How EA Scams And Promotes Gambling To Kids 

Vizeh out of nowhere found a new prime in creating videos like Rashford did.

It's not slavery It's surprise employment 🤣

When I was 11-13 years old, I spent my parents money without their permission on fifa points. This was during fifa 16-18. I spent around 300 overall without their permission, and now I feel awful about it. My parents are never really ones to physically punish me or even ground me for mistakes like these. I wreathed in my own guilt, and now I cannot imagine doing anything like that again.

"It is not a murder it is a surprise funeral" lmfaooo

As a reformed gambling addict, I absolutely believe that my addiction was spawned by my addiction to FIFA Points and packs. It started as getting them for birthdays and Christmas, but because I wanted that TOTY/TOTS more, I then used my parents cards without their permission. That dopamine and adrenaline rush when I packed an insane card has never left me, and it is no surprise that this habit carried over to casino/sports gambling. Thank you so much for making this video, Vizeh. An absolute disgrace of a company spawning potentially millions of gambling addicts

The worst part about that lady was that she actually spilled the beans by saying how kids love surprises, basically showing how they hook them into gambling. And, if anything, FIFA is more like gashapon machines (sold by Bandai, the Asian EA) and those are questioned as well

I am ashamed to admit I'm in the camp of stealing money from my parents to get fifa points. I only took a small amount before my parents caught me but to this day I still wonder what could've happened if I'd carried on. I can't tell you guys how sorry I feel that I did this. My parents deserved a lot better. Also, it's not stealing it's surprise borrowing

They're not immoral, they're surprise gambling addictions!

When I was 13 years old I spent almost £600 on fifa points using my dad's credit card. I knew it was wrong at the time but seeing youtubers I watched getting good players influenced me. It was just £4 here and £1.99 there but it added up. My parents had to take out a loan to pay it off. Months later my parents divorced for unrelated reasons and as a child I always blamed myself. Throughout my early adult life I developed a very severe issue with gambling and things got bad. I think this issue needs to be addressed more.

I’m Belgian, I often critisize my government but our gambling commission banned the purchase of fifa points, because of reasons you described in this video. Some people get around it by changing their vpn but I personally think it’s a good effort if other governments might follow our example. It might be a long process but steps are taken in order to regulize this major spending mechanism. Anyway, thanks for the video! I hope it will reach a lot of young lads and make them think twice before spending the little money that they have. Greetings!

An actual documentary, this is unreal viz.

And that EA had the audacity to compare packs to Kinder eggs is just insane. At least with Kinder eggs you know what you are getting. But with packs you don't know what you are getting. You could spend £1000 on FIFA and you can pack Bono as your best player

The whole community needs to start a new trend where we all stop buying any microtransaction in any game. If that happens then we’ll get good games again as the sale of the game will be the only way they’ll make money. It really shouldn’t be too hard we just need a hashtag and popularity

Im so happy you did this topic. Having a 9 and 5 year old boys and me also having my own experience with fifa points i cant stress how much this needs to be viewed by as many people as possible. You speak to so much more about football than what meets the eye. Thank you, thank you, thank you🙏

As a 19 year old I've never spent any money on the game, however I have a friend at uni who spent a lot of his student loan on it. Its horrifying what addiction can do to people

This topic NEEDS to be taught at schools all around the world. Money management and the damage that gambling can cause is FAR more important than some of the subjects taught. Why should I waste my time on subjects that I don't essentially need when I can be taught things about money management and gambling and other essential life skills? So many of the things I was taught at school has gone right over my head, partly because I hated school, but partly because I've found that I don't need some of it.

This video should be shown in Schools to show kids the dangers of FIFA Points you have be calling this out for a couple of years now mate fair play 👏👏👏

It’s mental how addictive it can be. I’ve spent dumb amounts over the years myself. Brilliant video once again ❤

