Nowadays, video games are a big part of most people’s lives. Games like FIFA are played throughout the whole world, by both children and adults. The more time passes the more things game presenters come up with to lure the player into playing the game more, and paying more money on it. For example games like Call of Duty and Fortnite have a loot boxes system which you pay a small fee for and gives you special items as you level up. This was proven to be a massive success and generated a large amount of revenue for the gaming sector. Fifa has its own take at finding a way to earn a little extra money from the player, although it’s giving FIFA a large amount of backlash since their last few releases, especially after FIFA 20. Why?
FIFA has had a special game mode called Ultimate Team for a while now. It’s basically a mode where you build your own squad with real life players from all the major leagues, starting from the lowest quality players and playing and earning money to build and upgrade your team. There’s a number of ways in which you can get the players you desire, either buying them off the transfer markets for fifa coins, which you earn from playing matches and completing in-game challenges, you can also get certain players with squad building challenges, a great new addition to FIFA 20, and finally through opening packs.
These infamous packs are what’s earning FIFA’s massive backlash. Packs are bought for money and give you random squad items and/or players. The thing with packs is you never know what you’re getting and you can either get a very expensive high-rated player or nothing at all… doesn’t it sound like a gamble? There’s no doubt that anyone who plays Ultimate Team opens packs, there’s a certain thrill to it, cause when you find a good player, it feels like you won the lottery.
This makes it sound a lot like gambling, and the catch is that the game is rated for players of the age of 7 years or older, so if these packs turn out to be seen by the courts as a type of gambling, FIFA would be looking at some really big lawsuits. Although, Fifa managed to find a big loophole, where according to the BBC, A prize has to be either money or have monetary value in order for it to fall under gambling legislation.Brad Enright, program director of the Gambling Commission, acknowledged that gaming developer EA, marketing the Fifa football team management title, was experiencing “a relentless fight” against illegal secondary markets.
At the end of the day, this gives FIFA the win and makes packs officially NOT a type of gambling, but does this mean that in reality it really isn’t? After all, once a child experiences something fun when they’re young, wouldn’t they want to experience something similar to it in the future? Only time can tell. In the meantime, one can try out gambling legally if at the age of 18 or older in countless online casino websites like comeongaming.com/ and many more.
Have you ever tried opening Packs in FIFA Ultimate Team?
Do you think it’s a type of gambling? What’s your opinion on it?
