UPDATE- Microsoft refund $8k of fees racked up from FIFA

[grayperview]

I have 650 hours in FIFA 15 and over 100 hours in FIFA 16 according to Origin and I've never once spent a dime past the initial $60 price tag, People need to learn how to play the career modes and get off that stupid card game. 

 

I like fifa too, I never really got into or saw the appeal of ultimate team....I just saw it as a massive cash grab by EA, there was no reason UT couldn't have been micro transaction free, and just been in game coins that you EARNED by actually playing the game.

[NickTheMajin]

I like fifa too, I never really got into or saw the appeal of ultimate team....I just saw it as a massive cash grab by EA, there was no reason UT couldn't have been micro transaction free, and just been in game coins that you EARNED by actually playing the game.

 

Can't fault EA. It works and gives them boat loads of cash from people who love the idea of spending money to buy virtual packs of players and kits. 

 

People underestimate how much a FIFA game costs to make. Its not like Madden where EA has to license the NFL and all the players. For FIFA EA licenses the MLS, The Bundesliga, La Liga, Barclays Premier League, and those are just the big ones. EA also has the lower level Spain league, two other English leagues in addition to the BPL, and leagues in many other countries. FIFA 16 has over 30 leagues, more than 650 teams and thousands of named players with their likenesses and stats. 

 

https://www.easports.com/fifa/news/2015/fifa-16-leagues-and-teams

 

That's gotta be expensive. I imagine Ultimate Team helps EA do that. Considering the other football game (PES) is full of fake teams and fake kits.

[Takata]

Latest video from Extra Credits suggests that kids racking up thousands of dollars on their (or their parents') credit card isn't the real problem, since there are enough ways for a parent to prevent their credit card from being misused, even without help from Xbox features. It's the people who are depressed, or addicted, or impulsive who are the real victims. Kids generating insane credit card bills are just the most likely case to be reported on the news, and the easiest case to score political or PR points from.

 

Aside, if I add up the cost of all of the games and consoles I own, it doesn't come close to the $8000 mentioned here, although this was back in the days before consoles could do micro (or in this case, macro) transactions.

[grayperview]

Can't fault EA. It works and gives them boat loads of cash from people who love the idea of spending money to buy virtual packs of players and kits. 

 

People underestimate how much a FIFA game costs to make. Its not like Madden where EA has to license the NFL and all the players. For FIFA EA licenses the MLS, The Bundesliga, La Liga, Barclays Premier League, and those are just the big ones. EA also has the lower level Spain league, two other English leagues in addition to the BPL, and leagues in many other countries. FIFA 16 has over 30 leagues, more than 650 teams and thousands of named players with their likenesses and stats. 

 

https://www.easports.com/fifa/news/2015/fifa-16-leagues-and-teams

 

That's gotta be expensive. I imagine Ultimate Team helps EA do that. Considering the other football game (PES) is full of fake teams and fake kits.

 

my version isn't   

 

The licences are expensive i agree, mainly the English premiership, Most others are covered by the fipro licence if i remember correctly, PES has some of this licence too...EA the bastards got the EPL locked into an exclusive deal though.

[kokobash13]

Think microsoft did a favor for all game companies. If this issue blows out even further, it might affect the whole freemium logic.

[corsairian]

This kid should have known better.

[CoffeeBlack]

Who the hell has such a high spending limit on their credit card anyway..

I only make about 80k USD a year and my credit card limits combined are about 70k.

[NickTheMajin]

my version isn't   

 

The licences are expensive i agree, mainly the English premiership, Most others are covered by the fipro licence if i remember correctly, PES has some of this licence too...EA the bastards got the EPL locked into an exclusive deal though.

 

Yup. PES has some good modding support. I'll always support EA's title though because they actually give us PC gamers the full game. Konami give PC gamers literally half the game. The console versions look better than the maxed out PC version. Not gonna see me buy a Konami title till they start giving us the full titles they give the consoles. 

