Lol this guy actually tried to claim FIFA loot boxes is akin to how real football works. SURPRISE MECHANICS (MERCH): www.yongyea.com PATREON: www.patreon.com/yongyea TWITTER: twitter.com/yongyea TOP PATRONS [CIPHER] - Joseph Lavoie [BIG BOSS] - Charlie Galvin - Devon B - Jonathan Ball - Liam - Sarano - skyrimfan14 - Solomon J. Twiggs [BOSS] - Gerardo Andrade - Joe Hunt - MD archenangel - Michael Redmond - Peter Vrba - Shepard Gaming - Time Dragonlord [LEGENDARY] - BattleBladeWar - The Brothers Tiegs - Theron Webb - Yue
EA: *"I'm offended, how can you treat me like this? I'm a human too, I have feelings. Now excuse me while I throw this fishing line into a bunch of gambling addicts, I need mah 4.5 million dollar bonus"*
Let's pass the vitriol around equally... Not really sure why the leagues and players don't get smacked around with the shit stick a little more often. They demand more and more in licensing fees at every negotiation. They are more than happy to take their very sizable cut of whatever their sport and EA can milk out of the whales. FIFA or the NFL could have stopped this shit a decade ago if they gave a damn about gambling mechanics aimed at children... but of course they don't give a damn... they advertise gambling operations left and right during their games and through their various marketing agreements. Global sports betting is already worth $130 billion in revenue a year... and that's just the LEGAL slice of it. Do the think EA or FIFA or the NFL is at all worried about some gamers clutching their pearls over kids using mommy's Visa to buy FUT packs? Fucking lol. This whole "regulate lootboxes!" stuff is just nonsense. The very best possible outcome is that government regulations come smashing down.. and then the world will be a better place... Right after 14 year old Jimmy makes a new EA account under his 40 year old mother's name.
I saw the title and immediately said "I've got to see this"...then I saw your comment before opening the comments and said "Man I've got to like this comment"
That should've been asked "Then why is it Rated E for Everyone? Are you saying it should be Rated AO for Adults Only?" EA Exec would've likely been sweating and said "Skip" lol.
That's hilarious that they tried to lecture us about treating devs like normal people. They don't think twice about taking a devs hard work/passion and flushing it down the toilet for microtransactions and engagement metrics.
And yet the developers just sit back and take the checks. They literally do nothing about it. If they all walked out the game isn’t made. They’re not just hiring a whole new team to pick it up. That’s not how it works. The developers are just as much to blame.
@@juliotorres3147 yeah, coz the devs have the luxury to break contract and quit the company willy-nilly given how hard it is to land a job in the first place. It is as if most devs come from rich affluent families that can afford decades of unemployment.
You clearly don't know the difference between a developer and middle/sr management/officer class decision makers creating the mandated systems the developers will implement if they want to keep their jobs there.
I love that EuroGamer had the courage to interview in this manner. They've, unfortunately, probably screwed themselves out of future interviews and review-codes from EA, but this interview, I believe, will stand the test of time and be regarded as true journalism: not petty extolling to ensure future hand-outs. If EuroGamer makes a habit of interviewing in this manner, I'll make sure support them fiscally; they'd be worth it, from my perspective.
"grind vs pay" is quite possibly the most overused, most tiresome, and most draining "choice" put into video games these days. Maybe it's just me . . . but I like the choices to be in the game play, not in real life. Because you know . . . interesting choices in the game itself is why I play video games. I really don't play video games to make the "time vs money" tradeoff in real life - seriously, I don't. That's not why I play games.
Tbh fifa has gotten much better past few years rhey have better pack odds now show % preview pack before you pay with daily refresh but still scummy atleast gameplay has been good same with 2k props to them for making a fun game
It's why some new games suck compared to old games. Old games were made to entertain the player in exchange for the player supporting the game. Some of these new games were made with the idea in mind that the player has to compromise like 50% of the way so the company can make all the money in the world. The game has to suck some way through, it can never be what the player wants, even if all you want is just to pay for a game and play it. It MUST have the sucky elements like lootboxes, or overbearing grind, or economy changes, or nerfs, or overpricing, or gambling.. always something. The few times you don't get that, like Ghost of Tsushima, are regarded as masterpieces. It's just a shame that they are one in a thousand these days.
Some of these AAA companies had managed to put a huge price tag on top of those same slow mobile game mechanics and if you look to be making too much progress, nerfed like what happened with Marvel Avengers after they went to next gen.
So hypocritical, to say "yeha I am the same as the ground floor people, only that I earn millions, work 90 percent less than the designers during crunch, and maybe the yacht I have parked outside. Besides that we are the same.
They’re only people to me when in terms of death. Alive we are all completely different, but we all share the same grave. One maybe more expensive, but it’s still on Earth. So when I see them in hell, it’ll be no different then
Please for the love of god, just one! I just want one journalist that, when interviewing an executive who tries to bring up that you can't cash out lootboxes, responds straight to their face with: "So it's worse than gambling, because there's no chance for you to get back what you've put in."
Which means that idiots are spending money on something for no other reason than to be competitive in a video game.. I have more respect for people who spend a months wage down the bookies. At least they can accept what a risk-reward factor is
@@flinchus people like you are also somewhat responsible for misunderstanding the situation. While not too bad in way , you're targeting the wrong people. Yes some idiots may exist who spend lots of money in game to look cool or better but gambling in another story , it's basically psychological trick. Your opinion is however crucial for us to know people like you also exist and how can we take the situation further. I'm happy to be an idiot if my statement is mislead or wrong.
"At 52 I don't have as much time as I did before. When I was 22, I could play and build the kind of team I wanted to build" Except FIFA Ultimate Team didn't exist 30 years ago, let alone loot box gambling. In football games of the past you just picked your favourite team or country and just played with/against friends or the AI. In fact in the 90's there were way more football franchises available to choose from (Actua Soccer, Virtua Striker, Sensible Soccer, etc.). That was real player choice, but now it's pretty much just FIFA and whatever the hell PES has become.
