FIFA 21 continues to lead the way when it comes to EA's sports titles. With such a huge international market, FIFA consistently tops sales charts when a new game is released. This massive appeal also leads to greater scrutiny when the game fails to live up to expectations. After players started reporting a bug with some of the game's Future Stars cards, EA took to Twitter to address the issue.
Scoring good players in FIFA 21's Ultimate Team to add to a squad can be a challenge, but there are ways to do so without resorting to dropping big (in-game) coin. FIFA 21 recently ran a couple of Future Stars Squad Building Challenges for players Pedro Goncalves and Curtis Jones, two nice pickups if players were able to finish the challenges. Usually, collecting these cards is pretty straightforward, but some players have been reporting incorrect stats on some Future Stars cards.
The two players at the center of the issue being reported by fans are Giovanni Reyna and Reece James. Fans claim that they have received incorrect versions of the cards in FIFA 21, with different stats and positions listed from what should have been rewarded. This can make a big difference as players try to build their Ultimate Team.
EA has come under fire for its FIFA Ultimate Team mode in the past, with a lawsuit filed in California alleging Ultimate Team is rigged to encourage more loot box purchases. While this incident involving incorrect stats appears to be a mistake that can be remedied, it erodes trust in the user base. If folks were duped here, is it possible there have been other cards that are inaccurate?
That EA is being upfront about its investigation into the matter is a good sign, as transparency and open dialogue are highly valued by game communities. When Call of Duty's developers failed to address fan claims that a MAC-10 blueprint was "pay-to-win," players felt cheated and expressed their displeasure. Eventually the issue was fixed, but owning the mistake from the start would have done a lot to restore faith for players.
Whenever microtransactions are involved in a game, there are bound to be those that question the legitimacy of a game that claims it is not pay-to-win. The idea behind microtransactions is to get the player base to continue investing in the game, and what better way to do that than to secretly nerf older FIFA Ultimate Team cards to get players to buy new packs with the latest and greatest. In many cases it is hard to prove if this is happening, but even the possibility of tampering sows seeds of doubt. With that said, EA is looking into the issue with the incorrect cards and will keep players informed.
FIFA 21 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game will also be released on Google Stadia on March 17th.
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Source: Dexerto