Update: In response to the controversy which started a few days ago after Electronic Arts was spotted advertising FIFA Points to kids inside a Smyths Toys magazine, the publisher issued the following statement:
"We take very seriously the responsibilities we have when marketing EA games and experiences in channels seen by children. In spite of this, we’re aware that advertising for FIFA Points has appeared in environments it shouldn’t have. We have been working diligently with Smyths to ensure this advertisement is not distributed in any remaining copies of their 2020 catalogue. We have also undertaken an immediate review of all future media placements and are working to ensure each of our marketing efforts better reflects the responsibility we take for the experience of our younger players."
Original story: Shortly after placing in-game ads inside EA Sports UFC 4, the publisher is back in the news for another questionable tactic when it comes to advertising and promoting paid currencies. It was spotted over the weekend that ads for the upcoming FIFA 21 are directly suggesting fans should purchase FIFA Points in order to bolster their team as part of a second step to footballing success. The worst part? The advert has been printed in a Smyths Toys magazine — a publication targeted at children.
The FIFA franchise has gained a reputation over the past five or so years for predatory microtransactions as its incredibly popular Ultimate Team mode is fuelled by loot boxes that reward a random selection of players and items. Players can earn them simply by playing, but that usually isn't enough to build a world-beating squad. The cash does eventually have to be splashed if you want to properly compete, and given the popularity of FIFA with younger gamers, this type of advertising can be deemed questionable at the very least.
This isn't a new tactic from EA, however, as responses to the tweet above point out that the same set of advertising steps were also used for FIFA 20. The publisher has received continued criticism for its approach to microtransactions inside FIFA titles, but it doesn't appear to be having too much of an effect. Despite the inclusion of its own take on Battle Passes, EA keeps promoting FIFA Points as a way to fast-track yourself to the top of the leaderboard.
Over on Twitter, users shared their disbelief at the advertisement. @TyLuis12 said: "what the actual hell is this. In a magazine for kids, telling them to buy fifa points. Disgraceful", while @FutSpy commented: "Imagine putting an advert in a kids magazine to pressure them into buying FIFA Points. You lot are disgusting." @1886BKNETS sounded off by saying: "This is from a kids magazine advising kids to buy fifa points to use in FUT. I’m fine with fifa points being available, but normalizing it for kids is an all time low from EA".
How do you react to this? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[source twitter.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 71
Scumbags. Nuff said.
It is like, they are doing this on purpose.
Its Electronic Arts, what more needs to be said about this company?
Plenty 18 rated games advertised in that same catalogue. Smyths are at fault too, they know exactly who they are selling copies of gta to.
@SLEEVExOFxWIZARD FIFA 99 on the N64 was the last one I bought 😆
Next you’ll be outraged at kinder targeting their surprise mechanic eggs at kids
I'm done with FIFA now, I don't play the fut, but on FIFA 20 I thought let's have a look and see what this is all about, played for probably around a month, it was ok but kept thinking why am I doing this, and went back to playing career mode. And actually stopped playing it a short while after because the game was one of the worst I have played in a while. They haven't done anything to career mode in so long, so until they do they ain't getting no more from me. The government defo needs to step in and either ban it or make the game 18, as it is now it's defo aimed at kids, I can imagine being back at school everyone playing it and trying to get the best team and spending my pocket money and paper round money on it, luckily when I was growing up we had a mega drive and Nintendo no online. Then the playstation in my teens. So whenever I see microtransactions I am like no thank you.
Well that’s gross. Any form of gambling encouraged towards children, this, football cards, bloody Kinder Surprise are totally gross. It just encourages unhealthy behaviour as they move into adulthood.
@nessisonett I knew it!
All games that have microtransactions should automatically be classified as an 18/adult title in ratings systems.
You let the games industry regulate itself, and it will continue to not be regulated.
Step 1.5: Go inside your mom's purse and grab her CC...
Goverment needs to be involved in this, mtx and lootbox is gambling.
