9 out of 10 ‘FIFA’ Ultimate Team packs are bought with non-purchasable coins

EA chief experience officer Chris Bruzzo recently sat down for an interview with Eurogamer that explored the FIFA games use of loot-boxes and how players purchase in-game. Bruzzo said in the interview that “in our video game, you can use either FUT coins or FIFA points. And nine out of ten packs are opened with FUT coins, which are earned by players who are playing the game.”

“The other really important thing is that 78 per cent of all FIFA 21 players never spend anything in the game,” they added.

FUT coins cannot be purchased in the FIFA games, instead they are earned by playing matches or selling items on the transfer market, as EA outlines here. According to the rules, distribution of FUT coins is a breach, and this includes buying FUT coins, transferring them between accounts, and giveaways as well.

FIFA points can be bought however, and alongside FUT coins these can be used to obtain player packs in the ultimate team mode, which give the users a random selection of players. These points can be bought via the FUT store, the console store, physical cards and via trusted retailers.

When Bruzzo was approached over the fact that players can buy these FIFA points to then purchase the chance of gaining better players, he said “that’s called choice. That’s called player choice. Players have a choice.”

EA accounts also ensure that any registrations under the age of 18 aren’t allowed to spend anything on their own, with Bruzzo adding that “we see very low percentage of accounts of people under the age of 18.”

“We work with Sony and we work with Microsoft to also institute spending controls as a default for children,” Bruzzo adds. “Kids should not be spending in FIFA full stop.”

In related news, purchasable XP boosts have been added to Marvel’s Avengers, meaning Square Enix has walked back on its promise that only cosmetics could be bought with actual money.