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FIFA 22 will bring back the “Preview Pack”, but the regular loot box will also remain
Electronic Arts has confirmed that FIFA 22’s Ultimate Team will continue to sell game content through loot boxes, but said it will stick to the “preview pack” launched in FUT 21 earlier this year, so that players can see what they bought before and they put down the money .
FUT packages have attracted a lot of negative heat from loot critics and legislators-the Netherlands imposed a 10 million euro (11.7 million USD) fine on EA for refusing to comply with the 2018 ruling that these packages violated the country’s gambling law-but They also made a lot of money for EA: The company stated in its report for the third quarter of fiscal year 21 that the compound annual growth rate of FIFA live broadcast services in the past ten years was close to 50%; in EA’s fiscal year 2020, the ultimate team Games (including NFL and NHL, but mainly FIFA)’s “extra content sales” net income is close to $1.5 billion. You can understand why it doesn’t want to endanger the person making money.
EA’s efforts to quell critics and circumvent regulations include revealing drop rates and making it easier to track how much time and money players spend on the game. But in June 2021, a “preview package” that players can open before buying was launched, which is a more meaningful step. The items inside are still random, but because they are visible from the front, people are not forced to spend money on things they might not want.
The preview packs were originally launched as tests, but ironically, they were hugely popular: in August, EA CEO Andrew Wilson stated that the launch of the preview packs actually boosted the sale of FIFA loot boxes .
“What we saw in the preview package was that we saw a higher incidence of new players entering the Ultimate Team, and we saw a higher conversion rate for these new players in buying packages and participating in the digital ecosystem,” Wilson is investing Said the title in the person. “Our team will continue to look for interesting, novel, innovative and creative ways to get people to participate more deeply, and the preview package is one of them.”
In light of this, it is not surprising that EA kept them in FIFA 22. At launch, two types of preview packages will be provided, Premium Gold and Premium Silver, each with a 24-hour refresh timer-if you look at a package and decide you don’t want to pay for it, you have to wait for 24 hours To view the new package.
This is a much better system than traditional loot boxes, although it is important to note that non-preview packages will also be sold, which undermines the promise of avoiding predatory behavior: players trying to repeatedly purchase FUT packages to pursue specific players or items will be as usual Just as free. This also means that the debate about loot boxes and possible regulation may continue into the foreseeable future.
FIFA 22 is scheduled to come out on October 1. Unfortunately, the PC version will lack many trendy new technologies that will appear in the console and Stadia versions: EA stated in July, “Introducing HyperMotion technology and immersive game day features to the PC will have increased minimum specifications, resulting in A large portion of players cannot run the game.”