When I was younger I got addicted to buying FIFA points to open packs and ended up spending over £1,000 across about a month or so on my parent’s spare card and put it into a big overdraft without realising how much I was spending and just feeling an uncontrollable urge to just keep buying packs to try and get amazing players. Luckily Microsoft refunded all the payments after my mum contacted them and the card was removed from the console. I then had to sell all my players to fund more packs and ended up losing all my coins and when I no longer had enough to buy more packs then that made me very sad but looking back I’m glad I found out early how addicted I was to these sort of things. I even remember missing football training (as that started at 6pm) numerous times so I could buy packs to try and pack Team of the Season cards from even like the Eredivisie and stuff even though I didn’t even enjoy playing actual matches. The only reason my parents found out when they did was because we co-owned a pub and they were looking to buy some more kitchen equipment so checked that account and saw that there was £1k in payment billings. I was at home at the time but I’ve been told by both the regulars and my parents themselves that mum was just in tears and couldn’t believe what had happened. Not long after they’d sorted it out by contacting Microsoft for refunds and cancelling the card, I phoned her asking why it wasn’t letting me buy FIFA points and blah blah blah don’t need this bit but yeah she was angry, stressed, distraught (I’m so lucky it was all refunded otherwise I think 12-13 year old me would’ve been dead haha). Like it was far too easy to buy points. Just press a few buttons and it’s done then barely any time later and they’re already gone. It didn’t feel like spending any real money at all and had no idea that I’d spent anywhere near that much. I just instinctively kept buying them as I was addicted to opening packs. To help with that I started playing games like PacyBits (now MADFUT) and FUT Game/Pacwyn as they allowed me to open packs and get coins and buy packs and get cards but didn’t involve me actually spending real money. I also now play Omada for similar reason as I know I’d become addicted to betting so can’t be risking actual money. I also don’t play FUT and stick to my Norwich career mode (though last year I enjoyed some Volta too). I just asked my mum and she said FIFA points are “yeah absolutely without doubt gambling like big time.” I can’t believe FIFA points are still allowed in a game that supposedly anyone is allowed to play. It’s not like V-Bucks in Fortnite where you know exactly what your bucks are buying from the item shop, you literally are buying packs where the odds are heavily against you hoping to get lucky (and when you’re younger you don’t even realise quite how awful the odds are of getting anything good). Unless someone spends all their points on draft tokens (who tf does that?) then it is blatant gambling. I kept chasing the highs of packing a good player. I got Agüero in my first ever FIFA points pack and it went on from there really. Then when I got TOTS 97 Zlatan, it never got better but I needed to experience a thrill like that again.

EA sell those sh*t packs for years,this has to be stopped!

My story's the stereotypical one tbf I'm 18, so fifa 14 I was 9, when this taken place - I wasn't aware of what money was, most money I had was 2 quid pocket money from my gran a week. So, I shared an xbox acc w my dad through my younger years. Unaware of what fifa points were I thought it'd be cool to buy them see what happens. So I did. for 9 year old me though this was all just getting them for free. Until I was back at my house with my dad (events happened at my grans, where i stayed 3 days per week) he called me over and shown me a whole email inbox filled with Microsoft receipts, totalling over 4k. Neither of my parents work due to ill health so I'd essentially spent roughly 75% of our savings. we then had no choice but to live off of benefits and a few years later lost our home. Which made me feel the most gut wrenching guilt ever, to this day I feel it. I'm not gonna say its all EAs fault, but what is their fault is making access to FP so easy, so accessible, and for me and many other young kids, and adults alike - so addictive. *should add everyone in my family is now housed, my dad lives 20mins away - my sister with my mum and I moved in with my gran I'm 2017.

The whole thing about "surprise mechanics" and "lootboxes are like Kinder Eggs" is at the same time kinda hilarious, and one of the most revolting and abhorrent things I've ever heard. After hearing stories of people taking their own lives, becoming addicts and everything else, to hear someone who is partly (and knowingly) responsible for it be so unconcerned makes me feel viscerally sick. I'm lucky enough to have never felt the need to buy fifa points, I always used to just enjoy playing career mode and just watching RU-vidrs do pack openings. But I'm humble enough to say that it was really just good luck that I avoided it, and getting addicted really could happen to everyone. Thank you Liam for the time and effort you put into this. It's really great that alongside the brilliant funnier and more lighthearted content, you're making pertinent videos about issues that really matter❤