I'm not much of a soccer fan but even I could tell those were really the golden years for soccer games. I remember having good times with my cousins even though I had no knowledge of teams, players or even the game rules. It's so sad to see sports games being treated as casinos these days. Every other game genre like rpg, action etc has progressed so much. PES could have overthrown Fifa easily by being a decent soccer game without gambling and transactions... But no, Konami is just as greedy as EA. Just a lot dumber.
This reminds me of a key person who helped bring World of Warcraft Classic back. He spent a lot of time re constructing it and then Blizzard added store mounts and the such and the guy left cause of the monetization ruined the feel of the classic game. The ground floor employee did a great job and the higher ups added monetization to mess it all up.
"FIFA lootboxes accurately reflect the real-world sport." You mean the gambling and betting part? If EA getting bankrupt, I wished someone would reply to EA why the failed: "Just like real life"
@@VentusTheSox if EA had to answer your statement, it would be like this: "well you see, we have a feature that demand parental control for children when playing FIFA, it discourages spending and promote safe play for children, we also have a website that gives knowledge for parents about in-game transaction and monetization mechanic, you see, like real life, we're regulated too!" (Even though those features are horribly ineffective at doing their job, at least it gives them ammunition to say 'we're doing something', you see, this is why I hate corporate speak, they always find a reason to argue, no matter how stupid or downright pathetic their answer, they still treat it as 'hey at least I give you answer')
Boy, this video actually stirred me to real anger. And I know why because my two nephews (both under 13) play FIFA games. But fortunately my brother is a gamer himself and on top of the lootbox problem with extensive security around card spending systems. I do remind him every so often because I’m truly worried about my nephews falling into a gambling addiction. I know the older boy has been really involved in Fortnight because when I asked him what he wanted for his latest upcoming birthday he asked for Fortnite currency vouchers. V-bucks was it? I can’t remember as it was nearly a year ago. Uncertain about it I said I’d have to check with his Dad-my brother but if not Fortnite vouchers then what else? And he asked for a Pokemon game. So later that day after I’ve taken the kids home after babysitting I asked my brother about the Fortnite currency vouchers. And my brother was cool with it. Apparently both boys like buying some of the fancier character skins because it looks cool and his Fortnite friends and team and builds his reputation within the game. Indeed wearing default skins can get a player mocked and disrespected. But I had been given permission from the father so that was that. I wrestled with my conscience for a couple of days because I felt my nephews spending money on Fortnite currency for fancy character skins a waste of money but… I eventually decided it has value to my nephews and my brother bans the use of spending any real money on lootboxes. If his sons earn the FIFA or Fortnite currencies through gameplay then fine. But never through currency acquired by converting real world money. I wouldn’t allow the birthday money to be used on lootboxes but although I had doubts about it being used for skins I did eventually go to the local “Game UK” branch and converted the value of what the Pokemon game I’d otherwise gotten him into Fortnite vouchers and slipped them into the birthday card. A couple days later it was my older nephew’s birthday. I’d made special arrangements to get there fairly early in the morning so I could be there when he opened his presidents. He was one excited little 12 year old boy and had been awake early but had to wait for my arrival at 8:30am. It was a fantastic little party with us making the most of things. Since I live only with my cat and I’d taken a Covid-19 test the day before I knew I was safe for them. My nephew had a wonderful time opening all his presents and getting mostly what he wanted. Then I handed him my present in the form of an enveloped card. Seeing as I wasn’t giving him a separate wrapped present his expression filled with hope as he carefully opened the wrapper, slid the envelope out the opened the card itself to reveal the Fortnite currency vouchers within. I’ll never forget the look of mingled surprise, joy, astonishment and like he could barely believe what he was seeing. He examined the vouchers for a good few seconds then caught me in a hug with plenty of’thank yous” and gratitude. Because I’d have otherwise gotten him a Pokemon game I’d chosen the worth of the vouchers to equal that. Thus I’d enabled him to afford several of the most sought after skins instead of one so my nephew was truly delighted. In retrospect despite my reservations about buying skins using real money, the emotional meaning and reaction were genuine. Including the jealousy his younger brother exhibited. (Always felt a bit sorry for him. Being a whole five years younger he’d never match his brother in size of skill.) I think the older brother was persuaded into letting his brother have just enough currency to buy a single cheap small skin to ease the jealousy. As for lootboxes I’ve hated them from the time before they became infamous, in Star Trek Online I’d occasionally open a few wi
@@la7127 Yea it's pretty bizarre. Also just RNG in general in games being a thing means you're spending a disproportionate amount of time on countless online games gambling on whether you make it to the next tier, the next elo, get the next weapon or item from a drop, etc. Time is money in essence anyway. Gambling should really be a human right to do whatever they please with their own property. Parents should ingrain and teach children the dangers of gambling, because such risky and self-reinforcing behavior is not isolated to a casino slot machine, but is in fact pervasive in many facets of life. There is always, always the risk of overinvesting yourself into something completely useless and coming out with a huge hole in your pocket or a hole in your allotted time in this life.
That alcohol comparison was perfect. Bill Gates came up with something similar in an interview. He donates a massive amount to charities each year. One of them lowered the percentage of poverty in a certain area. He said it doesn’t matter that it’s lower, we should aim for 0%.
But we certainly shouldn't ban alcohol just because that number isn't 0, but for some reason Yong Yea wants to ban lootboxes because there's gambling addicts.
@@uraloser5553 not ban per se but have them labeled as what they really are. Gambling which can come with an Adults only ESRB rating and equivalent ratings in other regions. What's clear is children should not have access to any such mechanics that involve real money input.