EA Causes Outrage: Part 7,429
This is the kind of scummy profit seeking stuff that happens when Larger Publishing Companies like EA (and now Microsoft) swallow up a lions share of developers and Popular IP's and force people to Pay to Play (in one form or another) and start the self justification PR train when people complain. Example of the larger companies not TRULY listening to the gamers or the gaming community, Microsoft knew they screwed up last gen by trying to force gamers to do things their way and apologized and corrected course to closely match Sony, yet no one seems to recognize that this NEXT GENERATION there doing the same thing but instead of in your face about it, there performing a (Reach Around) tactic by buying up Publishing Companies like ZeniMax Media, along with other Software Companies and their popular IP's to corral everyone into doing what they Originally wanted you to do at the beginning of this generation and that is, Always on internet connection and Digital downloads and Internet Streaming of games. I'm afraid of this becoming the beginning of the end for gaming as we've known it, and it's not going to be better for it. (Get them hooked on cheap games as a service, and when you've monopolized enough of the market, jack the prices through the roof and make the same ol PR excuses, like EA will make targeting anyone at any age for whatever BS reason they come up with. Good Times😁👍, the future looks bright!
@R1spam I work for Smyths and I try as much as humanly possible to advise parents on the content of games if it appears they may be buying for a minor. There is also classification information on the case itself. If a parent authorises their child to still play an 18 rated game after this that is called parental consent. I can't speak for everybody but I certainly do my best to give parents and guardians advice when it comes to children and videogames. I don't think that your comment is fair or constructive in blaming an entire chain of superstores for what is essentially and ultimately a decision made by whoever is in charge of caring for the child in question.
Additional: I find it interesting that the tweet and article are referring to it as a "kid's magazine". It is actually an item, i.e. digital codes, in a store catalogue which is free for anyone to peruse, not just children. Don't worry I'm not defending EA at all and I also do not defend the abhorrent practice of microstransactions, but I do find it interesting how wording can make something sound even more sinister than it actually is.
Although I dont agree with what ea has done I dont think fifa should be made an 18, I know a lot of children that play on fifa and dont even go on ultimate team, they should be made to put in game purchases on the cover and have ultimate team as a seperate download that has to be age verified in some way.
@daveyboyps101 Relax bud, no need to virtue signal about how good you are. If you tried to tell me any of that in your store, I would tell you right where to go. They are video game ads, in a toy magazine, there is literally nothing to get mad at here. Video games are toys, and microtransaction are in almost every one of them now.
Yeah it's bad but it's been going on for years. Why now?
@GamingVeteran not sure how I'm virtue signalling, I'm simply trying to get facts straight and possibly avoid the demonisation of the entire company that is Smyths. The advice we give to customers is for their benefit, and I have no need to apologize for trying to do my job correctly. I generally don't comment in sections online like this as, as just demonstrated, someone will always pipe up trying to drag someone down, or anonymously make you feel bad, but felt I needed to here as I'm direcly related to the subject in question.
Everything causes outrage on Twitter.
@daveyboyps101 I fully understand that the rating system is clear and that the decision to put those games in the hands of a minor is often parental choice. I'm in no way having a go at folk working in the shop! However, the Christmas catalogue has no split at the back for games for older or younger gamers, Red dead and cod is on the same page as spyro. Perhaps its just my association with smyths solely as a toy vendor rather than broader electronics that causes this to jar with me.
EA a few months ago: "we are doing everything we can to change our bad image".
What we didn't understand is that they are trying to make it worse
Ok, it's all wrong as usual...
But why are they called Silber sets? Lol
@R1spam that's absolutely fair, the catalogue is what it is and all the videogame content is in one section, but in a cinema magazine all the differently rated films are together too, whether or not you can or should watch them depends on your age or who you are with. A lot of the time it just seems to me that folk are willing to blame anyone or anything else before taking responsibility for themselves. Parents are afraid to tell their child no, hence the insane amount of underagers on online games such as Fortnite which also has microstransactions. Perhaps including FIFA points in a toy catalogue is a poor move especially considering the current climate around such a practice, I absolutely agree with that, but the reason I felt I needed to speak up originally was due to the comment which insinuated that all we do in our store is actively sell copies of GTA to kids, when quite the opposite is actually the case. At the end of the day it is EA who are making money from the situation, and they should have this kind of practice regulated much, much more strictly.