ive been playing fifa since fifa 21, but the first time i played fifa was fifa 15. fifa 15 were the good ol days. the content creation seen was just amazing. specifically pack openings and search and discard were just so good to watch as an 8-9 year old child. back then i had an abysmal fifa team as i knew that i couldn't buy fifa points since i didn't have any money (being an 8 year old) and also never wanted to get in trouble with my parents. But i also did get the idea that ea was trying to get your money so i never spent on the game even if i did have money. 6 Years later, my friend tells me that fifa 21 is 2 pounds on steam around the end of the game. I decide because of how much i loved fifa back in the day and the experience of getting good cards was now being available, i decided to get it. i remember packing team of the season donnarumma out of a free ultimate pack in the sbc section. I genuinely couldn't believe it since i remember all those years ago people having to pay thousands of pounds to get one of these cards and the fact that i always dreamed of getting a team of the season in fifa 15. Im about 13-14 years old at this point and im fully aware of the fact that buying fifa points is like setting your money on fire because my thought process was 'even if you pack something which is so little chance anyway, it doesn't matter since you wont be playing or caring about the cards in a years time, and it still just isnt worth real life money to play with these virtual cards' i genuinely couldve got team of the year mbappe and still feel terrible and dreadful that i spent real mone y on it. god i wish i still had that thought process. skip forward to fifa 22, i learn more about the game of fifa and how to get good cards throughout the year without having to spend a single penny on the game. throughout the year i consistently had an amazing team without spending on the game in the slightest. but there was a couple exceptions. the first time money was spent on this game on my account was when my friend gifted me 5 pounds to get the winter wildcard token pack in the store. i still had the mindset at the time that it was a waste of money and tried to convince him to not spend any money on the game as he would always buy the 5 pound packs in the store every new promo. but i still accepted the 5 pounds and spent it on the pack. Then i spent money on my first fifa pack. it was another 5 pound pack where you get a token in a bit later in the year. I felt absolutely terrible. i was so upset since i realised that i just practically burned a 5 pound note. keep in mind im still a broke kid who cant afford much so spending money like that and wasting it was a really huge deal to me. Now, this is where the real problem has started. Fifa 23 comes by. originally i said that i wasnt going to buy fifa 23 before it came out because in reality i actually didnt like playing the game. Playing fut champs week in and week out was abysmal. id nearly cry some weeks just to how painful the experience was. But i had to do it because how else was i going to catch up with the top teams. i needed to grind every thing possible: get 11 wins in fut champs every week, do every objective cup game every day, win rivals 8 games a week which eventually got so painful due to ascending to elite division, and play so many boring squad battles games to get icon swaps and things like that. i hated playing the game in fifa 22, but loved having a top tier team. but my best pulls of the year, were out of none of those things. my first big pull in my fifa playing career was packing 93 signature signings de bruyne out a small prime mixed players pack. at the time he was around a million coins and it was out of a random objective pack. then i packed during fut captains a tradable 93 reus who was around 700k out of the daily sbc pack which costs like a 75 rated squad. Through getting so many coins i decided to do the moments petit sbc. out of the packs from that sbc i got a tradable fut captains cordoba, who was around 1 million coins at the time. again i just decided that i might aswell complete some icon sbcs and improve my team even more. i decided to finish petit and get moments lahm from the sbcs, and just to top it off, a 92 icon moments pack. a few weeks before these events i decided to get the r9 trim literally for fun (didnt lose a bet or anything). and when i opened the 92 moments pack i see 97 r9 ronaldo. I was absolutely screaming. so out of all the grinding i did, all the fut champs etc, i never even got anything worth while. even the fodder i obtained never really lead to anything. i mustve opened like 40 icon picks and packs that year, and the only good one i ever got was the 97 ronaldo which was resulted from getting the r9 trim (jk but still its a bit creepy). so i thought, there is no point getting the new game if i wouldnt actually get anything worthwhile experiencing all the pain. And the fact is that ever since fifa 21, ea decide to practically release every card for free anyway due to them making the packweights so high on everything. So i already had almost every card in fifa 22, what was the point in getting the new game. Well eventually my friends convinced me to get it and i did. And it all goes downhill from here. At the beggining of fifa 23 i recieved around 400 pounds because i had some gold that i had being sold. and i dont really spend my money on anything so it sort of just stayed there. But ea eventually release a store pack that had a guaranteed special card. however it was around 20 pounds. My friend convinced me to buy it cos if i wasnt spending the money i might aswell have spent it on this. my heart dropped when i see a random 82 rated mls special card walk out. i genuinely felt so horrible. untii i skipped the pack and see cristiano ronaldo at the back of the pack who was at the time around a million coins. i believe this pack is what has sent me on a journey to spend over 200 pounds on fifa points on this game already (again i never have much money) since im constantly being tricked into a false sense of security that i might pack something big out of them. however the problem is, im aware that theres nothing i can actually get thats really good. i literally packed gold mbappe from a gold upgrade which is realistically the only good card you can get thats gold, but im still spending money cos there is always the chance of hitting something big. during black friday, they released the first ever 500k pack which was 20 pounds. i decided to buy the pack since it had 100 rares and got nothing. i still felt absolutely terrible and decided to put the dupe golds i got into gold upgrades. this resulted into me packing 91 icon bobby moore out a gold upgrade during the world cup icon promo. that was another amazing thing that i packed from the store pack and my original morals of not wanting to buy a store pack because the cards werent worth real money no matter what were gone. i then decided to buy another 2 of those packs because i still believe that im going to get something good. got nothing and wasted 40 pounds. now its Team of the year. ive spent bout around 100 pounds worth of packs because its the largest promo of the year and my brain is still in a false sense of security that there is the chance of packing something big. it doesnt help that the big packs that are 20 pound plus had a 1.1% chance of toty, which sounds absolutely awful odds to an outsider but to me is insane because ive known that toty likely have percentage odds in the 0.0000001%s in the past. its got to the point now where ive spent 8 pounds on literal common golds so i can do upgrade packs in sbcs to try and pack a team of the year. Again it doesnt sound like alot but i dont have opportunities for money often so 8 pounds is alot. for me its absolutely getting awful and im aware that there is no chance that im gonna get on, but for some reason i still do it anyway. before i used to think about my decision to buy the packs that im getting, but now i just spend without thinking twice. i know i need to stop because i know it all adds up and eventually i will have no money if i keep going. but i just cant. i was thinking about quitting after team of the year and i really want to because i dont enjoy playing the game. but now that ive spent money i feel like i have to keep playing because i have to get my moneys worth otherwise ive just wasted 200 pounds. but i know it will lead to more money being spent if i keep playing so im stuck in a place that i really dont want to be. I experience even more pain in gameplay since i push for 16 wins out of 20 week in week out since i think im going to hit big if i get better rewards. spoilers it doesnt. most cards in my main team have come from literal gold upgrades such as mbappe, bobby moore, dani alves world cup and random sbc packs such as papu gomez (around a million coins), world cup okocha, marchisio and more. in fact i dont even get the worst of it. My friend has been really close to slitting his wrists over the fucking thing. if you managed to read this whole comment thank you, i know it was long but i feel like i need to get this off my chest. im almost 16 and feel like im quite aware and mature. but now i question myself due to these occurances of spending money. i really dont want to spend money on fifa points but now that i have i feel like im addicted. from the 400 pound i had i only have 180 left. i think about the amount of money i spent and think about the possibility of buying literally anything else like mcdonalds or some shit. i dont really know what to do. i would love for anyone to give me advice. i just wanna go back to the time where i was so confident on my view of fifa points and never spend again. again thanks for reading

The best joke I got for that line: It's not rape, it's surprise sex.

