Loot boxes remain a hot topic, with many convinced that full-priced games can and should be kept microtransaction free where possible. EA knows this all too well, and the launch of Star Wars Battlefront II turned into a trainwreck after the game launched with a confusing progression system propped up by microtransactions (which was eventually scrapped, we might add).
There is another side to the story though, particularly for EA, as the publisher has been making loot box-centric game modes for years already, and with very little fuss from the wider gaming community. These have come in the form of Ultimate Team modes, which have appeared across the publisher's range of sports titles.
Now, with various official bodies around the world starting to declare loot boxes as a form of gambling (and therefore, in some cases at least, at odds with local laws), EA's investors were clearly eager to hear more from the company as to their plans with regards to microtransactions and loot boxes, an income stream that is proving most profitable for the company.
When asked about the matter during a recent call with investors, CEO Andrew Wilson explained that the company is "going to continue pushing forward FUT. We're always thinking about our players. We're always thinking about how to deliver these types of experiences in a transparent, fun, fair, and balanced way for our players — and we'll continue to work with regulators on that."
"We're working with all of the industry associations globally and with regulators in certain regions and territories," Wilson also said during the same call. "Many of [the regulators] we've been working with for a long time, and they have evaluated and established that programs like FIFA Ultimate Team are not gambling."
Wilson then went on to explain why the company doesn't see FUT packs as gambling either, as well as explaining how they're looking to stop people monetising this content in unregulated ways.
"First, players always receive a specified number of items in every FUT pack. Second, we don't provide or authorise any way to cash out digital items or virtual currency for real-world money. And there's no real-world value assigned to in-game items [...] While we forbid the transfer of items and in-game currency outside of the games, we also actively seek to eliminate that where it's going on in an illegal environment. We work with various regulators on that."