may only be a small portion of the fight to come.
