EA FC 24 fans furious at eye-watering cost of game item – and it can’t be traded

EA FC 24 fans are furious as eagle-eyed players spot the most expensive item in the game.

Considering EA FC 24 costs £70, players have the full right to be disappointed by the exorbitant microtransaction.

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The Elite Season Opener Pack is priced at 285,000 Ultimate Team coins or 3,000 FC Points in the game’s store.

Ultimate Team coins are EA FC 24’s main in-game currency, which you earn by playing and winning matches, opening packs, and trading players.

The game’s premium currency, FC Points, can be purchased by players for real money, and 3,000 FC Points cost around £30.

FC Points are only sold in bundles that rarely match the exact price of items in the store, though.

So to purchase the Elite Season Opener Pack for 3,000 FC Points, players will likely have to spend £40 to buy 5,900 FC Points.

The other option is to pay £32 for a 1,600 and a 2,800 bundle, and be left with 1,400 FC Points after purchasing the item.

Many games with microtransactions intentionally offer in-game currency bundles that don’t match item prices, to trick players into spending more.

Granted, the Elite Season Opener Pack includes very powerful items to justify its price, but this has caused even more controversy.

The Elite Season Opener Pack contains: 

• 45 Rare Gold players rated 80 or higher
• 1 of 2 Player Pick Loan Base Hero rated 87 or higher
• 1 of 2 Player Pick Loan Base Hero rated 88 or higher

In theory, buyers of the pack should expect to build a very powerful team with its contents, but this only fuels criticism that the game is “pay to win”.

It was not uncommon for previous FIFA games to offer overpowered packs like this one, but this was never done so early after the game’s release.

This means that players who pay for the pack could gain an advantage from the get-go, which many consider unfair.

Those who can’t afford it or just don’t wish to spend another £30 on a game that already costs £70, would need to spend an awful lot of time for a chance to get the best players.

On the other hand, even though the pack offers higher chances of getting the best cards for its premium price, nothing is guaranteed.

Paying players could still end up with a lot of duplicate cards or too many cards rated in the lower 80s, and the items received from the pack are not tradeable.

This means buyers can’t resell the cards they don’t need via the EA FC 24 transfer market.

EA Sports has been criticised before for selling what are essentially loot boxes through its games.

The company was selling FUT packs in FIFA 23, too, after the UK government decided not to legislate against the system.

Other countries, such as Belgium, have made illegal the inclusion of loot boxes in games, likening them to gambling.

Written by Stoyan Ovcharov on behalf of GLHF.

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