Electronic Arts announced yesterday that it will be releasing a free downloadable World Cup mode for its FIFA 18 soccer game. The mode will include all 12 Russian stadiums, cinematic cutscenes of the tournament, and allow gamers to build their ultimate international team with players picked both from any country and across the history of the World Cup. Ultimate Team. The downloadable content (DLC) will also provide a custom tournament mode, providing fans of countries like the United States and Italy, both of which failed to make the real event, to at least be able to see their virtual players in Russia.
Set for release on May 29 on Playstation 4, XBox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch, a key feature of this update will be that it is free. In previous World Cup years EA created whole new games centered on the event. To play both the traditional FIFA game and the World Cup version, fans would have to buy both.
EA has often been the focus of anger by communities like Reddit’s /r/Gaming over DLC and in-game transactions. In a world where many of the most popular games are either free to play (Fortnite, League of Legends, and Dota 2) or cheap (Rocket League, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds), frustration centers on the fact that EA games already cost $60. Players feel they shouldn’t have to pay more for additional content.
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When EA representatives took to Reddit to promote Star Wars’ Battlefront 2 last summer, they were met with anger. While the game cost $60, most of the heroes were locked behind loot crates that could be accessed using in-game currency or credit cards. Allowing players who could pay to jump ahead seemed unfair. As a result of the backlash, EA changed the loot boxes in the game, removing the option to purchase useful upgrades.
In several European countries, loot boxes have been declared a form of gambling and, as such, illegal. The Netherlands was the first, and Belgium recently followed, in demanding developers of games with loot boxes to remove them or be subjected to large fines and possible jail time. That list includes CS:GO, Overwatch, and FIFA 18.
According to Peter Naessens, Director of the Belgian Gaming Commission, in a translated press release, “paying loot boxes are not an innocent part of video games that present themselves as games of skill. Players are tempted and misled, and none of the protective measures for gambling is applied. Now that it is clear that children and vulnerable people in particular are exposed to them unprotected, game manufacturers but also parties such as FIFA, for example, are called upon to call a halt to this practice.”
EA has pushed back on these recent rulings. “We strongly believe that our games are developed and implemented ethically and lawfully around the world, and take these responsibilities very seriously,” an EA spokesperson explained to Eurogamer. “We do not agree that our games can be considered as any form of gambling.”
SportTechie Takeaway
EA is releasing a World Cup update to its FIFA 18 game at the end of this month, ahead of the 2018 World Cup, ahead of the real soccer tournament that will kick off in Russia in mid-June. Unlike some previous EA game updates, the World Cup addition will be free to owners of the main FIFA 18 game.
This comes after EA has faced backlash from gamers for charging extra for downloadable content in other games, and after rulings in several European countries that have declared certain types of paid in-game additions an illegal form of gambling.