@@mwperk02 I wouldn't argue with this approach one bit... rate the games with lootbox mechanics as adults only. But I think it's a bit silly to think that it would make any legit difference in regards to children. If little Billy already has access to Mommy's credit card with no or minimal supervision and is racking up thousands of FIFA pack purchases every season... do you really think Mommy is going to give two shits about a little rating label in the corner of the game case that says "mature content, ages 18+"?
@@control_the_pet_population For some reason we know that they actually do care about the mature content label more than the money control... Lets just say current generation parents are neglectful as fuck, but bizarrely are very proactive too..... Once a game is rated Adults Only it's basically a garbage niche game.
@@setcheck67 don't get me wrong, I'm sure it would cost them some money... But I doubt that FIFA and Madden would go from global cash cow juggernaut to niche game over an ESRB ratings change to 18+.. especially for established franchises that parents know won't have any lewd content.
The "Dig Straight Shovel" is a Super-Duper-Uber rare from the "How Low Can You Go" loot box. The free version they're using will land them in North Korea.
*"You know, seeing all this vitriol for FIFA really grinds my gears. Real people work on developing these games!"* _"But people aren't directing this at the developers, they understand most of them wouldn't want lootboxes in FIFA if it was their decision. The point is that it ISN'T their decision, and it's people like you, who don't work on the game but work on the business surrounding the game, that they're angry at."_ *"Well, that's a difference without a distinction, all of our development staff come from a lot of different backgrounds and make decisions all the time, so really, they're collectively responsible for lootboxes alongside us"* *WARNING: SLIME LEVELS OVERFLOWING*
@@pauperslament3467 Aren't the higher ups in charge of paying these developers? Are you suggesting that the developers just say no and get fired, and losing their source of income?
@@pauperslament3467 they're only highly replaceable because the gaming industry has an inflated supply of hopefuls and would be thrown out like rotten seafood if they rocked the boat, but sure, it's not like they have a gun to their head. Sheesh.
I know that when I watch FIFA on the TV, my favorite part is where the players go to the field side slot machines to spin them a few times and new players pop into existence to give them a hand.
I like to imagine he wasn't at all expecting an interview that aggressive. He just went in thinking "I'll give these cattle a few words about how we're 'doing what we can' then get back to our regularly scheduled extortion", then he gets fucking hammered.
No one who uses “i’m a real person too ya know” is a person deserving if sympathy, empathy, of kindness of any sort. If you are in a position of power at EA you are literally a real life comic book villain.
EA has its own share of problems and has done shady things in the past. But to equate this as "gambling" is as silly as buying a special edition game box with a random choice of plush toy inside, or continuously buying Magic The Gathering booster packs to get the exact cards you want, or even just spending large amounts of time in a game(since time is, essentially, money or value in one form or another) just trying to beat certain RNG systems and luck out. No one is forcing anyone to participate in it, and those that do are either expending time, money, or both to luck out. A company making money isn't evil. Pure hyperbole and, at worst, tribalism over a company that has, in too many gamers' eyes, grown too big for its britches. I doubt YongYea is going to back off EA any time soon, but when you start calling people villains: Take a sip of water, step away from RUclips and Reddit for a moment, take a deep breath, and ask where the hate is coming from.
@@niarazu3883 Wow, my comment got deleted. I guess trolls are still alive and kicking. Normally I'd just dismiss you as a troll, but nowadays you're probably just that dumb.
@@CCook-wv1gk So that's a no on specific counterarguments? Either way, what reason do you have to assume disingenuousness on my part, specifically? I as soon assume that the original commenter is making their comment in good faith about EA.
Imagine being a gamer growing up. Loving games, loving computers. Taking the time, effort and money to become a developer. So excited to make games for others to play. Maybe inspire a new generation of kids to follow the same path............only to end up working for EA making copy and paste yearly releases that have a terrible reputation that pray on people with gambling addictions and a majority of the gaming community hates it.
I mean they always have the choice to leave if they dont like how EA is doing things. If it were me I'd get as far away as I could from this ticking time bomb
Ive thought about this. I'd want to end myself and wake up questioning my existence and everyone else's realizing that people who fill pot holes on the road truly have a much higher value to civilization than the compromised excuse for entertainment that is the garbage I am a part of producing. It would devalue everything I did throughout the day and night, coloring every thought and plaguing every moment of my life with an insurmountable cognitive dissonance between my actions and my values.
I think Kotaku redeemed itself, especially in the Schrier era. But yeah, IGN is never gonna compromise it's access to these companies with difficult coverage
@@josueayala1249 Yep, the amount of games industry shifting articles Kotaku published is actually pretty insane. They have been really good with pushing through lies in the industry for a while now. Jason Schrier's crunch investigations come to mind the most. My personal favorite outlets are: Gameranx, Eurogamer, Outside Xbox and Kotaku I also like Polygon sometimes but it depends on what they're reporting on
People give Kotaku a lof of shit but sometimes they do mange to write some insightful stuff without pulling punches. It just that most of the time they churn out some hot stupid takes that make Gamers rage.
The point EA kept making with the "9 out of 10 packs are opened with coins, not points" actually makes the situation more worrying. That means their insane revenue from Ultimate Team comes from a tiny portion of the player base who over spends a lot. Rather than a large portion spending a little. They're creating and praying on problem gamblers and they know it.
“We need the money to make these games…” Aside from the licensing, which I would argue shouldn’t even be that much, considering that the FIFA games have pretty much been running off the same engine for well almost a decade, where exactly do we need the money to make sense? At this point you could just take the engine, put it for sale for like 30 bucks, and then do individual team packs, player group packs, Or yearly seasonal DLC. The only reason we still have your yearly sports games in an era where you can easily update these things online to adjust for stuff like that is because these companies are greedy as hell. Yearly sports games stopped making sense once it became possible to patch the content for consoles; the fact that it’s even still done at this stage is ridiculous. The moment you take away their profitability from this FUT scheme, that’s when they’re actually going to have to do something different.