"It is not relationship " "It is surprise marriages"

I don’t even get how they say, “you don’t need to buy packs and that it’s optional”, when they now MAKE SURE you can only pack certain items in certain packs, for example the swap tokens, in order to get the best swap rewards and most desirable cards, you NEED to spend fifa points, or an absurd amount of coins that most people wouldn’t spend, on a pack that gives you an item only available in that pack, it’s outrageous

The worst lesson I ever learnt from school (don’t worry it was not from a teacher) was someone sat next to me in English bragging about their mate who just stolen £30 from his dads debit card on fifa points just going “oh my dad won’t notice”. I’m ashamed to say I decided to stupidly follow that rule of “they won’t notice” and also steal points from mum card. It infuriates me now how easy it is to do it. I was a good kid in school and I would never get in trouble with teachers or my parents and to do that was just so out of character. But this was fifa 13 and I had just had in form balotelli in a pack and I was the talk of the school people coming up to me asking about how I managed to pack an in form worth 400K and I was loving it, going home going on fifa seeing if I could do that again. Thankfully I got caught and mum told me she was unable to go food shopping that week cause I’ve spent the money on “that game”. She did what any parent should do and confiscated my ps3 so I couldn’t do it again. It was important she did that cause I had loads of exams to revise for that week and I was furious because I would rather starve my family than focus on my exams. It was hypercritical of me as well cause I would always judge my dad as he’d spend every Saturday in William Hill betting on horse racing, if I could go back in time I would tell my younger self that this is exactly what my dad does it’s just that when my dad wins he can keep the money, by September what I was doing on this game would mean nothing. One thing I’m thankful for since turning 18 getting a job becoming an adult is that once I have my own money to spend on fifa I don’t cause I know now it’s a waste of money it’s a waste of time and it’s waste of energy getting excited and infuriated about it. (It also helps year after year fifa has just got worse and worse so that football bug I needed to each back when I was in school has slowly faded away to other things) I don’t ever tell anyone about that one time I got in form balotelli in a pack was cause I don’t have access to that game anymore. All the money binned on that game couldn’t follow you to the next one. I’m not surprised people still do this cause EA would rather see more zeros in their quarterly accounts than see positive feedback about the game. Glad you made this video, I hope it amounts to change but knowing EA they’re probably going to double down on their antics and say how it’s not gambling it’s surprise shopping. I’m glad they’re losing their licences and I hope it’s like the early 2000’s when sports games had to be good cause there’s competition, Or I hope ea do what they do to madden and nhl where you can download customised squads so someone can make the next years games transfers and overall changes and then I don’t have to buy the next game (but I know they won’t do that, cause the game sales figures would drop at least 25% cause people don’t see two changes to career mode and nothing else a strong argument to pay £70 for a new game).

Never spent a dime on fifa points but i spent 6 months during fifa 22 completely ignoring every aspect of my life just to grind FUT. I'm glad i realized my mistake and have set my priorities straight since then. I wish for my brothers and sisters in fifa to not let it get that far and if it does, break the circle my friends. Big companies know exactly how to keep you hooked psychologically, stay sharp out there.

Truly outstanding piece of work, Vizeh. It is not easy to tell the world the things that happened to you, and the darkness you lived also. I hope that people take serious note of all the things you say in this video, because you could not have been more accurate in all you have researched, and most importantly, gone through yourself. People do not understand the damage gambling can do to you, to your loved ones, and your family. It can destroy lives forever, and the addiction can be every bit as strong as dependency upon illegal drugs. Don't do it. If you feel it's starting to happen, simply stop the game, and go and do ANYTHING else at all. Find games that do not use predatory tactics and psychology in the way they get you to stay playing for as long as it takes to get you spending all your money. Once you are hooked, there is very little that can be done for you. These business practices should be made illegal, but until the world fully understands this to be true, companies will continue to find ways to empty your pockets, empty your mind, and 'ultimately', empty your soul.

The main cause of this is that kids watch these RU-vidrs pack a TOTY or whatever promo that is currently for that week and they want to do the same. The only way that kids can do it is by loading a lot of FIFA points and expecting the same result. At least with RU-vidrs such as Bateson and Nepenthez is that they are getting the money back through the videos

As a FIFA player, I'm very fucking lucky to have parents who are stringent with money and have made me work for stuff from the start of my life basically. Because if it wasnt for them, I would have probably spent a whole load of money instead of grinding my team bit by bit. I know the damage these microtransactions can cause and because of that, I have NEVER spent a single pence on this game since 2013, which is when I started playing FIFA. And this whole situation is even worse in FIFA mobile cuz they have things like multiple passes which have a free version and a paid version with the meta players. EA is running the biggest gambling racket and the fact that we keep ignoring it is just sad and dangerous.

