An Update on Our Player Item Investigation
The Pitch Notes
Mar 12, 2021
An Update on Our Player Item Investigation
Earlier this week, we were made aware of suspicious activity relating to highly rated content in FIFA Ultimate Team. We learned that FUT items were granted to individual accounts that did not earn them through gameplay - i.e. by opening a pack, purchasing through the transfer market, completing a reward challenge (e.g. an SBC completion) or other engagement (e.g. viewing a Twitch Broadcast). It appears that one or more EA accounts, which were either compromised or being used inappropriately by someone within EA, directly entitled items to these individual accounts.
While a full investigation is underway, we wanted to share an update on the issue, including what we’ve learned to date, an overview of the FUT content granting process, and the actions we’re taking to tackle this serious problem. The alleged behavior is unacceptable and in no way do we condone granting or purchasing player items in exchange for money. This practice runs counter to the game's competitive integrity, is a violation of EA’s User Agreement, and is not something we tolerate. We do not allow the trade or sale of items outside our game for many reasons, including that it would create an unequal playing field for our community.
Our initial investigation shows questionable activity involving a very small number of accounts and items. Although it is not a large number, if these allegations prove out, this activity is unacceptable. We want to thank our committed community members for bringing the issue to our attention so quickly.
Next, let’s be clear about what will happen now. When our investigation is completed, we will take action against any employee found to have been engaging in this activity. Any items granted through this illicit activity will be removed from the FUT ecosystem and EA will permanently ban any player known to have acquired content through these means.
Regardless of these actions, we appreciate how concerning this is to all of our players, and we apologize for the impact of these improper grants within the community. We also appreciate how extremely annoying and frustrating it is that this practice might have come from within EA. We’re angry too. We know that the trust of our communities is hard-earned, and is based on principles of Fair Play. This illicit activity shakes that trust. We’ve also been clear since the creation of Ultimate Team that items cannot be exchanged outside our game, and that’s key to how we keep our game safe from manipulation and bad actors. This is a breach of that principle, as well -- and we won’t let it stand.
WHAT IS CONTENT GRANTING
OK, let’s also talk about content granting - what it is, and why we do it. Because in fact it happens all the time - for the right reasons. Content granting is the process by which specific in-game items are directly distributed to a specific player account. This is different from a points or pack grant and usually takes the form of a specific individual item. In FIFA, that could be a player, a kit or a consumable. Unless they are issued to replace lost content, they usually take the form of ‘non-tradeable items’ - meaning they have no exchange value in the game. They cannot be offered on the transfer market for redeemable value and may not be shared with other players.
There are a few scenarios where we grant content that has not been earned or acquired through gameplay. The three most prevalent are:
Worldwide Customer Experience:
Sometimes players accidentally delete content, it goes missing because of technical issues, or we have made a mistake on our side where a player is then granted content as a make-good. In those events, our Customer Experience team will check a player’s account, identify if they have experienced one of those unfortunate circumstances, and then grant the content as appropriate.
Testing & QV:
The second scenario where content might be granted is for testing and quality verification. With the scale and complexity of the FIFA and Ultimate Team experience, it’s important that we understand how items perform and interact with each other, not only in-gameplay, but within all the other systems in the game (i.e. Chemistry). Most of the time, this practice happens on dedicated test servers which aren’t visible to our global player base, but sometimes we have to test in the live environment to ensure useability of the content when it is pushed ‘live’. This is done solely for quality and stability assurance and we have dedicated test accounts for this purpose.
Discretionary Content Granting (Athletes, Partners, & Employees):
The world of football powers our FIFA game, and often we want to recognize contributions that have been made by certain Pro Footballers, celebrity partners, or even our own employees to drive it forward. Sometimes we do this through the granting of in-game content. The items granted on a discretionary basis to these partners or employees are always non-tradeable and can be used only by the account to which they were originally granted. We do not use this discretionary process to grant content to professional video game influencers.
The sum of items granted through these three scenarios combined is less than 0.0006% of the total player items in the FIFA 21 ecosystem. These grants have no impact on the odds of any player in the ecosystem acquiring these players - they have no bearing on the overall volume of available content, and all content that is granted is untradeable, with no associated coin value. Obviously, the actions being alleged in this case fall far outside of these legitimate scenarios for granting content.
WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW
We have launched a rigorous investigation, narrowing how this may have happened and identifying those accounts which have received content through this illicit method. We will permanently ban any accounts identified as receiving items transferred nefariously, and we have suspended all discretionary content granting for an indefinite period.
Once again, we highly value and appreciate the commitment and support of the FIFA community in helping identify this issue and will continue to provide updates as the investigation progresses towards conclusion.
- The EA SPORTS FIFA Team
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