"The only reason we still have your yearly sports games in an era where you can easily update these things online to adjust for stuff like that is because these companies are greedy as hell." Well... the leagues and players are greedy as hell also. The pro leagues of the world could shut this shit down in a minute if they really cared about gambling mechanics aimed at children... but they don't. The pro players of the world could shut this shit down in a minute if they really cared about gambling mechanics aimed at children... but they don't either. Why? Because the leagues and players look the other way after they demand and receive cargo containers filled with cash in exchange for the exclusive rights. Let's not forget, gambling addicted children playing FIFA/Madden become gambling addicted adults watching (and placing bets on) FIFA/NFL games. Weird how nobody screams at the leagues or the players, as if EA put a gun to their heads and forced them to accept all that dirty gambling money, as if they aren't raising their asking price at every contract negotiation.
@@control_the_pet_population While I get your point and agree somewhat, it's EA that's making the call on a lot of these choices. They have the power to change the mechanics yet don't. Fifa/NFL could very easily step in and say "No", but as you pointed out, they won't do that because of the money they're bringing in. Even then, it's still EA's call whether that actually happens, and until they're forced to do so, they won't change a thing.
@@thecornettmultiverse well, I think its obvious that either side (the ones selling the rights versus the ones paying for the rights) could change this dynamic whenever they wanted...and while neither side does... one side gets 95% of vitriol. It just doesn't make sense to me. EA is a long established pile of shit.. but to paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi... What smells worse? the pile of shit or the people who willingly jump into bed with the pile shit?
@@control_the_pet_population To be equally fair, FIFA has a LOT MORE important stuff they get ragged on for on a regular basis compared to this. I mean, take a look at John Oliver's first two monologues about FIFA. It's also highly possible that FIFA can't do anything about it until a potential shift in the rights. Keep in mind, these licensing deals are usually worked out for years at a time, so even if they wanted to protest it, barring them getting sued for breach of contract, there may not be anything FIFA can do until it comes time to renegotiate the rights.
@@thecornettmultiverse Not doubting there are contractual obligations at play... but if the NFL or FIFA stood up and said "no more lootboxes! too many children are being harmed. We request that EA immediately enters into good faith renegotiating to eliminate this scourge on our children!" EA could go tell them to fly a kite, no doubt there... but at least the tone would be set... gambling mechanics would be going away... the league looks like the good guy and EA is the villain. At the end of the day, EA doesn't really have leverage at all.. there are more video game developers then there are FIFAs or NFL. I get it... we want to root for our favorite team or player... we want to * like * them... while nobody gives a flying shit about a video game publisher... But at the end of the day, the buck stops with the leagues and players. They don't have to allow this to happen. Just look at how fast EA reversed course when Disney put their foot down over that disastrous Star Wars Battlefront loot box nonsense.
If you ask me, it wasn't ruthless enough. EA deserves to get things blown on their face with someone that calls out harder on their executives' poor attempts at deflection. Definitely a step on the right direction but the interviewer could've done more to keep that money-craving worm from squirm away.
@@nicocchi When conducting an interview, you can't just sit there and harass the person you are interviewing, you won't get answers that way. In this interview, the interviewer is both direct but not too aggressive in order to get the best responses
What about Football Manager, that mimics real world football, where I can buy the players I want with the fake money from the game and feel a sense of pride and acomplishment with my team that cost me 0 euros in real life other than the money for the game itself? Wes should have asked this. Regardless, fantastic work on his side, I wish for more interviews like this.
I was going to bring up Football manager having 0 microtransactions and you can build the team you want for literally no real money. Low and behold, here it is.
@@wdf70 That's also basically Fifa manager career mode as well, it's only ultimate team that has these predatory features. I myself have stopped playing ultimate team a long time ago for this reason and only play career mode (and of course in one of the older titles that's on huge discount rather than the newest one).
"These are all real people and so am I... We should be treated like people too". Pretty ironic that they want to be treated like people when they use dehumanising language such as "whales" to refer to their "customers"
They’re absolutely pure narcissists. They only abuse others’ empathy but will give none. This whole interview just was a big showcase of the mental gymnastics these execs will do in order to sidestep any criticism.
8:58 I would've immediately pointed out that it means potentially 10 million players, 1/10th of it's player base according to him, are buying packs with cash. Remind me how much profit has Fifa generated again from lootboxes?
It infuriates me that EA used percentages to attempt to downplay the big number. Just because they say 10% of FIFA players purchase loot boxes, doesn't mean it's a small number. If 31 million people bought FIFA, then 10% is about 3 million players that have bought loot boxes to pay to win. That is not a small number EA, that is you hiding the fact that you've hooked that many humans into your greedy business practices of addiction, cheating, and greed!
Interviewer: So we've noticed you've literally copy and pasted games in both football sports the last 10 years. I mean the lack of actually effort is GLARING! And we can see you clearly are only putting money and time into your casino modes that thrive off children in your cheap scape way of being a shady ass company. EA: It stays the same. It's our moto. We feel if we were to put what you call "effort" in to making the games better then people would expect us to do that every year could you believe that? Yet we charge them 65 dollars for the same game because FUCK YOU GIVE ME MONEY is our moto now
why should they change? serious question, why should they change anything? why should they put effort into updating the game? its obvious how ever much you and I dislike it enough people are going to throw money at them so why exactly should they bother changing? The one and only thing that will force them to update their game is when a decent competitor comes along and steals all their whales
@@TheNzFox that still won't do nothing my guy EA own the rights to most teams and who will be rich enough to afford the licence to buy it from ea Also you are correct they don't need to change at all these people actually think that the once complaining about FIFA and ultimate team is the majority there sadly mistaken I can garentee that ea will lose more players by removing the pay to win stuff
Normally, offering a choice where one option is intentionally and obviously much worse than the option to just give endless amounts of money, is called coercion.