I haven't got a problem myself, thanks to my self control, but I do get a want to put money on fifa. EA have made it way too easy to stick on some fifa points, especially when a card is already linked to the console, it's 2 button presses. £80 shouldn't be spent as easy as 2 button presses. Great video, Liam

It is not breaking in,it is a surprise visit

I live in Belgium and fifa packs are banned here. Maybe one of the only things our government did in the last couple of years.

Great video. I remember the 'original' ultimate team in Ucl 2006 where you had a panini style sticker book to collect cards for a reason. Packs were there bought with in game currency and no real money could be spent. The more you played the more coins you earned. That was fun, this is just a rip off. Also nice to see a fut video not sponsored by coin sellers 😎. All the best.

Great video but one that I don’t think you touched on (unless I missed them) is that: FIFA is an annual series so you may spend $1000 on FIFA 19 but then just a year later, there’s another game in which you spend even more money and the $1000 that you spent on FIFA 19 becomes even more useless then it was before. And in yet another year or two, your FIFA 19 Ultimate Team which you spent $1000 on is completely unaccessible due to EA taking the servers down

Great video buddy I’ve always enjoyed and agreed with your content. The things that get to me and I always say to my viewers is that never spend money because DDA will always spin you in roundabouts and will get you spending again. For example: your team will be slow/delayed or look worse than your opponents even with better players, so people then buy points and even if your lucky enough to pack something great, that DDA will come back again and you have to repeat the process. The is what really annoys me Because how on earth is a kid gonna work this out, they’re just gonna go and ask for more money. Absolutely DISGUSTING EA. SHAMEFUL

Gambling in general needs to be abolished everywhere , it’s an act of absolute degeneracy designed to prey on people who aren’t able to control their impulses , children , mentally ill individuals and so on. There’s a devil sitting at the top of each of these companies

I'm from quite a privileged background so when I was 12-13 I spent around 2 grand on my mums bank account on fifa points. Then I done it again through my phone bill when I was 14 this time it was around 500 pounds. Luckily being from my background my parents could afford to lose that kind of money. I still feel very guilty about what I done 5 years on. I now have a gambling addiction where I spend a lot of my own money on betting apps and I believe this addiction has stemmed from me being a fifa pack addict when I was a child.

I'm 23 and started getting into football and fifa just a couple of months ago. The more I play, the more I find out how scummy this game and EA as a company really are. Watching this video made me realize how lucky I am to not have been exposed/interested in games with micro-transactions growing up; hell, the most I've spent on a game has been like $5 on an Assassin's Creed brotherhood DLC when I was 12 lol

I remember buying probably about in the region of £20 - £50 fifa points on my parents card on fifa 13, I was eight at the time and quick sold every pack so that I could afford gold Xavi and then because I felt so guilty I never played Fifa 13 again after buying him, my parents didnt punish me and accepted my apology straight away as they knew how much I regretted it, as I never spent a crazy amount its something which I look back on with massive relief, and I look back on it as one of the stupid things you did as a kid which you now find quite funny Edit: After commenting this I’m just realising how great my parents dealt with this as they knew I was guilt ridden so punishing me / shouting at me wouldn’t help the situation

Loving the videos as of late Liam - deep dives are one of the best things about modern youtube so keep working on these

These documentary style of content is showing an evolution in your content, keep up the great work Viz

Thank you very much for this video! I haven't finished it at all yet... but this topic is so so important to be talked about... that I'm already thankful.

don’t even need to watch it, i know this is going to be an unreal video

I'm glad I've never stole money from my parents throughout playing FIFA but i do remember buying them with my own money during FIFA 20 cuz of lockdown and i didn't realize I spent so much just from one session. After FIFA 20, it made me realize that FUT isn't the way anymore cuz of this problem and ever since just stuck to playing Career Mode instead and is probably the best decision I've ever made playing this game

And what makes it even worse is how they fix the pack odds. Its so blatantly based off market value of the card instead of rating. An 88 Kroos is much easier to pack than a 83 rated Ferland Mendy. Even though theoretically 88 should be harder to pack, but as Mendy is so so meta, hes seemingly impossible to pack. I still havent packed him. They operate like a Free to Play game, yet charge a AAA base price. Its sickening. All beacaus we have so much love for the sport, they capitalise off of our love and passion. Also because there is no substitute football game.

I’ve seen a few people share a similar story, but when I was 13 or 14, I spent £1000 give or take on FIFA points with my parents card. I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time because I never really been taught about the value of money, so I was just adding more and more points to open more packs, I don’t spend much now and when I do it is in moderation, but when I was younger, I was addicted. Typing this now it makes me feel embarrassed and guilty for what I did.

mad effort went into this viz, keep it up :)

another cracking video, you always choose the best topics for your vids, great work!

