Boycott EA trends on X as community savages FC 24

EA FC 24 players are calling to boycott the game after a change to the Champions Player Pick rewards that apparently boosted the chances of unlocking some of the best players for a short period. FC fans claim that following the change the best Team of the Season cards became difficult to acquire and as a result, allege they would have to spend more FC Points, the in-game currency.

The cards at the center of the controversy are the Ligue 1 Team of the Season versions of Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele, who both play for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). In a post on X over the weekend, EA announced an unexpected change to the reward probability, citing an issue “where the Champions Player Pick rewards were providing unintended results.”

We have identified an issue where the Champions Player Pick rewards were providing unintended results. This has been corrected in-game.

— EA SPORTS FC Direct Communication (@EASFCDirect) May 11, 2024

The post received a Community Note shortly after, X’s user-moderated service to provide context on posts, with the Community Note adding that “There may have been a probability issue, but there is no evidence of “unintended rewards” being given out. Mbappe and Dembele are part of Ligue 1 TOTS, so they fit the reward description. EA lowered their chance because it will force players to open packs with real currency.” It’s worth noting that FC 24’s Ultimate Team packs can be bought, however this is not a requirement to play the game.

FC Ultimate Team, formerly known as Fifa Ultimate Team, is a large revenue driver for EA, with it accounting for $1.62 billion in revenue in 2021, or 53% of the company’s total extra content revenue. Following the announcement by EA, #BoycottEA began to trend on X as thousands of players encouraged FC 24 fans to stop playing the game and spending money on the game’s FC Points. A lot of the frustration on X seems to be targeting the gameplay, with numerous clips of glitches appearing on the social media platform.

FC 24 players also took to Reddit to share their thoughts on this change, as well as call for others to boycott the game and to stop spending money, with u/gypsy4343435 creating a post titled “It’s time to hurt this company.” In the post, they would go on to say,

“This company simply can’t do things right, with issues week after week just piling up with no repercussions. The servers are s**t, with inconsistent gameplay across different game modes, and lag compensation to players with bad internet, when it should actually be the other way round. But nothing changes, no matter what we do, no matter how much we complain. All this after it was just reported that they made billions in Ultimate team alone. So what can we, as players be able to do about this situation. I say we hit them where it hurts them the most. IT’S TIME TO BOYCOTT FIFA POINTS”

Another post by u/ab-ai cited the impact that the Helldivers 2 community had on forcing Sony to reverse its decision to force all users to connect a PSN account to the game, which is unavailable in over 170 countries worldwide, locking players out of the game in those countries. In the post, they highlighted how effective a community is when it comes together for a common goal saying “If you don’t believe that remember what happened with Battlefront and think about what is going on with Helldivers 2 at the moment. You have a voice, this community has a voice, there are 1m members here on this subreddit, boycott FC points please!”

It will be interesting to see whether the #BoycottEA trend gains traction like the Helldivers 2 controversy did. In a turbulent few weeks in gaming, Sony received backlash after the restriction of Helldivers 2 in 180 countries and regions. Some gamers also called for the resignation of Xbox Head Phil Spencer after the closure of Tango Gameworks and three other studios.