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FIFA 19’s Ultimate Team mode has pulled back the curtain, showing players their chances of landing a range of different player cards – and the odds aren’t favourable.
As picked up on over at Eurogamer, the new Ones to Watch cards – a special selection of high profile and promising players recently transferred between clubs – have odds of less than one per cent of being randomly doled out as part of a purchased card pack. That’s less than one per cent.
This isn’t to say the chances of bagging high quality cards in previous FIFA titles were higher, it’s just this is the first time EA Sports has shown its working out in the margins – and the numbers aren’t friendly to those who are prone to keep on buying packs in the vain hope of landing one of the best cards.
This move towards increased transparency comes as loot boxes, card packs, and other random reward systems in games come under increasing scrutiny from both the gamesplaying public and official bodies. It’s unlikely to mean those who are utterly compelled to spend plenty of money on packs will rein in the behaviour just because they know the numbers behind it.
While the FIFA series recently celebrated bashing out over 260 million lifetime sales and EA’s own financials stood tall on the shoulders of the franchise’s performance, sales for FIFA 19 have been slow out of the gate with a 25 per cent drop in copies shifted year-on-year.
Obviously we’re unlikely to see the series unceremoniously culled, with EA banking on the broader support for the series it has been investing in over the years – from the likes of Ultimate Team and its army of people determined to bag a less-than-one-per-cent card, through to the likes of the eWorld Cup, which will continue to evolve in coming years.
