FIFA 19 will make it easier for players to know what they’ll be getting in Ultimate Team packs as EA will begin disclosing pack odds, EA Sports Vice President and COO Daryl Holt confirmed today.
Speaking to Eurogamer at Gamelab in Barcelona, Daryl Holt said that FIFA Ultimate Team Packs will begin to show the odds of what players can get, starting from FIFA 19 onwards. He states, “For Ultimate Team, when you buy a pack you know what you are getting. You are getting a certain number of assets that are guaranteed – and we’re going to start to do pack odds disclosures that’ll show you the odds of what you might get.”
Holt didn’t give any details though as to the specifics of how the company plans to reveal the odds of the Ultimate Team Packs but, at the least, it looks like EA is beginning to listen to its fans as the FIFA players have been clamoring for the disclosure off pack odds for quite awhile now. And in a time where things like loot boxes have become an increasingly sensitive issue, this change is a step, however small, in the right direction.
Another one of EA’s titles, Star Wars Battlefront 2 came under intense scrutiny due to how it handled loot boxes, which gave players who purchased them a significant advantage over those who didn’t. The backlash pushed the company to rework the entire system and announce that its upcoming game Battlefield 5 won’t feature paid loot boxes entirely.
Holt compared FIFA’s Ultimate Team Packs to the Battlefront 2 controversy, saying that the two are very different. He explains, “When you’re talking about Ultimate Team, there is a definite amount of choice involved we want people to feel good about, and then get the value they feel out of the time and money they’re spending with it, and we think that works differently to the loot box controversies that were surrounding Battlefront.”
FIFA 19 is scheduled for release on September 28, 2018, for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