@deathaxe
😶-Sadly you seem to be in the minority, because most people are suckers and buy into that hype. I can't remember the site I was on when it had 2 different analysts that they interviewed, one analyst said that this upcoming generation would be the last generation for physical media and that the following generation would be primarily streaming with digital downloads, the second analyst said that he predicts that there will be 2 more generations at least after the PS5 and XSX, because with current limited internet data caps, and the bandwidth for true dynamic 4k gaming not to mention dynamic 8k becoming more common in the following generation after this new one, that he sees no sustainable way to do it through streaming, to getting the better visuals and higher frame rates from games that gamers will want and expect with every new generation without a console to do it, because the infrastructure currently in place and even in the near foreseeable future can't change fast enough to support that kind of demanding bandwidth without sacrificing too much from the gaming experience. Microsoft and Google want that future as fast as they can make it happen for the Easy money, even if it means we lose quality. People are buying into something that we're not yet capable of having without a Major loss to our gaming experience.
The Disney villains of the gaming industry.
EA needs to be destroyed. Nothing good for the customer ever comes from them. They have talented teams that make great games but EA as a publisher does everything in it's power to ruin them.
They aren't even adding much of anything new to their yearly sports releases at this point. It's destined to collapse.
any goverment in western world that dosent ban this is fffffffffffffffffffff corrupt. all gambling companies should sue the goverments for tax money back as unfair treatment. ffffffffffffff EA and all the gaming sites that dont fffffffffffffffffffffffffff hammmer them and the other conts that promote this *****. Gambling in games no review no publicity just post dont buy.
"EA causes outrage by by being greedy".
In other news, the pope is a catholic.
@SLEEVExOFxWIZARD definitely but plenty of people may still have those panini albums in their loft somewhere.
I'm still playing FIFA 2001 on the PS1! I'll just stick with that
Good ol EA. Doing what they do best as usual. 🙄
@KirbyTheVampire people love Disney villains
"It has come to our attention that ads for FIFA microtransactions were placed in a magazine publication aimed at children. This was an unintended editing mistake and we apologize."
And so the snakes easily slither their way out of yet another outrage, all the while thinking of their next sly attempt to coerce kids into gambling.
Weren't microtransactions defended by this site not long ago? If they're not safe for kids, then what was that about?
When my eldest and second kid were at school FIFA was the main game, kids had to have it. But now my youngest two have no interest in it at all, Its all fortnite for the youngest and fortnite / COD for the next one up.
I'm hoping FIFA has lost its playground credibility
Despite this news I am still picking up my copy of Star Wars Squadrons from Smyths on Friday for £5 less than elsewhere. Whoop
@TooBarFoo That doesn't change much. Spending lots of money on Fortnite micro transactions vs FIFA, is there a difference at the end of the day?
@thedevilsjester They are very different, No game of chance / gambling in Fortnite. And as its a free game I'm OK with it having a few MT. Mostly you just buy the battle pass, and you earn enough each season to buy the next. I've probably spent £25 /£30 for each of them but they have 500 + hours in the game. That's good value. That will last you 5 minutes in FIFA and you'll end up with nothing.
Wasting ad money about microtransactions on an audience that can't legally do most microtransactions? Yeah, someone really done goofed here.
Kids suck up Fortnite V-Bucks more than any other demographic so this makes sense. EA has always advertised this stuff and I’ve never purchased any of their crap. If advertising works on you then that’s your fault, not theirs.
I say this is less about EA and more about the editors of the magazine. EA just buys ad space wherever it can, it is up to the magazine itself on what it does and does not allow.
After all, EA business( ´･ω･`)
Remember, it isn't gambling, it's Surprise Mechanics!
It’s real simple. Don’t support companies that do things like this. They won’t stop unless people take meaningful actions.
I hope they are slapped with huge fines for this.
The only EA game ive bought this generation was Burnout Paradise Remaster and I regret it because it’s not even the best Burnout. The sandbox style sucks.
Before that was probably DeadSpace series. But yeah these days I’ll not support them if I can.
@SLEEVExOFxWIZARD you might want to rephrase that last bit. I laughed so hard so thanks for that!
This is the same company that just released a completely broken Crysis without any DLC and without basic original game functions like leaning around corners. Which they added in a patch (?!?!?). These guys are a joke.