I want to tell my story because I think it shows how important influencers truly are for kids. Football is not my first sport, I’m from the US and I always loved hockey. When I first got into the EA NHL games (AKA chel) I found a RU-vidr who made plenty of offline content, GM mode especially. I enjoyed those videos way more than anyone else in the community and he talked constantly about how he despised ultimate team because it preyed on kids and how people should never give EA more money than the game itself. I was 12 and learned to love those other game modes and I enjoy them so much more than I ever could enjoy ultimate team. Because of this, I’ve literally never given EA any additional money beyond playing the game itself in FIFA, Madden, or Chel. So to any RU-vidrs who think you don’t make a difference, YOU DO. Don’t suck off EA by promoting this garbage feature. Be more intelligent and play the game without showing off how much cash you can spend.

EA Sports: Pay to Win? It's in the game.

The problem with linking an account with an ID, is that it should be required that this is regulated on an international level. I'm from Belgium so I can't spend my money on loot boxes anymore. However, it's still possible to spend money on loot boxes in Belgium if you make an account from a foreign country.

I'm happy you covered it. i feel guilty EVERY SINGLE TIME i buy an EA product. I usually play fifa for career mode but it's still gross. I hate FUT.

I remember wasting $20 on fifa points in fifa 16, opened like only 2 packs and got nothing so afterwards I was like nah it's rigged and never spent money on points ever again

Honestly I'm just glad someone made this video calling EA out for what they are. Fifa 23 is my first ever fifa and first ever Ultimate team experience so i assumed it was going to be just like those FIFA 14/15 vids back in the day. Instead, since I started in February, I've spent somewhere between 700 to 800 dollars on packs alone within a span of 4-5 months. Currently trying my best to stay away from store packs so I hope I'm able to do so for the rest of fifa. The addiction to opening packs can sometimes get too overwhelming and it's shocking that practices like these are in games for people aged 3+. From my knowledge, games with a lootbox system, mainly gacha games, are usually rated for teens or above and even so, these kinds of games usually lock purchases behind an age restriction system that would only allow you to buy without permission once the players are 188 and above.

Great video Comparing packs to kinder / surprise toys was comical, at least you get a toy after opening the toy . I used to play fifa but never got into the ultimate team or pack opening, but only because you couldn’t take the team with you to the next years game.

When working in the banking industry, I'd get repeated calls from banking customers, parents of children who had used their cards (without their permission) to buy packs and fifa related material, and when I had to explain this to them, they literally had no idea that their own children had scammed them. They would become irate, angry and downright embarrassed that their child had engaged in theft behind their back. Credit to the author of this video, it highlights the dangers of EA, and how they knowingly apply loopholes to corrupt younger players. Fifa tempts children into chasing a false dream, a goal that will never be achievable, and EA are creating underage gambling addicts.

I love that you cracked this open. Its so, so, so true

I've had a lot of issues in relation to FP spending. It was so bad at what point where I didn't have enough money to get basic supplies. Thankfully I'm in somewhat a better situation now, but I do still have that urge where I just want to load up points on a major promo and just keep going until I have nothing left. It's a horrible cycle to be in. Changes must be made to this game in how FP are sold/what you get for those points.

Thank you for pointing out an issue that also effects other ea sports games! Great vid Viz!

Vizeh? I really like your Videos right now. I think it's great how you try to use your range to clear others what is happening in FIFA or other topics! Others wouldn't even think to do that...sadly. Your a good person. Stay as you are. Sorry for my English

This is one of the best coverage of the EA/FIFA situation and gaming toxicity to date. Means a lot to me to see what we experienced as a complete presentation- a documentary. I'm heartbroken, so seeing this light is another motivation to get me moving for a better future

Thank you so much for making this vid, I’ve realised how bad EA Sports is (I already knew how bad they were but didn’t know they were evil), I as a teenager myself since this video have stopped spending any money on Fifa and whenever I feel the urge I always remember in the back of my mind about what I want to do is practically illegal in many countries but since it’s EA, they hide it. I’ve started to play career mode wayyy more and I realise how they try to entice you into going into ultimate team such as many glitches such as the Near Post Glitch. Thanks so much for making this vid

Can't wait to watch this in full, tbh i know what it intales but will deffo watch this, cheers viz

Thanks vizeh❤, thought about spending money on ultimate team but this has completely changed my perspective

I've spent quite a bit through the years, but never put myself in debt or developed any addiction to gambling. However, these gacha games are absolutely predatory and should be rated M for mature or PEGI 18. They sell a "Triple A" game to you at full price, and then they implement the same predatory microtransaction systems that 99% of f2p mobile games have in them. Children (who still have developing brains) are being introduced to gambling, and seeing it as a normal activity without fully understanding what it is or the consequences of it. There isn't enough data to show what that does to a developing mind, but based on other studies, it surely can't be good. That's why I always put a gambling warning at the start of any video I make that involves the use of FP. It's not much, but maybe it gives someone pause if they were considering making a poor financial decision.

