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FIFA 21 'EAGate' scandal forces EA to investigate employee selling of rare FUT cards

Electronic Arts is launching an internal investigation into community allegations that an EA employee was selling rare FIFA Ultimate Team cards directly to players.

TJ Denzer

March 11, 2021 7:25 AM

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FIFA 21’s cash cow craze has always been FIFA Ultimate Team, in which players can buy packs of cards and try to stock their team with some of the best international soccer players in history. The rarest player cards have ridiculously small odds of appearing in a pack, but recent allegations by the FIFA community allege that someone at EA may be offering back door deals to buy some of these rare cards for exorbitant fees - a claim that EA is now investigating.

The supposed ‘EAGate’ going on in FIFA 21 started to pop up when various individuals started recently posting alleged transactions between players and a possible entity within EA, as reported by Eurogamer. FIFA Ultimate Team features a number of extremely difficult-to-obtain cards such as Icon and Prime Icon Cards, but some accounts show these cards being sold in transactions running up to 1700 Euros (around $2000 USD). Since the allegations have come out, Electronic Arts has since announced its own investigation into these matters.

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— EA SPORTS FIFA (@EASPORTSFIFA) March 10, 2021

It’s a troubling situation. FIFA Ultimate Team has almost always felt predatory in its design, forcing players to shell out a ton of money in hopes of obtaining pitch legends like Pele, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and more. However, the fact that someone can just get a fellow beyond the scenes, pay them, and skip the grind to get those cards is something that threatens to absolutely shake the balance of the economy if players can just back-alley buy the rare cards they want outright. It’s not the first issue the economy of FIFA 21 has had, but it’s most surely one EA needs to nip in the bud before the problem gets truly unwieldy in the FUT playing field.

Stay tuned as we continue to follow this story and report on any further information relating to the FIFA 21 ‘EAGate’ situation.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.