Boo Hoo, how about parents not give their children their credit card to use and teach them that this is just a money grab, they blame companies for their inability to just parent and raise their kids, you can say "no", it's not complicated
Why am I not surprised EA would pull a BS move like this, sigh...
What the hell ea just what the hell they have done many scummy things in the past 10 years from Star Wars battlefront 2 lootboxes to making people preorder the game the saboutuar a game made by a ea studio by makeing a preorder bonus to see women naked for all the guys wanting boners but this is one of if not the most scummy thing ea has done
EA, Ubisoft, Activision all of these company’s do not care how they get more money kids/adults they’re a total joke! Loot boxes and buying packs for players basically ruins a game for people.. I’m sick of these company’s thinking they can get away with whatever they want. I’m done with all 3 of these company’s. Let’s face it fifa has been the same game since 2015. Ubisoft ruin franchises ( look at Ghost Recon it used to be tactical aka GR2/Summit/GRAW series) and activision with there overpriced dlc packs. These guys are what’s wrong with the gaming industry. I prefer Sony’s approach to gaming where they can make a AAA game an amazing single player campaign and occasionally bring out some class multiplayer ( gran turismo, tlou factions, Uncharted multiplayer)
this type of practice should be criminal.
So as long as you raise kids well you should knock out most issues there. Next this is why your games is able to be updated years after release your welcome. Next if you do not see value in this grow a pair stop raising kids with entitlement issues and learn to tell them no and try explaining why you think that way. next if your kid loves the game and play iit all the time and would like to spend some allowance that should be fine but make you teach them the value of money especially in a world of digital marketing..yall buy digital music they can take away at anytime so same idea, as far as mystery loot goes if YOU again The Parent try teaching your kid something they can understand how random loot works and that it does not gurantee anything. All I see here is a bunch of people who lack the ability to coprehend let alone raise a kid that can y'all should give it a break or stick to single player solo releases like fallen order and squandrons...no updates planed no expansions no micro tramsactions againsl its a choice try raising kids to make the right one and stop blaming everyone else!
Companies love to push the boundaries with micro transactions until they get called out. Over time they hope these practices will be normalised.
@ZipperDragon very well said. It reminds me of horrible parents expecting teachers to be parents to their children because they can't control their own children.
It's called predatory marketing, and EA is fully aware of what they were doing.
@wiiware I’ve always said keep government regulation as far away from video games as possible but in this situation they need to step in against loot boxes. The ESA have been absolutely atrocious, they don’t give a fart about gamers.
"We're sorry... we got caught".
"will be withdrawn from all further publications of the 2020 catalogue"
So, it was basically their tactic all along to get it into as many households as possible before being pulled up on it and issuing a grovelling apology!
AKA sorry we got caught
What a steaming pile of horse****.
@Arnna Not the same company. Crytek self published the remaster, that series is out of EA's hands.
Every week there seems to be something new they apologise for.
When are they gonna learn to just stop doing these things at all?
@Fenbops Yeah, I don't want goverment to regulate games on artistic merit, but lootbox is a gambling-like transaction involving money, it has to be regulated according to law.
"We take very seriously the responsibilities we have when marketing EA games and experiences in channels seen by children"
Of course you do lol. But if it's not gambling like you said then why wouldn't you put it in kids mags lol, scumbags.
@Boldfoxrd It's like everyday gamers are crying about or for something they believe they deserve. Maybe stop doing that too.
@wiiware And until they do regulate it, it isn't illegal, and it isn't wrong to have in any game or magazine. So stop crying about it.
Yeah EA, this time we'll believe you 🤦♂️
Each time they force their greedy practices on us, wait for a possible backlash and come up with some sort of apology.
It's getting old!! Really old!!
At some point EA's words bear no substance anymore. Their ridiculous apologies for the umpteenth time and people still put up with this nonsense. Haven't bought a game from them in a long long time.
Apparently some folks just can't skip a few of their titles to vote with their wallet, because that's the only thing on their mind. Yes, they try to make it look like they aren't complete scumbags with their apology (with crossed fingers), only to pull the shame bull again and again.
"Sorry we got caught."
does anybody know, how much a booster pack for magic the gathering is? no? pokemon booster box? no? stopped playing? simple!
Just when you think EA could go no lower, But Then......
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