If there’s any video game series that’s notorious for excessive monetisation, it’s FIFA, and FIFA 22 is no different. It’s just as bad as ever, even considering the (hollow) gesture of Preview Packs to curb player spending on the game’s many, many loot boxes in Ultimate Team.
FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) is a mode that revolves around buying and trading footballers in the form of cards. These cards can be bought from the marketplace with FIFA Coins or in random chance packs (loot boxes) with FIFA Coins or FIFA Points; the latter can only be bought with real life money. While players can grind out coins to spend on specific cards, the very best cards cost an excessive amount of FIFA Coins on the marketplace, and packs are so baked in to the FUT experience that it’s hard to avoid them. FUT very gradually makes opening packs a basic feature of its gameplay, imploring you more and more to indulge in them, with the allure of spending extra increasingly difficult to resist as other players’ teams get better and more and more illustrious cards are released.
This kind of drip-feed dependency on what is ostensibly gambling has caused plenty of controversy for EA in the past, with regulation looming in a big way from the UK government in 2022 as a result of widespread concern from many horror stories about real world debt caused by the predatory mode. Ahead of a potential major crackdown, it’d seem that EA are trying to appease governments and governing bodies without ever feeling like they actually want to.
Towards the end of FIFA 21’s life, EA trialled Preview Packs, which let you view the contents of Silver and Gold packs, though only the latter has any worth to the average FIFA player. These Preview Packs have been carried over into FIFA 22, and it’s fair to say that they’re little more than a half measure to keep eyes off them, the most minor of deterrents from excessive spending imaginable.
The issue with these Preview Packs is that players only get one per day to see what they will “earn” before they buy it, with them then having to wait a full 24 hours before they get another Preview Pack. Meanwhile, the lure of the standard packs is right there next to the Preview Pack, so if you don’t pack something that you want, here’s your chance to try again — the first one was free.
These “x-ray” packs seems to at least slightly be inspired by the loot llamas in Fortnite’s Save the World, which were updated in 2019 to allow players to look at the contents of all the paid loot boxes before buying them. However, EA’s alternative approach can’t help but come across like utter lip service in comparison.
This new system feels like something straight out of free-to-play mobile games rather than a genuine attempt from EA to change their ways. EA has, somehow, managed to make self-regulation into a perk, a gameplay feature that keeps you interested in the ecosystem. If they do keep on including these Preview Packs going forward, it wouldn’t be a shock to see them including additional Preview Packs for those who buy FIFA’s more expensive editions — this is the same publisher who “revolutionised” paid early access and replaced its traditional demo with a cynical beta to get more sign-ups, after all.
While FIFA Playtime is a good step in the right direction, these Preview Packs feel like the laziest of shrugs towards changing the culture of FIFA, which is now so focused around loot boxes that it’s seldom ever the gameplay that gets the most views on YouTube etc, it’s the loot boxes. EA has a long way to go towards fixing the fabric of their franchise, but these Preview Packs just don’t cut it.
But do they even care?
FIFA 22 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S.
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