I watched the whole thing and don't regret. I never got to spend money on FUT , but I know how big of a problem this is , specially considering I was addicted to the game mode and know how much of a grind it can be. Thankfully I stopped playing FUT in 2019 and this has been one my best decisions of the last few years.

I live in the US, and I hate the old a$$ boomers in Congress who don’t go after EA for this, despite any form of gambling is illegal in the US below the age of 18 (federally) [Note: for some states it’s as low as 16] And in all but like 5 states gambling is illegal across the board. Yet EA goes unchecked because we have a bunch of people who don’t know this is even going on because they have grand kids or great grandkids. It’s incredibly irritating to me. IMO It’s because of the U.S., why EA gets away with this World Wide, because Congress is clueless to it actually existing. Seeing this video and comments, to see the UK, France, and Belgium at least do something about it, makes me wish I had these type of politicians in the US regarding this matter. Thanks for the great video and was not aware how much of a problem this was World Wide and even in the UK

I am an adult. I played exactly one Season on FUT. The ways in which the game is designed to be very much centered around points and packs are so smart, they trick even a wary mind . I noticed, subsequently started trading as to not "have to" buy points to get packs/players . As much as i liked to have the opportunity (at first), it is also moving the focus away from actually playing football against other humans online . I spent more time trading than actually playing . Sad as it is, the Football simulation is just a storefront for a casino that manipulates people into throwing away money in ways a RL Casino never could . As the one guy at the start of this Video said Everyone who actually plays (has played) FUT knows this ("We know what it is.") . Its a disgrace honestly, the beautifull Game being used for this . I am playing Master League since pes19 now, more than good enough to have me enjoy playing . Now give me some similar alternative to EA'S NHL...oh yeah, and Madden while you are at it, please .

Danny Aarons just tweeted "I have spent 800,000 FIFA Points and have not packed a TOTY." don't buy fifa points ever

Personally, I stopped playing FUT at all after a few weeks, I don't remember which promo this was, but it was a promo with a token system, and there were tokens that you could get only if you buy a pack from the store, for me that was the admission of "yes, we're trying to suck your money".

I'm proud of myself that I bought fifa points once when I was 14-15, I spent them all and realized what a scam it was and never bought them again

Saw 20k and my mind IMMEDIATELY went to Danny Aaron's 💀💀💀

There's a TL.DR below The max I ever spent on fifa points was about 30-40 dollars (across all FIFA's since 12), on fut 12 I wanted to pack a silver player, but didnt get him I spent about 20 at the time, ever since then i been a full grinder. Spending 3 dollars on fifa points just for the draft each year. I hadn't done that since Fifa 19, and it's due to how the gameplay of the future games turned me off. Not only that, the pack weights were so bad, that I knew it would be pointless to spend money as I would lose money and barely get anything out of it. I, luckily, caught on to E.A's B.S, However I know and seen many fall into E,A's viscous cycle. And I have younger cousins who have an interest in fifa and I know they will fall prey to E.A's tactics. Things like these are why my love of fifa died and why I can't share the passion with those around me. They are a mess, and the game will ruin them. If you're getting into this, no matter what. Discipline is the key to survival. My determination to build players from the ground up has worked out for me as I just like to collect players and play with what I can, that mindset helped me as I don't care about having the best squad right away. Nor do I want to be like a pro player or whatever, squad battles thank you. I get beat badly, bullied and alot due to my mindset but I know in the end I'll get what I want. Also wasn't a pay to win kind of guy, never will be. *TL.DR* : I didn't get trapped due to my mindset of getting players, stayed disciplined and grinded to glory. Good show with the video Vizeh!

Great video vizeh so glad I never spent money on fifa points but it's still really sad hearing about other people's experiences with fifa points and packs

no idea how yall know its great yet its been out for 8 mins of 49 but I've thoroughly enjoyed the first 45 seconds so far, 10/10

had to share my experience, same thing happened to me when I was the same age. spent over $600 in 4 or 5 months. Nice to know i’m not crazy and i’m so thankful that because of that I never played again. Still can’t forget on the way to practice a microsoft rep called my dad thinking someone hacked in and spent over $600 on fifa on our microsoft account. they than dove into the payments and he quickly realized what really happened…

This is the sort of video that needs to be shown to everyone.