@@alumpycow6694 Yeah, except the Vax choice is "Endanger other people's lives, intentionally, and we're going to fire you.". Which is completely reasonable, unless you live in the states or Australia, where stupidity runs rampant.
@@belland_dog8235 His point is still valid though. If you have to choose between taking a vax or not taking it and losing your job and thus your way to survive in society then it's not really a choice. This said i have taken the vaccine and are pro-vax.
I remember when my coach used to make us stack loot boxes out on the pitch. Expensive and absolutely tiring but really sharpened up the playing skills.
Whenever they say "Player Choice" especially if it's a single player game, journalists should ask back "Then why not include cheatcodes in the game instead?"
There is nothing more satisfying then seeing these big corporations get their comeuppance hand served after they've tried to get away with their monetary money schemes for so long. You gaming news channels get a lot of complaints for covering these stories but I absolutely respect you for keeping at the fight after years of Lootboxes being a reoccurring villain. Eventually even the most unaware of costumers even smell the lake being filled of crap.
Oh yeah: Funny how I can’t remember, Manchester United having to gamble in the summer, to sign either Cristiano Ronaldo, Jaden Sancho or Raphaël Varane. I could’ve sworn, that Clubs just had to meet the players valuations and then they got to sign the player, that they actually wanted. But no I just imagined it didn’t I EA; Football clubs actually get their players randomly, with astronomical odds of getting any good players don’t they; NOT
Well done Eurogamer. Man to be a fly on the wall in that room, knowing they were going to ask these questions ahead of time they shoulda made Chris slightly uncomfortable like that episode of Brooklyn 99. Shorten one of the legs to his chair to make it wobbly, kick up the heat to get a sweat goin and make the table in front of him (if one is present) sticky from dried up soda. haha
Eurogamer as a whole has done such great work in the game space, between Digital Foundry and the articles on Eurogamer proper, they're a cornerstone of video game journalism
A lot of US "journalists" can learn something, mostly something called Integrity and something else called Honesty...things most US "journalists" lack completely
“I like how we gloss over the fact that 9 out of 10 lootboxes are bought with coins” -Local moronic executive moments after glossing over the idiotic argument he made about lootboxes emulating what it’s like to actually play football
The "9 out of 10 packs are paid with coins" is a trap. The 1 out of 10 feels less significant than the fact that some people are spending thousands to tens of thousands for the chance to get a few good players. It's absurd that this is possible at all in an All Ages game.
It's not gambling, so I can see why it's possible this is an all ages game, and plus kids don't have access to money without the permission of their parent/guardian, and they can't have their fully independent bank account until they're of age (18 years or older), and if you spend that much of your own money, that's on you as the adult, so I don't see a problem with it personally, just like I don't see a problem with alcohol, despite the fact that there's alcoholics, we don't ban it for everyone else, just because some dumbass motherfucker can't control themselves.
Or in other words "Our players are only gambling 10% of the time with real money, some could even be children. So how do we make more-err I mean only so many people are gambling." "But gambling is bad, especially for children" "You seems to be glossing over the fact that players are only gambling 10% of the time"
The fatality rates for covid is lower than this but look at what that did to our world. It's not 1 out of 10, but 1 million out of 10 million packs, or so.
"In real world football, you can use resources to assemble the best possible squad" Except in real life you don't put football players in loot boxes and have the team managers spend money to have a CHANCE to get this specific player in their team.
Though not gonna lie, I'd love to see that beeing how players are shuffled, I'd love to see the faces of people getting someone they really don't want XD
Interviewer: "The problem with it, and the point with the loot boxes, is you're buying gameplay-affecting items. Your loot box contains players you use to play in a competitive multiplayer mode - or you can do that, right?" Chris Bruzzo: "Just like real world football!" Ah yes, when I buy contracts of a player to play for my team I too bought clone homunculus with only 10% of the ability of the real player while the other team manager got another clone with better stats, only because I was unlucky.
And other people try to contract out the player, and you don't know who else is trying to get them or how much they're offering, so it's up in the air just like in Fifa lootboxes, I think that's what he was trying to say.
@@uraloser5553 Yeah but thing is we don't have "stats" in the real world that literally affect how individuals perform, and in FIFA stats vary between different "rarities". In actual real life world if I bought Messi's contract and he underperform I can increase his pay or change training regiment or something else, instead of just hoping to get Messi who just perform much better from the get-go. With lootboxes you got hardwired "weaker or stronger" version of players solely through chances, AND multiple people CAN have high rarity players. This isn't some weird shit NFT where only one person in the world able to have Gold SSR Ultra Rare unit or whatever, this is gacha game gambling mechanic where everyone have CHANCE to hit jackpot it's just gonna cost them billions because, uh oh, that 1% chance sure is big. 1% chance from how many pulls? Lol we won't tell it might be from 10 it might be from 10000 pulls find out yourselves!
@@mill_ania Okay first things first, It's not gambling, second I might've worded it incorrectly so I'll rephrase, I think he's trying to say that multiple people are bidding for the same player, just like in FIFA, and it's not a garentee you'll get it, I think that's what he was trying to say.
Would have hit him with "If the goal is to be realistic, then wouldn't you just sell the players for people to buy for their team? Like how REAL teams directly buy players? When did FIFA teams start drafting teams via lotto in the real world?"
Well that would be a hilarious concept for real life football. Imagine like Panama winning the world cup because they bought like 5 packs and had insane luck.
If a fire broke out in one of the offices at EA headquarters, the executives wouldn't even bat an eye. They'd just make an announcement over the intercom like "There is no cause for alarm. Only 12% of the building is currently engulfed in flames. The remaining 88% should provide more than enough space for you to continue your shift as scheduled."
There's an actual game called Shadow of Loot Box. It parodies everything about lootboxes. It also includes Preston Garvey asking the player to help yet another settlement. It looks like Minecraft as far as graphics go.