 

And FIFA has a pretty decent mod scene as well.  

[Yog]

Who the hell has such a high spending limit on their credit card anyway..

That's just the thing, in this particular instance it was a credit card for a small business, so it likely was fairly high. The father had his son go out and buy things for their store; unfortunately that trust was very misplaced.

[thecreativename]

Who the hell has such a high spending limit on their credit card anyway..

8000 is alot? Isn't that pretty small. My credit limit was about 25k when I was I finished college.

[KuJoe]

My second credit card had a $15k limit when I was still in high school, boy was that a mistake. I maxed it out in the first 6 months and didn't pay it off until close to 5 years later. Luckily this was back in the day when interest rates were still single digits (and >5% was reserved for people with bad credit). Now I cancel any credit cards if they raise my limit over $1k without asking me and go elsewhere.

[jcw150]

It's just gambling and you should have to be over 18 be able to buy packs

[Aniallation]

When I was younger .....

When we were younger, we bought a game to play it and enjoy it as it was, not to spend spend 50x the game's value on further microtransactions. 

[Flashport]

I'll always support EA's title though because they actually give us PC gamers the full game.

 

come now, MGSV: Phantom Pain wasn't bad (was it?)

[NickTheMajin]

 

come now, MGSV: Phantom Pain wasn't bad (was it?)

 

Not my kind of game. Never done the whole espionage thing like MGS or Splinter Cell. 

 

PES is a fucking travesty on PC. it's literally a port of the 360/PS3 versions. I would never support that. 

[MrDynamicMan]

Can't fault EA. It works and gives them boat loads of cash from people who love the idea of spending money to buy virtual packs of players and kits.

People underestimate how much a FIFA game costs to make. Its not like Madden where EA has to license the NFL and all the players. For FIFA EA licenses the MLS, The Bundesliga, La Liga, Barclays Premier League, and those are just the big ones. EA also has the lower level Spain league, two other English leagues in addition to the BPL, and leagues in many other countries. FIFA 16 has over 30 leagues, more than 650 teams and thousands of named players with their likenesses and stats.

https://www.easports.com/fifa/news/2015/fifa-16-leagues-and-teams

That's gotta be expensive. I imagine Ultimate Team helps EA do that. Considering the other football game (PES) is full of fake teams and fake kits.

Its as bad as those idiot who role CS cases. $200 for a texture and animation? How about, you know, a 512gB ssd? Slightly more useful that that butterfly knife.

[Bensemus]

When we were younger, we bought a game to play it and enjoy it as it was, not to spend spend 50x the game's value on further microtransactions. 

lol that is true.

[NickTheMajin]

lol that is true.

 

On the flipside though we also had games come out with bugs that always existed with no way to patch them. At least on the console side of things. If a bug escaped development there was absolutely nothing that could be done about it. 

 

The number of game breaking bugs in games like Xbox Morrowind and Xbox Kotor 2 are staggering just to name a couple. 

 

It's a trade off. It sucks when developers make it so you can't enjoy the game without the micro transactions. Or where it seems like the developer makes the game and then sets aside things that would usually be in the regular game for micro transaction purchase later. (It used to be where you could unlock appearance tweaks and stuff. Now in many games you have to buy each one). 

 

FIFA though is a different story. The microtransactions are all related to one mode that caters to the casual gamer. Removing the micro transactions essentially removes the purpose of the mode. It's to build the best possible team you can from packs you open with ways to earn points in game. The only reason to buy packs with real money is if you have to have Messi and Ronaldo right at the start of the mode. You can easily field a competent team just with the free loan players the game gives you. 

 

But the microtransactions haven't touched the core game. The stat nerd heavy career modes are still intact. As long as that's the case I'll buy the game every year because that is all I play. Manager mode. 

[Bensemus]

Snip

I was never effected by any bugs . Never really gamed too much though. Probably played Halo 3, RuneScape, and WoW the most.

