The release of the world's most popular videogame based on the world's most popular sport took place last month, marking the beginning of an annual, much-anticipated ritual for many fans. In the same way that each entry in the series has done in recent years, FIFA 22 will undoubtedly gross over $1 billion. In contrast, the most recent iteration of the iconic football (soccer, to Americans) simulator is only marginally noteworthy for its minor aesthetic updates, niche gameplay tweaks, or reheated rosters. Many FIFA 22 players believe that the release of the new title heralds the beginning of a new season of the Ultimate Team mode.
The most popular feature in FIFA 22 which has come to define the overall experience for those who are unfamiliar with it, is the Ultimate Team. In a sense, it's a game within a game. Sergio Aguero, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are among the players who take part in the competition. It boils down to indulgent armchair experts' fantasies of fielding your favorite players on a dream team and competing against them in a friendly match. It's Panini stickers or baseball cards crossed with fantasy football, and you get to play as the players who signed with your team during the real-life football season's autumn to summer seasons.
The opening of loot boxes, known as packs, in the game — which are designed to look like Panini cards — is essential to acquiring new, randomly selected players. A small but theoretically possible chance of receiving a player such as Lionel Messi exists. Packs can be earned in-game, or they can be purchased with real-world dollars.
This has the effect of making Ultimate Team feel more like a freemium game stuffed inside a $60 game. In the FIFA 22 community, everything that this entails is at the heart of a great deal of dismay. Despite this, there is still a thriving industry of YouTubers who open pack after pack of cards, Patreon accounts that provide FUT 22 Coins trading tips for the volatile in-game transfer market, and illicit websites that sell digital currency.
It's a cash cow for EA, who publishes the title. Including Madden NFL and NHL, Ultimate Team modes generated $1. 4 billion in revenue for EA Sports last year. For EA, a company that also produces Apex Legends, The Sims, and each new Star Wars game, this represents 28 percent of total revenue. EA's FIFA 22 Ultimate Team, according to Ryan Gee, an interactive entertainment analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch who has been following the company since the mid-2000s, is worth approximately $900 million. Ultimate Team, which first appeared as a FIFA add-on a little more than a decade ago, has since grown into a critical component of the business model of one of the gaming industry's largest players, Electronic Arts.
Only two games sell 20 million copies each year: FIFA 22 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, according to Gee. Fortnite is the only game, according to Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, that causes players to lose track of time while playing.
This year's pandemic, which forced the closure of movie theaters and concert venues, as well as the suspension of most live football for several months, has only benefited the developers of video games that can fill the void left by the absence of live sports for fans. With 7 million new players, EA reported that Ultimate Team revenue had increased by 70% compared to the same quarter last year. At the time, EA's COO Blake Jorgensen stated that this was "completely unprecedented. "In fact, analysts believe that spending on video games will only continue to rise in the foreseeable future.
Every year, only two games sell more than 20 million copies: Assassin's Creed III and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Ryan Gee plays FIFA 22 or Call of Duty.
Therefore, everything appears to be in order for the upcoming game FIFA 22. Ultimate Team, on the other hand, appears to be under attack from all directions. . Regulators in Belgium banned paid loot boxes — the only way that EA generates ongoing revenue from Ultimate Team — in 2018, specifically investigating FIFA and three other games; and the Netherlands recently upheld a €10 million fine against EA for violating gambling laws (an amount that EA has stated it will appeal). EA has stated that it will appeal the decision. Recent class-action lawsuits filed against EA in California and Canada allege that FIFA 22 loot boxes are essentially unlicensed gambling, which is illegal in both countries. Just one week before the release of FIFA 22, the latest in a long line of public controversies surrounding EA erupted: a FIFA 22 advertisement in a children's toy catalog encouraging players to spend real money on FIFA 22 Coins.
The players' own hostility is perhaps the most notable aspect of the game. It is a game that nobody enjoys playing, according to Donovan Hunt, also known as Tekkz, in February, referring to the game in which he is the best player in the world. Many online forums, such as Reddit, are divided on whether to express outright disdain for the game or to implore the EA devs to provide additional content. Gaming complaints are nothing new, and Ultimate Team complaints can range from the simplest of issues such as persistent server connectivity issues to vexing bug situations. A curious self-awareness of the players' own inability to stop doing something they say they don't want to seeps through the cracks in their armor among them, though. If someone launches into a tirade against Electronic Arts, a typical gallows humor response might be to refer to the season's restart:Until next time, October!