I think I’d respect EA more if they just said “we’re a publicly traded company. Not only is game development expensive, but our shareholders demand profits and continued growth. This is how we do it.”
Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow: *has harmless recreation of a slot machines, which doesn't affect gameplay and can be bypassed completely with ease* FIFA: *has gameplay mechanics identical to slot machines that affect gameplay to the point of countering the fun factor, and even generating (or worsening) addictions on its userbase* You can easily farm money and exchange it for "coins" to get the prizes in RBY (like Porygon); FIFA plays with FOMO, between releases, and cares not about who spends the money. As long as lootboxes are in a FIFA game, it should be rated "+18", with an additional BIG warning on its content. Oh, and RBY should be given FIFA's current age rating.
They had to remove the slots from the release if I’m correct been forever but I always wondered why they had to remove it and fifa is still going at it
18:38 you shouldn’t need parental controls for a game rated G (for kids) the parental controls should just not let you play games over the rating you picked, if I put parental controls on Netflix it’ll let the kids watch Pokémon or YUGIOH but will not let them watch Breaking Bad.
Wait, you guys don't receive giant strange boxes in real life that have a random Item/living body inside? ooooh... uh, yeah, me neither. You know what, I'd probably watch a sports game where teams are decided by picking random boxes with players inside.
Uhhh... what? ... I better start strapping down my random boxes in my planes cargo... You said some had people in? Seems I need to have a word with my RNG supplier...
Sports would definitely be a lot more interesting of the teams were made of randomly picked players. Though considering it's still sports it would still be boring
When I was a kid we didn't have loot boxes. If you wanted a character in a game you had to be either A) really good at the game and beat challenge levels to unlock the character, or B) gain alot of ingame currency and then buy them. No where in there does it involve a credit card. FIFA has gotten so bad with lootboxes my cousin didn't realize he was spending close to $50 a day opening packs. My uncle nearly had a heart attack realizing what EA's business practices are....
"It's like real football" yes because in real life the players all arrive in a box and pop up at random and the club never knows who they'll get no matter how the money they spent. It takes some nerve to be this brazen and expect everyone to buy it.
When I saw the title, I couldn't stop my finger from launching the video. I almost died laughing at the exec's really pitiful attempts to point the finger anything else but how shady and disgusting the loot boxes are, just for him to turn around and say that, on record mind you, "children shouldn't be spending money." I can't wait for someone to really drive that in and really weaponize it against them. It would be great to see the execs squirm and try to get themselves out of that one
Only 1 in 10 FUT packs are purchased with money, oh you're right, something with such a small probability shouldn't be important. Give me just a minute, I need to go tell the 16,850 kids that got cancer last year that 1,730 (1.03 in 10) of them dying isn't enough for us to continue searching for a cure. Oh! Also I need to tell them that the 15,120 of them that will live, will probably have horrific damage to their bodies for the rest of their lives. Thank you for the insight, Mr. Bruzzo.
Thanks for keeping this argument going Yong. I expected the same corporate answers though from EA. I think I'd have the smallest amount of respect for them if they came out and said ,"look we do this because it earns us a lot of money"
I would've been less mad and disgusted if they directly asked us; "how can we make more money without angering everyone?" To which I answer; "by NOT doing what you are doing right now?" I would've at least appreciate the honesty, still mad, but less than now.
What EA should've done: Ask people what forms of monetization are acceptable. It's obvious that EA only cares about the money, but there's a way for them to make money without their manipulation tactics. DLC and expansion packs.
@@Hauntaku but then later on, it'll give EA another reason to not finish their games even more and just adding them in later as "expansions" like how other companies are doing in their games nowadays
"the other really important thing is that 78 percent of players of all FIFA 2021 players never spend anything in the game"... those free-loaders who spend 60$ on a game every year. It's just missing that last part of the sentence.
The only aspect of real-world football where gambling occurs is inside, for the most part, bar-rooms where fans bet on which team wins and loses and earns money based on the outcome.
The best response to “but only a small fraction of these loot boxes are bought with real money!” is to say “okay cool, if it’s no big deal then take out real-money loot boxes.” And then laugh as their heads explode.
I would absolutely LOVE if Yong, Joe, and Act Man all interviewed the EA, Activision, and Blizzard executives and just straight blasted them with hard hitting questions like these and they were hooked up to lie detectors with actual police or federal agents to moderate.
The government needs to find some legal reason to raid their corporate HQs, confiscate every document, and interrogate every employee. Unfortunately many of these companies are based in America, and America is the place where the rich get to decide what is right and wrong.
Honestly the truth probably is that when the chips are down and all three of these content creators were in front of the executives they probably would be too afraid to be honest and ask the hard-hitting questions. The end of the day these content creators are business too who just want to make money
@@diligentone-six2688 which is why I think if they had a really big opportunity to be right in front of executives they'd fold and not want to risk their small income and small status. At least not yong yeh I don't see him with much of a backbone.
Wtf is this interview?! 😂 A huge facepalm on EA. This is ridiculous. This interview should serve as evidence/proof/info to add in court! Oh and props to Eurogamer! Good job 👏
The real life comparison of an establishment like FIFA, and EAs FIFA would be strictly financial- money gets you things. It’s very ironic that while they try to maintain a good connectivity with players, they use real life constructs that boost the disconnect between real life people. Your point on EAs monopoly on games like FIFA is a very good one, they have no competition and will continue to get away with it. Love your vids, watch them whenever I have enough time! Super relevant, great stance!
i like that "works like real football" in the thumbnail. because in real football the team managers open a box and pull out a random player for their team and if they are lucky and open enough boxes, all teams can have Messi at the same time
Actually, I was... for real. To the point I need to ask : when did they start to drink ? I would not believe they are so out of reality. It goes beyond denial, and delusion... They're nuts.
