The dust surrounding the Star Wars Battlefront 2 loot box controversy has barely settled but EA is now facing "pay to win" concerns with another one of its games. This time it's with the newly announced fighting game, EA Sports UFC 3.

After announcing EA Sports UFC 3 last month, EA has allowed fans of the fighting franchise to take part in a beta. This beta includes the Ultimate Team mode whereby players build the best team possible using collectible cards that can boost stats and skills. These include health boosts, temporary stat increases, and improvements to skills such as grappling. Players can use real money or the in-game currency to purchase additional packs to unlock new cards and improve these teams.

Those who have played the EA Sports UFC 3 beta argue that these card packs are part of a pay to win system. As players can spend money on microtransactions to unlock more cards and these cards can lead to better, stronger teams, it stands to reason that those with more money to spend can get ahead quicker in the game.

Responding to the concerns, EA released a statement explaining that the game will "prevent uneven matchups as much as possible." The company also stresses that the EA Sports UFC 3 matchmaking "takes fighter attributes, moves, boosts, and perks into account and prioritizes matching players with similarly upgraded fighters in addition to player skill."

EA Sports UFC 3 is not the only EA game to feature a similar system as both the FIFA and Madden NFL franchises also have Ultimate Team modes. Ultimate Team modes are incredibly lucrative for the company and EA makes over $1 billion each year from the sales of extra content (including microtransactions for Ultimate Team card packs).

And when it comes to Ultimate Team, players have largely accepted the mode, pay to win frustrations and all. Even recent calls for a FIFA 18 boycott focused on technical tweaks and gameplay bugs rather than anger about Ultimate Team being pay to win.

However, EA Sports UFC 3 is the first EA sports game with Ultimate Team to launch after EA's Star Wars Battlefront 2 was also embroiled in its own pay to win controversy. This latest backlash highlights the fact that there is heightened public consciousness about multiplayer game modes that let people pay to get ahead. More and more players are voicing their frustrations about the business model, but whether EA will change things ahead of EA Sports UFC 3's release early next year is unclear for now.

EA Sports UFC 3 releases February 2nd, 2018 for PS4 and Xbox One.

Source: IGN