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FIFA 18 has started to come under some criticism in recent weeks fans of the popular football franchise taking to social media to point out bugs and issues with the game under the #FixFIFA hashtag.
While gaming communities are often vocal about their favourite titles not receiving the attention they feel it deserves, and in turn what the community deserves, this might potentially become a larger issue for EA. In addition to the Twitter hashtag, gamers are also taking to Reddit to voice their frustrations over unaddressed issues, including encouraging a boycott of Black Friday discount deals for FIFA 18 and its microtransactions. However, some gamers have decided to take further action.
A change.org petition has been started by fans which, at time of writing, is almost up to 30,000 signatures calling for EA to fix server issues and for a change in the competitive Weekend League. The league has started to find criticism amongst the gaming press too. Players must play 40 matches within a weekend, which can take up to 16 hours at 20 minutes a match plus squad organisation, in order to reap the rewards of the competitive system. The petition calls it "both mentally and physically unhealthy to encourage a child or even [an] adult to play."
While some of the issues that are in the complaints are quite small, the FIFA community is a large and passionate one. Indeed 30,000 is arguably an incredibly small number compared to the overall install base for FIFA 18, but it is still another negative news story regarding an EA product in as many weeks.
The headlines have been on Star Wars Battlefront 2 and it’s current issues with microtransactions and balancing, although the former has been temporarily removed. Need for Speed Payback has also come under criticism for its balancing, which again has been fixed, and reliance on microtransactions for game progression.
