FIFA 23: EA Explains Why Players Love Loot Boxes and How They’re Not That Bad

Electronic Arts will release the last FIFA title with FIFA 23. After that they lose the rights to the name “FIFA”. FIFA 23 will also offer loot boxes again, although the system is now heavily criticized as a “game of chance”. In a statement, EA explains how you can see the loot boxes yourself.

What role do loot boxes play in FIFA?

• The loot boxes are part of the “FIFA 23 Ultimate Team” mode (short: FUT). You can either buy the loot boxes directly for money or earn them with time in FIFA 23.
• In FUT, players build their own teams using Player Cards that represent real-world players.
• Such player cards are contained in loot boxes, so-called “packs”: The loot box works like a ticket in a game of chance: The “winnings”, strong players, are extremely rare. The “fails”, weak and average players, are often included in the boxes.

FIFA 23 will be EA’s last FIFA to bear the name:

What’s the controversy? Loot boxes, like these FUT packs, have been viewed with increasing criticism in recent years. Because some ultimately consider these boxes to be gambling and fear that children who grow up with loot boxes could be introduced to gambling.

When EA overdid it with loot boxes in the Star Wars game “Battlefront II”, there was a huge media and public uproar: EA was accused of “enticing children to gamble” and excluding them.

In some countries there are efforts to curb the loot boxes. Some new games with loot boxes no longer appear in Belgium and the Netherlands because the publishers do not want to comply with the regulations there.

EA says: Loot boxes are part of the FIFA that players love

This is what EA now says about loot boxes: In a statement to Eurogamer, EA now explains how to see loot boxes yourself (via Eurogamer):

We wholeheartedly believe that Ultimate Team and FUT Packs, which have been part of the game for well over a decade, are a part of the FIFA that players love – fans love that the game reflects the excitement and strategy in the real world to build and manage a team. Giving players the opportunity to spend money is fair.

Also, it has to be said that spending money is completely optional in our game and we do not encourage players to spend money instead of earning in-game rewards. FUT Packs work exactly the same whether you buy them or earn them. Most players don’t spend any money at all. For example, out of 10 FUT Packs opened in FIFA 22, 9 were earned.

How important are the loot boxes in FIFA for EA? The loot boxes in their sports games make up a significant portion of EA’s revenue and it’s still growing.

In FY2021, EA made $1.62 billion from loot boxes in their spot games (FIFA, NHL, Madden): And most money in FIFA.

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29% of their company-wide sales in 2020 came from loot boxes. The glaring thing is that sales have tripled within 6 years. The trend is still increasing.

FIFA brings more and more events and special cards

This is behind it: EA benefits enormously financially from players buying loot boxes. To say that the purchase is not encouraged should be viewed critically by FIFA fans, because EA has brought more and more special packs, events and special editions in recent years.

This is generally a problem with loot boxes: Although you can often “earn the loot boxes by playing”, but

• Developers then increase the demand for loot boxes with “more new maps” or “new events” so that players buy boxes to keep up
• or lower the offer by making the loot boxes harder to earn: skimp on events or give fewer rewards

Indirectly, then, the developer has many opportunities to boost sales of loot boxes and thus increase their earnings over time. If you look at how the income from the loot boxes has changed, you can clearly see how the sales of the loot boxes are increasing.

The statement is also interesting:

• EA says loot boxes are part of FUT
• EA says that players love FUT because in the mode, like a real manager, they create their own team
• In the room it says: Players love loot boxes

EA does not explain why loot boxes are part of FUT and whether FUT would not be just as good if there were no loot boxes but other systems to earn players.

The parallel to “real life” only works moderately, because a football manager gets the players directly on the transfer market and does not blindly buy 20 players and hope to have a star with them.

Especially in 2019, the topic of loot boxes boiled up in the course of the “Battlefront” controversy:

EA calls loot boxes a fairly ethical surprise mechanism