[Aniallation]

On the flipside though we also had games come out with bugs that always existed with no way to patch them. At least on the console side of things. If a bug escaped development there was absolutely nothing that could be done about it. 

 

The number of game breaking bugs in games like Xbox Morrowind and Xbox Kotor 2 are staggering just to name a couple. 

 

There was a nice point in time (PS3/X360 era) where this problem was solved by having downloadable patches, with games that were still one-off purchases without a bunch of microtransaction BS.

[Flashport]

-snip-

publisher*

I doubt developers of AAA franchise want to add microtrans to their games. most devs are proud of their work.

publishers are just guys in suits trying to widen the profit margins.

EA is the publisher.

Distinctive software/Extended Play Productions are the developers (among others from the merge with EA)

 

edit:

for fifa

sauce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EA_Canada

[Samsterstorm]

A couple of weeks ago on WAN show, Linus and Luke covered a story where a kid had managed to rack up almost $8k worth of charges in FIFA 16, as seen here: https://youtu.be/k_tFt_X57Ik?t=6m30s

 

Microsoft have now confirmed that they have refunded the $7,625.88 charged by the son, however, they also state that any charges that are made by a minor, to a parents credit or debit card, are considered valid under their service agreement. Microsoft also stated they encourage parents to use all of the features provided on the xbox one console to prevent this from happening again.

 

As Linus was confused on the show, I thought I would explain how/why anybody would pay microtransactions on FIFA. As an ex-player of the Ultimate Team mode, I fell into EAs trap hundreds of times (using my own, earned money though, not my parents).

 

In FIFA, there is a game mode called ultimate team, based on trading cards. The idea is you start with some low end (bronze) cards, and purchase packs using either in game currency (coins), or microtransactions (FIFA Points). Coins can be earned by playing games,either single games, cups or league seasons, with rewards given at the end of the Cups and Seasons depending on how well you performed. The problem for most people is that these leagues are 10 games long, and net you maybe 20,000 coins in a season - About 2-3 good packs, the equivalent of which costs about £5 (~$7) if bought for with FIFA Points. FIFA Points can cost anywhere from $.99 for 100, to $99.99 for 12,000 (10,000+2,000 free). These packs give you a chance to pull better players which you can then either sell on the auction house, or place into your team. There are also lots of promos, including Team Of The Week, where top performers in real life get higher rated cards in game. These cards are Limited Edition (7 days in packs only) so can be worth a small fortune. I won't go into team chemistry fully, but multiple players from the same league, team or nation, work better together in game.

 

Many YouTubers encourage the purchase of packs, and pull lots of packs themselves. An example of this is a YouTuber/Twitch Streamer called Nick28T who spent nearly $10,000 on these packs in one week, during the recent Team Of The Year promo, where 11 players of super high value (millions of coins) were released into packs.

 

Now I can honestly say, after playing this game for years (since the inception of Ultimate Team in 2009). Pulling these packs is addictive, and $8k of charges racked up in a month is, although slightly surprising, not something I believed could never happen. 

 

Would love to hear the thoughts of people in the comments. Should Microsoft have refunded this? Have you ever racked up more than you thought when playing a game with microtransactions? Have you (as a parent) ever used the features found on consoles for blocking the use or adding of a credit card?

 

Link: eTeknix for the story http://www.eteknix.com/microsoft-refunds-dad-8k-worth-credit-card-charges/

Fifa is a shit gamer.... You cannot be called a real 'gamer' if u just player Fifa.....In my opinion that is!!!

[NickTheMajin]

Fifa is a shit gamer.... You cannot be called a real 'gamer' if u just player Fifa.....In my opinion that is!!!

 

I have 650 hours in FIFA 15. Just because you don't like sports games doesn't make FIFA shit. Its an awesome game with tons of content. 

[Samsterstorm]

I have 650 hours in FIFA 15. Just because you don't like sports games doesn't make FIFA shit. Its an awesome game with tons of content. 

I did say it was in my own opinion, I wasn't making a statement....