One FIFA 21 FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) player has calculated that their dream squad would take 2.5 years of nonstop play to unlock for free. FUT has repeatedly been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. In addition to constant player complaints about microtransactions, recent accusations arose that an EA employee was selling rare FUT cards.
FUT has been incredibly successful for EA’s FIFA series since its addition back in FIFA 09. More than a decade later, FUT has become FIFA‘s primary source of revenue and appears in other EA franchises such as Madden NFL and NHL. The ability for players to, in theory, be able to build their dream fantasy teams using in-game currency awarded from matches and challenges has continued to make FUT a hit year after year financially. But, over the last few years, other players have grown frustrated with EA’s prioritizing of FUT mode.
One such player is Twitter user ScudzTV, who recently did the math to see how long it would take them to assemble their FUT squad, without buying the players using real-world money. Per ScudzTV, who assembled a 100 million coin team, consisting of several legendary soccer players, such a task would require, “a mere 22,000 hours of gameplay or 916 days of gameplay 24/7.” ScudzTV arrived at this figure by taking the 100 million coin price tag, and dividing that number by the “average of 1,500 coins,” that FUT players get per 20-minute game.
ScudzTV also crunched the numbers on how much it could cost to buy the players outright instead. According to ScudzTV’s math, “At a cost of £79.99 per 12k, I will need to spend a total of £79,990 on FIFA Points,” which converts to $111,408 USD. Again, these figures are just for one specific team, but as ScudzTV writes, “the options you put in front of your community do NOT allow everyone to achieve whatever they desire in your game within reasonable limits.“
This thread is not the first time a player has voiced displeasure at EA over its recent practices, nor will it be the last. FUT microtransactions are too lucrative for EA to let go, at the very least not without a fight. The ethics surrounding EA’s microtransaction practices in its various titles have been a contentious point of debate for years now, and nothing has really changed.
On top of the anti-consumer setup, FIFA 21‘s FUT has also become a breeding ground for racism and other hateful content, to the point where EA had to publicly promise to better tackle racism on its platform. From top to bottom, FIFA 21‘s FUT has had a turbulent few weeks in the news, but it is still unlikely that EA makes any sweeping changes to its model.
