It should be said worldwide that the Ultimate Team and MyTeam game modes and their mutants in Electronic Arts (EA Sports) and Take-Two (2K) annual sports games should be called games of chance…

An Austrian site, Notebook Check, reported that a court in that country ordered Sony to refund players the price of loot boxes purchased on the PlayStation Store for Ultimate Team modes because they had ruled that Electronic Arts’ UT modes were gambling. The publisher is making a killing with Ultimate Team (when will they force it into their Codemasters F1 adaptations, or maybe WRC…?), as there are sports fans (especially FIFA or EA Sports FC from this year and Madden NFL) who throw a lot of money away on loot boxes every year.

There used to be a controversy about loot boxes, but Electronic Arts just told parents that children should not be allowed to buy the packs. Still, a former employee of theirs turned out to be selling rare Ultimate Team cards, so there is no remarkable difference between loot boxes and gambling. (Especially since both Ultimate Team and MyTeam are designed to be addictive, and for young people, they can be disproportionately detrimental to their development…)

Since a small group brought the action, Sony does not have to pay much money (€338.26, a price of a PS4!). Still, it will appeal to it in any case because if the company fails to do so, more people could get excited about loot boxes and sue for gambling. Microsoft could be involved in it as well as Sony (because, for example, FIFA games are often bought for Xbox consoles). Neither Electronic Arts nor Sony has reacted to the judgment. And FIFA will not: FIFA 23, their last game released last year, was the last game they made with Electronic Arts.

Source: PSL