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10 months ago
EA: “We don’t call them loot boxes”, they’re “surprise mechanics”
Brace yourself. It is once again time to talk about boxes. When questioned yesterday by the UK government's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the vice president of EA's legal and government affairs insisted on describing loot boxes as "surprise mechanics". I read her language choice as partly a doomed attempt to move away from the stigma attached to loot boxes, and partly to do…
11 months ago
A Republican senator is set to introduce a bill that would restrict loot boxes and other predatory business models specifically aimed at children, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. The "Protecting Children From Abusive Games Act" is the brain-child of Senator Josh Hawley, and would put the American FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in charge of enforcing the new rules. If this law were to pass, then games…
1 year ago
FIFA Ultimate Team to effectively stop selling loot boxes in Belgium
Electronic Arts have thrown in the towel in their battle with Belgium over whether or not paid loot boxes in FIFA's Ultimate Team mode constitute illegal gambling. Without admitting to anything, EA today announced that they will soon stop selling Belgian players the 'FIFA Points' microtransaction currency used to buy Ultimate Team 'packs', effectively stopping selling them. Technically if someone is sitting on €657965468476 of…
2 years ago
Feature: Not Messi
For a series that’s been running for over 20 years, it’s no minor statement to say that the latest iteration has brought back the fun. You already know how enormous the series is, you are likely aware of how much it’s become “Sky Sports Presents FIFA” over the years, and you certainly know how much of a heaving beast it is in terms of #content.…
I return from my week off work to discover that I have evidently replaced our departed Adam (RPS in peace) as the RPS Football Correspondent, because none of these squares mentioned that a free demo for FIFA 19 launched on Thursday. I've ironically become less interested in digital ballkicking since I started going to matches again (mon the Hibs!) but I appreciate some will want…
EA may be going to court in Belgium to keep loot boxes in FIFA 18 and 19
EA made a show of cutting loot boxes from games such as Star Wars Battlefront 2, but they seem willing to go to court to fight for their presence in FIFA 18 and 19, and it might result in a legal battle. After the Belgian Gaming Commission declared many kinds of loot box to be gambling, some studios restricted sales of random virtual rewards in the…
FIFA 19 adds some fun twists to a familiar sport with its House Rules modes
Football... Football never changes. Well, maybe this time. Among a slew of features expounded on in this development blog post, EA have let slip some rather exciting alternate playmodes for their upcoming hyper-budget football sim FIFA 19. All gathered under the broad 'House Rules' tag, they sound a little like mutators as you'd see in a competitive FPS, putting strange new spins on the mechanics,…
EA say they plan to disclose odds of loot box items in FIFA 19 and other sport 'em ups, though it's unclear quite how specific they'll get. Loot boxes in FIFA? Yup, those are the 'packs' of random players and power-ups for FIFA's long-running Ultimate Team mode (FUT), sold for a virtuacash or a premium microtransaction currency, which players use to build and boost a…
EA have landed the Champions League license for FIFA 19, taking possession from Konami's rival Pro Evolution Soccer series after its 10-year deal expired. Y'know, the Champions League, the Pan-European football competition with the sixth-best theme song in sporting television (after Formula 1, the Test Match Cricket, Football Italia, BBC Snooker, and Monday Night Handegg). The Champions League will be splattered all across FIFA 19,…
