EA FIFA 18 Fans revolt and threaten boycott over micro transactions

[ItsMitch]

I wish that EA would stop appearing in my inbox for stupid news but it appears that they aren't listening and neither are its Fifa 18 fans.

Coming in from Reddit and the Daily Mail, fans are starting to speak out against EA Sports after the backlash of BF2 and they aren't happy with the way Ultimate Team's microtransactions are handled any many are planning a boycott over Black Friday's sales. 

 

First of many paragraphs on Reddit

Quote

Hello to the /r/FIFA community, I am SSROCK. I have played FIFA all my life, from FIFA 04 - FIFA 18. I have seen FIFA when it was good, and when it was bad. Believe me when I say EA almost had the perfect FIFA when 18 released, but...

I figure this is the best time to approach EA, with all the backlash Battlefront 2 is getting. I am very proud of the Battlefront 2 community, they are protesting something that they all care deeply about, and that is what we need to do aswell. FIFA has been on a steady decline over the last few years with "FIFA Ultimate Team" taking over the game. FIFA Ultimate Team (abbreviated FUT) is EA's version of microtransactions. It's a game mode where you earn coins by playing, competing in the weekend league (FIFA's "competitive" mode), and buying/selling players with coins to complete your dream team.

2

I for one am getting pretty fucking bored with EA's bullshit and they need to cut it out, personally, my inbox being spammed by "EA News" and so is my Google Feed, so EA can you please, PLEASE sort your shit out and get this resolved quickly as possible, thank you.

Sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/FIFA/comments/7e4j20/fixfifa/

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/esports/article-5104777/5-500-FIFA-18-fans-sign-petition-EA-fix-game.html

[JaN0h4ck]

So you're not annoyed with EA ripping off their customers but with bad news over EA???

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 minutes ago, SC2Mitch said:

-snip-

Ahh stereotypical dumb sports fans. If they really did hate it, they would've done this before instead of trying to cash in during the BF2 fiasco.

 

I haven't bought a single NHL game since 12 (12 being the only one I ever bought) because it was a buggy mess.  

[ItsMitch]

Just now, JaN0h4ck said:

So you're not annoyed with EA ripping off their customers but with bad news over EA???

 

7 minutes ago, SC2Mitch said:

my inbox being spammed by "EA News" and so is my Google Feed, so EA can you please

Never said that at all, just getting boring with the same old news surrounding EA with microtransactions, Fuck EA for all I care. 

[Bouzoo]

I seriously hope this gets off, but let's see how it turns out. I'm afraid of this:

 

Spoiler

 

After all those $800 million annually was not all done by Reddit.

[dizmo]

I wonder how many people will actually boycott it, and now many are simply part of the vocal minority.

One has to remember, they make a killing on micro transactions in this title. I'd imagine most of the gamers that pay it are perfectly fine with it, and the people that are complaining are people that didn't invest in the idea to begin with. Thus, less impactful to EAs model.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Just now, dizmo said:

I wonder how many people will actually boycott it, and now many are simply part of the vocal minority.

Like most social justice movements?

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Like most social justice movements?

Haha, well it's a little different

The people complaining probably didn't invest money to begin with, thus EA will simply try to calm the rage while they still make the hundreds of millions from the people who couldn't give a fuck less.

[Shreyas1]

"The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment..."

[Matu20]

I'm afraid we are the vocal minority that will be ignored once again, shame that most people will throw money at EA without thinking.

[samcool55]

Well, you can always do what i do, go play the old golden classics.

FIfa broken? Play an older one that doesn't have microtransactions.

 

NFS:payback is also broken AF due to microtransactions, will i buy it? no. I'll play the old classic ones like Most wanted 2005 because there's just a lack of better options. (yes NFS has multiple good games that are older but you get the point).

 

Online is nice but these days i see myself going back more and more to just offline couch multiplayer games with friends. More and more i notice i'm just not even bothered with current games. I just play the old ones because the new is trash anyway so why even bother...

[Terryv]

It's difficult to find and orginazation more evil than FIFA, maybe EA's been taking pointers from them over the years. I find it fitting that they're working together.