It amazes me that interviewers just don't go straight to that confessional video. I mean, EVERYTHING they deny doing is RIGHT THERE. The How, the Why: right there with science and everything
We need to somehow point EA and Take-Two towards each other with some legal shit. Have them fight in court over nothing until both monsters are dead, like in Eternal Darkness.
I find it hilarious how Bruzzo keeps saying the interviewer’s name, like he’s saying “Why can’t you just accept my cover-ups?” or “Papa’s getting angry, you’d better stop this this instant.” It really shows that he’s put himself in a corner and is desperate to get out of his situation.
“The football drafting system is to be replaced with a pachinko system for all following seasons, where players will all be dumped back into the international pool each year with the new release cycle.” -FIFA apparently?
I'm pretty sure when Leeds (the team I follow, don't hate me) suffered badly at the start of this season due to injuries, they didn't just go and pay for a randomised load of players off the market. I'm pretty sure that the rules regarding the transfer market are just a wee bit different ;)
19:51 if you think “kids should not be spending in our game” then the game should be rated R18+ (or whatever the age of gambling is in your country) it should be a adult only game
EA is a corporation owned by shareholders which want profits. They aren’t going to get rid of pay to win unless there is regulation. It’s a free market without limits.
I lament what has become of this industry, as someone who has been with gaming since the NES it breaks my heart to see how sleazy it has all become... I'm happy to see someone who's not a youtuber actually asking the tough questions, Yong can only do so much with the audience he has, and it's imperative that journalist actually do real journalism and Wesley Yin-Poole deserves credit for finally probing an executive with these questions because by doing so he's hurting his bottom line and that takes balls. I hope he continues to provide us with the journalism we deserve, cause I don't believe any statement that comes out of any publishers anymore, they have lost that privilege DECADES ago.
They'd happily die in that chair. You want honest answers, you've gotta hit them where it actually hurts. For every second they don't give an honest answer, take a hundred thousand dollars or so from their offshore accounts, and divy that up between the developers and programers and such. They'd start talking immediately.
Honestly, the entire executive team should be doing life sentences. We've seen this before, with the tobacco, asbestos, and fossil fuel industries. They all knew that their products were harmful and dangerous, but they concealed, denied, and downplayed the severity of the problem, until it couldn't be denied any longer, and then the executives just walked away scott free. Worst case scenario, the company got fined. No personal accountability. I'm fully supportive of laws that would hold executives personally, criminally accountable for coverups of this nature. In the case of the tobacco and asbestos industries, there are countless people you can point to whose deaths were the direct result of these coverups. Those industries have blood on their hands, and the execs get to walk? That's wrong. Every tobacco industry executive who denied the severity of the problem as evidence was mounting should have been thrown in prison for the rest of their lives.
I kinda wish the interviewer had examined that "one in ten players actually pay to open lootboxes" line that kept throwing out. Specifically I wish they'd ask how many people actually play FIFA, and then divide that by ten to get an actual count of people spending money on the game instead of being stuck with a deceptive fraction.
it's worse, it's not one in ten players. It's one in ten FUT packs are opened with coins. The question should be how many FUT packs are bought and opened in the span of the year?
The "one in ten" statistic is deceptively vague. Some people both buy packs and earn them, how are they counted in that statistic considering they do both? There also isn't a designated time line for the statistic, so that statistic could mean one out of ten on a yearly average or one out of ten from a five second slice. Not to mention that they aren't even saying what the one in ten people are spending and how that affects their win/lose ratio.
@@OmegaZyion Oh, I'm aware. I think it's more than apparent by this point that slimeball executives intentionally pick misleading statistics that don't tell the whole truth specifically to make their deplorable actions look less problematic.
And even at that, I find that stat highly dubious. Yes 9 out of 10 are bought with coins. However, he fails to mention how those players got the coins in the first place. From what I know you can buy coins with real money.
The cigarette companies would still be trying to sell them to kids if the government didn't intervene. This sadly needs to be done for the laws to catch up.
If i want a "strategic feel" to my "player purchases" I play a soccer management sim... like Football Manager, Soccer Manager, etc. Ripping open a Trading Card, doesn't give me that feeling.
Dev: "Looks like there's another bug in the accounting transaction code. It appears a few pennies from every micro-transaction is being sent to some unknown bank account..." CEO: "Fix that bug and find out who's taking my money!!!!" Dev: "We found the bug, apparently the code was not charging the actual amount for points so that money essentially doesn't exist." CEO: "YOU'RE FIRED!!!" Dev: "Ahhhh, retirement early is so nice!"
I’m an ex-gambling addict. I did two years of counseling, some inpatient rehab, and took part in group therapy for over a year. Somehow, EA has taken classic gambling (the typical casino games) and made it WORSE. When you lose in roulette, you can say to yourself “it’s okay, I can make it back when I win.” which, while an unhealthy line of thinking, is true. You can (in theory) make up your losses. In lootboxes, however, there’s no getting that loss back. It’s paying $5 to have a computer roll a 100 sided die and you pray it lands on 15 (the player you want) Nope, it landed on 44. Try again? You can roll it fifty times, finally hit that number and walk away with that shiny new player, but you just spent $100 losing a dice roll. With casino gambling, you can potentially recoup your losses. In lootboxes, you will never get back any of what was lost.
Lol this guy actually tried to claim FIFA loot boxes is akin to how real football works.
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EA: *"I'm offended, how can you treat me like this? I'm a human too, I have feelings. Now excuse me while I throw this fishing line into a bunch of gambling addicts, I need mah 4.5 million dollar bonus"*
When EA lies like this, it demeans themselves and the players as well.
I thought they want $4.5B
Last year the CEO made $30 million in bonuses. 4.5 is a fraction
That's billion 4.5B my man, you're cutting these greedy hogs slack by saying million
Let's pass the vitriol around equally... Not really sure why the leagues and players don't get smacked around with the shit stick a little more often. They demand more and more in licensing fees at every negotiation. They are more than happy to take their very sizable cut of whatever their sport and EA can milk out of the whales. FIFA or the NFL could have stopped this shit a decade ago if they gave a damn about gambling mechanics aimed at children... but of course they don't give a damn... they advertise gambling operations left and right during their games and through their various marketing agreements.
