A family in the United Kingdom noticed at an unexpected time that there’s not a single penny on their bank account.

We’re talking about the Nintendo Switch port of FIFA 19 (whose sequel, FIFA 20, will already be a Legacy Edition on this platform, which means Electronic Arts doesn’t give a damn about the Switch…), in which Thomas Carter has bought a pack of players in the game mode called FIFA Ultimate Team (shortened to FUT from now on). In FUT, you acquire football players in packs of cards, and if you pay up, you could get better players. The goal is to assemble the best team possible in FUT. So Carter bought a pack of cards for 8 GBP one time, but the issue was that his four children, all under the age of ten, have seen how he did it. He admitted that he did not use a unique PIN to access the Nintendo account, and the email receipts about the purchases all went to a full, unused email account.

They realized the children’s spending when their card was denied. „You pay £40 for the game, which is a lot of money in itself, but then the only way to get a great team is essentially by gambling. They spent £550 and they still never got their favourite player, Lionel Messi,” Carter from Hampshire said. He has confiscated the Nintendo Switch „indefinitely.” Nintendo, whose account was used to purchase the FUT card packs, has agreed to provide a full refund, but the company itself did not comment.

According to an organization called Internet Matters, 26% of the parents with a child aged 4-16 are concerned about their in-game spending amount on microtransactions. „I’m sure most children won’t want to be in a position where they have spent their own parents’ money on upgrades or in this case, new players on FIFA,” Carolyn Bunting, the chief executive of Internet Matters, said.

Back in June, Electronic Arts‘ (the developers of the FIFA series…) Kerry Hopkins told the British MPs that they consider the loot boxes „ethical and fun.” Would she still say the same thing after this story…?

Source: BBC