It is impossible to deny the fact that FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) has become one of the most popular game modes in FIFA. With millions of players worldwide, the FUT marketplace has flourished into a multi-billion dollar industry. However, this success has also given rise to a darker side of the game mode, one which is characterized by greed and manipulation.
In the early days of FUT, trading was relatively simple. Players would buy packs, hope to get some good players, and then sell them on the marketplace for a profit. Prices were relatively stable, and the market was more or less fair. However, as FUT became more popular, this system became ripe for exploitation.
One of the ways in which players started to manipulate the market was through price fixing. Essentially, groups of players would collude to artificially inflate the prices of certain players. This would create a false scarcity and drive up prices, allowing the manipulators to profit by selling their own players at an inflated price. This practice was rampant in FUT for several years, with some high-profile players making millions of coins from price fixing.
Another factor that contributed to the manipulation of prices was the introduction of “pack odds.” In order to make packs more appealing, EA Sports (the developer of FIFA) began to disclose the probability of getting a certain type of card in a pack. This led to players becoming obsessed with pack openings, and many began to spend large sums of real money in order to get the best players. As a result, prices started to rise even faster, and the market became more unstable.
One of the most egregious examples of price manipulation in FUT was the infamous “Chemgate” scandal. Chemgate involved a player named Marco Ferreira, who discovered a glitch in the chemistry system that allowed him to maximize the stats of his players. Ferreira quickly began to buy up all the players he needed on the marketplace, driving up their prices to an astronomical level. Soon, other players began to exploit the glitch as well, and the market became completely distorted.
Eventually, EA Sports caught wind of the scandal and implemented a patch to fix the glitch. However, they did not reset the market, meaning that players who had manipulated the prices were able to keep their profits. This led to widespread anger among the FIFA community, who felt that EA Sports had not done enough to prevent the manipulation of prices.
Since then, EA Sports has taken steps to try and regulate the FUT marketplace. They have implemented price ranges for players, which limits the amount that a player can be sold for on the marketplace. They have also tried to crack down on price fixing and other forms of manipulation. However, the FUT marketplace is still far from perfect, and many problems still persist.
In conclusion, the rise and fall of FIFA Ultimate Team prices is a cautionary tale about the dangers of greed and manipulation. What started as a simple trading system has become a multi-billion dollar industry, with players spending exorbitant amounts of real money on virtual players. However, this success has also led to a darker side of the game mode, where players manipulate prices and engage in other forms of unethical behavior. While EA Sports has taken steps to try and regulate the marketplace, it is clear that much more needs to be done. Ultimately, it is up to the FIFA community to hold EA Sports accountable and demand a fair and transparent marketplace for all players.