EA Hunting Down Employees Selling Premium Loot Box Items on the Side

EA is considered scum of the earth for many reasons, from the way it routinely buys and shuts down promising studios to the way it overworks the people unlucky enough to work for them, but probably the biggest reason your average gamer hates them is that they friggen’ love predatory monetization systems. And while loot boxes have been on the decline in recent years, thanks to some serious pushback and the threat of legal action, there’s one realm where EA refuses to give up its precious loot boxes: FIFA, which has such a nakedly abusive pay-to-win system that EA ha used to milk millions of out fans for year after year.

But like any drug empire, there are always going to be guys trying to undercut the boss: and over on Twitter, one person found evidence to support at least one EA employee was offering to cut out the middleman and directly sell you the athlete you would otherwise need to buy mountains of loot boxes to unlock… at what could argue would be a discount.

Specifically, apparently if you know an EA employee, you can buy the most prestigious and powerful athletes, Prime Icon Moment players, for something around $1,700 bucks. Which is a lot to pay for a digital athlete, but when you consider how much money you might have to spend to get them by sheer chance in one of the game’s loot boxes, you could very well call that a bargain. So it’s little surprise some people with more money than sense would take the employees up on that bargain.

EA, for what it’s worth, has responded to these allegations with an affirmation of their possible truth.
 

“We are aware of the allegations currently circulating within our community related to FIFA 21 Ultimate Team items. A thorough investigation is underway, and if we identify improper conduct, swift action will be taken. We want to be clear—this type of behaviour is unacceptable, and we in no way condone what is alleged to have happened here. We understand how this creates concern about unfair balance in the game and competition.”

This is bull, of course: there’s nothing about the current system that’s either balanced or healthy for competition. But EA cannot abide side deals, so when they find their little rat, you’d best believe they’re gonna make em’ squeal.

Like mobsters, you know.

That’s the joke.