[Vantage9]

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

Haha, well it's a little different

The people complaining probably didn't invest money to begin with, thus EA will simply try to calm the rage while they still make the hundreds of millions from the people who couldn't give a fuck less.

 

You guys are missing the point.  EA could care less about a single game's sales.  Drop in the bucket to them.  But their stock price is another story alltogether...

 

Since October 31st, EA's stock price has fallen almost 10%.  That's huge.  With a market cap of $33.1B, that means there's roughly 308 million shares.  With every share falling from $119.60 to $107.71, that means that the overall value of EA as a company dropped by $3.662 BILLION dollars.  

 

If you think EA doesn't care about 3.6 billion dollars. you seriously need to pull your head out of the sand.  This kind of vocal PR push from consumers will continue to be EXTREMELY effective if people stick with it.

[dizmo]

12 minutes ago, Vantage9 said:

 

You guys are missing the point.  EA could care less about a single game's sales.  Drop in the bucket to them.  But their stock price is another story alltogether...

 

Since October 31st, EA's stock price has fallen almost 10%.  That's huge.  With a market cap of $33.1B, that means there's roughly 308 million shares.  With every share falling from $119.60 to $107.71, that means that the overall value of EA as a company dropped by $3.662 BILLION dollars.  

 

If you think EA doesn't care about 3.6 billion dollars. you seriously need to pull your head out of the sand.  This kind of vocal PR push from consumers will continue to be EXTREMELY effective if people stick with it.

We'll see what happens once they release FIFA. If sales hold strong, investors won't be as leery. The Disney thing is a bit of an issue, but I don't think we'll see these transactions just vanish. You have to remember, the company has to be profitable, more profit = happier investors. Microtransactions are a huge influx of cash into EA.

The investors aren't mad about microtransactions. They're leery about bad press, and potentially worse sales. If that's proven to be false, they don't care.

[Monkey Dust]

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

I wonder how many people will actually boycott it, and now many are simply part of the vocal minority.

One has to remember, they make a killing on micro transactions in this title. I'd imagine most of the gamers that pay it are perfectly fine with it, and the people that are complaining are people that didn't invest in the idea to begin with. Thus, less impactful to EAs model.

Very few will boycott it. A big chunk of Fifa's, and many sports games, fan base is separate from the traditional gamer community so won't be aware of it's issues. Parents buying it for their children for Christmas again probably won't be aware. Plus if you follow a premier league team you're already used to getting ripped off

 

To be fair to EA (I know, I feel dirty just typing that) this ties in with the other thread about gamers being undercharged. For Fifa, or Star Wars Battlefront 2, EA will have paid, or committed to pay on each copy sold, an absolute fortune for rights to the IP. Add the IP costs to the cost of creating a game, marketing and distribution, they were unlikely to be making much profit at $60 a copy without extracting a little extra once the customers bought it.

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, Monkey Dust said:

Very few will boycott it. A big chunk of Fifa's, and many sports games, fan base is separate from the traditional gamer community so won't be aware of it's issues. Parents buying it for their children for Christmas again probably won't be aware. Plus if you follow a premier league team you're already used to getting ripped off

 

To be fair to EA (I know, I feel dirty just typing that) this ties in with the other thread about gamers being undercharged. For Fifa, or Star Wars Battlefront 2, EA will have paid, or committed to pay on each copy sold, an absolute fortune for rights to the IP. Add the IP costs to the cost of creating a game, marketing and distribution, they were unlikely to be making much profit at $60 a copy without extracting a little extra once the customers bought it.

Oh I know. That's why it amuses me.

 

I don't think they paid that much for the rights. I mean, yes, it's by no ways a small number if you just look at it face value, but they got the rights for 10 years, not just one. The only info I could find when I was looking into it was that a toy company paid $250 million for the toy rights. So, even at say $500 million, they made roughly $840 million from the first Battlefront. Times that by 5, it's a small amount in relation to the potential revenue. To look at it deeper, take Disney. They paid $4 billion for the rights. They made roughly $8 billion from Star Wars: The Force Awakens alone. Star Wars is basically a license to print money.

[yian88]

The snowball is getting bigger, yes yess, the doom of EA im hyped about it keep me informed.

Ubisoft is next.