EA Buckles Under Microtransaction Pressure in Belgium

on a side note quite a few mobile games have been pulled completely in Belgium such as Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia

personally everywhere should ban the damn things, to be honest microtranscations themselves would be fine (if not still a bit predatory) if they wasn't tied to a random loot box, if you could actually choose what you wanted to buy, FUT would still make EA money if people could buy the players they wanted outright

It's gambling EA, stop pretending it isn't. You will still make more than enough money off of FIFA with or without transactions. In fact, I'd be more inclined to actually buy it if you stopped focusing on damned FUT and concentrated on the offline aspects of the game, or, just the state of the game in general!!

If you want to sell cosmetic items or timesavers or items like this then that's fine to give the public choice.
But to hide what's being offered behind a random generator so you are using real money in the hope you 'win' what you want is obviously gambling, and has no place in the mainstream videogame environment, IMHO.

tick tock EA one EU country gets it banned the rest will follow. Thats fine FIFA is popular most in mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm oh wait your fffffffffffffffffffffff

As much as I hate the whole MTX/lootbox aspect, I don't see how the FUT cards can be seen as gambling if things like Panini sticker albums are not. It's the same thing, only digital.

I'm a big FIFA fan but I'm managing my addiction lately after skipping FIFA 18 and 19 when I realized I was missing out on so many games. Thanks to RDR2 it was easy to skip 19. And in all my FIFA years I never understood the fun in FUT. Like most people in the FIFA Forums I also think it gets too much attention it's annoying!
Trust me the FIFA addiction is real, and it's expected, because despite all the negative comments that always comes with it, it's still a damn beautiful game.

FIFA sales in Belgium that high? If I were EA, I'd just stop selling the game there, akin to Square Enix's games like Dissidia Opera Omnia (although a clumsy example since Dissidia is a freemium in the first place - and ironically has its premium currency available for saving up aplenty with no wallets involved).

As for governments, I rarely even trust them to "intervene" in topical matters, let alone in the areas that should be controlled by the intervention of people's own common sense. But let's pretend that no one neck-deep in fanship and hooked on lootboxes beyond common sense will not consider the option of starting the "thrilling spree" anew on a different region account.

@get2sammyb the "monetary value" of stickers is debatable in practice. You can either try to sell off duplicates (which is an ephemeral market, and duplicates tend to be exchanged instead - something that video game lootboxes try to replicate to some extent with resource/IGC conversion systems) or try to sell off a completed album... which is equally hard to price in the light of losing the whole collectathon point (a sticker album completed elsewhere becomes just a picture book that will have to compete with actual official picture books out there).

On the other hand, legal P2P exchange of randomly acquired items isn't entirely unheard of in video games either - take Warframe, for example.

Censorship and government regulation, two things gamers once never would have cheerleaded for. What a time.

While im happy about this EA did just get away with breaking the law and made money while doing it.

Its very apparent now that we need regulations on loot boxes and game monetisation as a whole but thats still along way off.

@Frigate @Paranoimia On the surface it looks the same. In practice they couldn't be further apart.

With Panini stickers the aim is complete the collection. Exactly the same quantity of stickers are produced for each entree (bar starter packs). A pack of 5 stickers is about 80p, You can also buy missing stickers directly from Panini at a slightly exaggerated rate to complete the collection.

With Fifa Ultimate Team you have already spent £50 on the game. The players are rated and the best players are harder to obtain (fixed odds betting) EA keep throwing additional cards / players into the mix with boosted stats throughout the season (addiction forming) you can't go direct to EA to buy wanted players (so you have to use lootboxes or grind), there is no real end game other than to keep playing. Playing FUT inevitably leads to opening lootboxes. I know I have done it myself and absolutely hate Microtransactions.

@themcnoisy Thanks for the explanation. Didn't know they kept adding cards. I do buy FIFA (well, 18 and 19 were my first in 5 years or so), but I've never touched FUT as it just doesn't interest me.

@Gamer83 true but look at what the big companies have done with all the freedom

personally i would not want gaming to be regulated but it's become so hostile to the consumer and the companies have become so greedy that perhaps in this case a bit of regulation on some things might be needed

With stickers, you are buying a pack of stickers that have 'value'. Whether you get the ones you want/need or not - chances are that when you start your collection, everything you get will be wanted and needed. However, as you get further along, then you will start to get more and more duplicates but they still have 'value' that can be used to trade with other collectors or sold on.

When you get to the last '50' spaces, you can if you want buy individual stickers to complete your collection rather than keep buying packs in the hope you get the missing ones.

Anyway, the point is you are getting something 'physical' for your money that has value to someone - even if it doesn't have 'much' value to you because you already have one (or more). At the start though - EVERY sticker is wanted/needed so EVERY item is wanted as the purpose is to collect at least 1 of every sticker. A completed Album (even incomplete) has value after too as it can be sold to another person.

This is how it vastly differs from Micro-transactions in games. These have no 'value' and you do not want/need 'every' item. These cannot be sold or traded with other 'collectors' for the items you may have wanted/needed and once you have finished with the game, have NO value at all to anyone else as they locked to your account only.

You think about Pokemon Trading Cards and how much some of those were worth - even if you didn't actually want the cards you ended up getting. Like I said, these still have some 'value' to someone and therefore you are getting 'something' useful every time - whether its for your own collection or something you can sell/trade with another that values those items.

Its bad enough that companies are charging money for 'cosmetic' items that are sold directly - let alone a 'chance' to get the cosmetic items you want. It is 'gambling' - gambling with the chance to get items you and only you value and have NO value to anyone else. I have no issue with 'loot boxes' as a reward for playing that are not sold for real money. Its no different from being rewarded with a random item at the end of a match just for completing it - but selling them is 'gambling' with real money.

@FullbringIchigo
All consumers have to do is use their brains, there should be no need for the government to step in nor should anybody be thrilled by what it could mean going forward.

@Gamer83 Well, that's what happens when the gaming industry doesn't regulate itself...

Jim has a video up already. 👍 I dont agree on everything what he says but he has a lot of good points. Liveserviceeee and player choice are my favorites.

@Gamer83 Please be quiet not every goverment is as bad as the one in the US.
Why are so terrified of yours anyway.

@Flaming_Kaiser
Don't like what I have to say put me on the ignore list. I'm not going to be quiet just because people here don't agree with my opinions. Politicians are professional liars, I've never trusted a damn one of them and not about to start now. I'm definitely not a fan of government intervention in industries like video games which thrive on creative freedom. It starts in one area then the next thing you know they're meddling everywhere else.

@Paranoimia I can trade those.

@Gamer83 Yeah the CEO's of all the big companies are trustworthy. Its not like they had a chance for how many years now. I should not have said to be quiet but i disagree. Im still really baffled about the fear of the Americans towards their goverment. Cant even agree to a check if someone is insane to buy a gun a waiting period which i think would have saves a lot of lives. What if someone gets a few days to think before they can act. And why are you so afraid all the big companies lobby in there anyway.