I started playing fifa at 16. I had a part time job. Fast forward to last year I had gotten over a gambling addiction, which I can only attribute to my younger age playing fifa. The grind was insufferable to Free To Play MMO levels. You throw in friend group peer-pressure and its even worse. You felt you had to pay to advance, to keep up with your friends who didn't have a job, had been also stealing their parents money without their knowledge. You had to keep up. The concept of "Giving the feeling of building a squad" is absolute bollocks, how do teams sign people? They don't open trading cards and sign those people, no. They find the specific player. But I loved playing fifa, until I realised the destruction it was causing to my life and the lives of those around me. I refuse to touch ultimate team now, refuse to. If I'm ever playing fifa I ignore that button, but the urge is always there. Now I play career mode only, until microtransactions get into that too. For my football kick I play Football Manager and now go to games, the money I had spent on ultimate team got me a season ticket and food for my club for the entire year, with change left over. I didn't need the simulated atmosphere. I had it, I was in it, I helped create it. Sadly if you go digging you realise some of these companies are lobbying directly or indirectly, and it helps that children (this is their market.) are getting more and more akin to ADHD levels of attention spans, this is something deliberate to the business model, what kid wants to play 100+ games with a trash team to get a Messi? A Ronaldo? A Mbappe? Very few I will wager. This then feeds into the stealing money situation, which is, a crime. So not just planting gambling addiction into children, actively encouraging them to commit a crime. Then the streamers and content creators, how many of them also are part of an EA programme? Get affiliate deals with EA? What's saying they're not getting better odds to get good players for the content? We'll never know, words are hollow we want the numbers themselves, which we will never get. Lootboxes ARE gambling, sorry they are, they're not akin to trading cards, but not traditional gambling either, they're not a fruity but they're close, they should be locked to local gambling laws, but that won't happen, lobbying and taxes really help this, and we've seen the whole credit card holder verification of age, completely pointless as its normally the parents credit card.

This video is ridiculously good, well done mate 👏👏

As an EA Ceo there is nothing wrong with packs in fact we can discuss that! Im a very good convincer

Very well put up video. I didn't know that many people put so much money on this game. I've played Fifa and never spent a Fifa point, and I never think of spending money in this game.

It doesn't help that EA hurt the bronze card strat last release (FIFA 22). It may be just a little bit more expensive than FIFA 21 to purchase a bronze pack, but that increase makes a difference knowing the value of most bronze cards. It was a push to coerce players to purchase points.

Complete transparency: since Fifa 13 I have easily spent 12-15k on fifa points due to a crippling addiction. I only streamed for one of those years. This is my first year of an RTG and I feel liberated. It’s not an attention thing, it’s just unbelievably addictive

Vizeh honestly I haven’t seen this video yet but the last videos have been so impressive and this one for sure will be the same!! Keep up the good work my man💪

Ea needs to face punishment for a decade of child abuse

Haven't played this game since FIFA 18, and I don't really miss it. I remember how much fun it was before Ultimate Team, loot packs, etc.

The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for packing the best players . As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay. We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets. Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can.

People who just play career mode

People always complain about how bad the game, is but they're always the same people that buy it every year and spend way too much on it every year. My cousin plays FUT when he comes to my house (I'm not really in to it myself), and he does all the things that give you free rewards. Anything he buys is with coins. Almost every starting player is over 90 rated. Sure in this time that's somehow not good, but it's still decent for a team that costed less than a sandwich. Even on his own Ultimate Team, he's managed to get over a million coins without spending a penny, and has a full 90+ rated team. It might be more work, but it's more fun, because playing actually rewards you. If you just buy packs with everything you need, there's no point playing.

Your videos have taken a massive jump in quality 👌🏼 haven't played fifa since 2018 for this reason.

I am currently working on my Masters thesis on the dangers of monetized loot box mechanics found within numerous current day video games. This topic was inspired specifically by FUT monetization schemes and how these mechanics are very similar to that of slot-machine gambling. This is compounded by the severe lack of government regulations towards these predatory monetization schemes found within most countries. This becomes even more alarming when considering that a large amount of the Fifa community is comprised of minors. Unethical and exploitative are two words that come to mind when describing these "surprise mechanics".

Even to this day this is a major problem!!! A problem that Ive fallen victim to, there was one particular week where I spent and spent on fifa points and I wouldn’t pack anything then I bought some again because I kept thinking “surely I’ll pack something good soon right?” But no! Why? Because it’s a scam and EA get a buzz over taking advantage of kids etc. now I’ve finally seen sense and don’t spend on this game anymore, tbh I now feel better with my mental health after I stopped spending on points

I absolutely commend you for doing this, and agree with every word you say. I do however worry that also promoting coin sellers is a total contradiction and something you maybe need to reconsider if you want to maximise the impact of this video. Keep up the fight, and I very much look forward to when a UK court case leads to us all being able to reclaim the money we've wasted on Fifa points. Imagine that TV and Radio advert... "have you spent £xxx on Fifa? then contact us at Reclaim Your Fifa Points and start your claim today!" Would be absolutely amazing, and the totally justified kick in the nuts that EA deserves. One day, one day....

It doesn't help when ea say they have a way to stop people overspending on the game and then there's an option after you go over that limit to "ignore this for 1 hour"

It's not stealing, It's surprise handover

Appreciate the effort put into this and to all those with the same cause. I put approximately £500 on FUT in 2018 and still regret it to this day. That was the first and last I put money into this this and I know there will be people who may find it harder to ween off of it and I wish you all the very best to rid of this urge from your lives.

The problem is if you see someone pack a card on RU-vid or twitch gives people the urge

I've played FIFA Ultimate Team for years now and I have never resorted to using my own money to get an advantage because even then you are not guaranteedto get good cards from packs. Even just grinding and playing thegame getsto be a joke at a point cause you eventually hit the ceiling of how far you can go before you're either skill gapped out of playing or its impossible to win against sweats.