The EA Sports FIFA community is in uproar over a huge scandal in which fans claim that an Electronic Arts employee sold extremely popular FIFA Ultimate Team cards directly to players for excessive amounts of cash.
EA said Wednesday it is examine the reports.
Earlier in the day, Twitter exploded as fans with the hashtag #EAGate shared screenshots of messages of someone claiming to work for EA. In the messages, a seller offers powerful FIFA Ultimate Team units called Icons and Prime Icon Moments, asking up to € 1,700 ($ 2,035) for groups of certain cards. If the buyer agrees, the seller promises to add the special units to the player’s account next Monday.
FIFA Ultimate Team normally operates on a lottery-based system, with outside castes providing virtual maps that players can put together to build the ultimate FIFA team. The more powerful the player card, the rarer it is. Dedicated fans can spend hundreds of dollars on the outside buses to get a good card to lead their team.
But the cards offered by this mysterious seller are far better than most players might find random – EA does not disclose the probability of drawing a specific card type if it is less than 1% and the cards for sale are extremely rare. Players who take advantage of this offer can theoretically win against almost any other team, even if their opponent has previously congratulated some good cards from their outside buses.
Fans are understandably upset at the idea that fellow FIFA Ultimate Team players may have cheated by paying an EA employee to add units to their account. EA announced on Wednesday that they were investigating the allegations, saying they would “act quickly” if they found “improper conduct”. The company also said that it is aware that this situation causes a balance in the players, and that it will update the community later.
Asked for comment, an EA representative told Polygon that it had nothing to add beyond Wednesday’s tweet from the EA Sports FIFA account.