Global sports betting is already worth $130 billion in revenue a year... and that's just the LEGAL slice of it. Do the think EA or FIFA or the NFL is at all worried about some gamers clutching their pearls over kids using mommy's Visa to buy FUT packs? Fucking lol. This whole "regulate lootboxes!" stuff is just nonsense. The very best possible outcome is that government regulations come smashing down.. and then the world will be a better place... Right after 14 year old Jimmy makes a new EA account under his 40 year old mother's name.
“So why did you decide to scam little children into gambling and buying overpriced trash?”
“Money”
"What's the most important aspect when creating a game?"
"Money"
"It isn't gambling, it's just like kinder eggs. But digital, we call them suprise mecanincs!"
I'm pretty sure EA is run by Mr Krabs
"Hello! I like money."
@@goodnesswhy 'What made you want to add loot boxes to ultimate team '
'Money'
I saw the title and immediately said "I've got to see this."
I’ll get the popcorn
I saw the title and immediately said "I've got to see this"...then I saw your comment before opening the comments and said "Man I've got to like this comment"
Me, too! More important than the Dodgers/Giants game!
Can't wait to see the Komani edition.
They're not shocking anymore.
They're funny to laugh at.
“Children shouldn’t be spending money in FIFA.”
FIFA: E for Everyone
That should've been asked "Then why is it Rated E for Everyone? Are you saying it should be Rated AO for Adults Only?"
EA Exec would've likely been sweating and said "Skip" lol.
But lets rate the OG Pokemon games 18+ because you can gamble with fake money.
@@mariatelos Smh. Stupid. ESRB is payed off.
@@TheJmack90 I was referring to PEGI, I'm not sure about the ESRB's stance here.
@@mariatelos Oops lol you’re right. They’re all the same to me 🤷🏽♂️
That's hilarious that they tried to lecture us about treating devs like normal people. They don't think twice about taking a devs hard work/passion and flushing it down the toilet for microtransactions and engagement metrics.
And that's not even taking into account the awful working conditions. Remember "EA widow"?
And yet the developers just sit back and take the checks. They literally do nothing about it. If they all walked out the game isn’t made. They’re not just hiring a whole new team to pick it up. That’s not how it works. The developers are just as much to blame.
@@juliotorres3147 yeah, coz the devs have the luxury to break contract and quit the company willy-nilly given how hard it is to land a job in the first place. It is as if most devs come from rich affluent families that can afford decades of unemployment.
👀🍿
You clearly don't know the difference between a developer and middle/sr management/officer class decision makers creating the mandated systems the developers will implement if they want to keep their jobs there.
My guy is definitely blacklisted from ever interviewing EA again, but man, Wesley, you’re a freaking legend.
He's really not my guy.
@@uraloser5553 He's not your guy, pal.
@@uraloser5553 He's not your pal, buddy.
A true journalist right there, and these days there are few and dar in between.
@@rubendb3403 He's not your buddy, friendo.
I love that EuroGamer had the courage to interview in this manner. They've, unfortunately, probably screwed themselves out of future interviews and review-codes from EA, but this interview, I believe, will stand the test of time and be regarded as true journalism: not petty extolling to ensure future hand-outs. If EuroGamer makes a habit of interviewing in this manner, I'll make sure support them fiscally; they'd be worth it, from my perspective.
If other journalists do this just to get early access to their games, why would you want to do this?
Because they adhere to scruples, I imagine, or perhaps Eurogamer realized that there's a gap in the journalism "market," currently...
I agree, this is proper journalism, asking the uncomfortable questions.
Integrity is better than access.
Agreed
"grind vs pay" is quite possibly the most overused, most tiresome, and most draining "choice" put into video games these days. Maybe it's just me . . . but I like the choices to be in the game play, not in real life. Because you know . . . interesting choices in the game itself is why I play video games. I really don't play video games to make the "time vs money" tradeoff in real life - seriously, I don't. That's not why I play games.
Tbh fifa has gotten much better past few years rhey have better pack odds now show % preview pack before you pay with daily refresh but still scummy atleast gameplay has been good same with 2k props to them for making a fun game
@@axeldodger0128 but wouldn't it be even better without all that shit though?
It's why some new games suck compared to old games. Old games were made to entertain the player in exchange for the player supporting the game. Some of these new games were made with the idea in mind that the player has to compromise like 50% of the way so the company can make all the money in the world. The game has to suck some way through, it can never be what the player wants, even if all you want is just to pay for a game and play it.
It MUST have the sucky elements like lootboxes, or overbearing grind, or economy changes, or nerfs, or overpricing, or gambling.. always something. The few times you don't get that, like Ghost of Tsushima, are regarded as masterpieces. It's just a shame that they are one in a thousand these days.
@DOSboi Aidan A lot of indie games are great too, plus first party Switch games.
Some of these AAA companies had managed to put a huge price tag on top of those same slow mobile game mechanics and if you look to be making too much progress, nerfed like what happened with Marvel Avengers after they went to next gen.
"Executives are people too!"
No. No they're not. Let's stop pretending they are.
Executives are an invasive parasitic species.
So hypocritical, to say "yeha I am the same as the ground floor people, only that I earn millions, work 90 percent less than the designers during crunch, and maybe the yacht I have parked outside. Besides that we are the same.
They have a human body, but no soul
They’re only people to me when in terms of death. Alive we are all completely different, but we all share the same grave. One maybe more expensive, but it’s still on Earth. So when I see them in hell, it’ll be no different then
Sounds like Wagie seething.
"EA provided truly awful, nonsensical, contradictory dismissive answers"
So basically, EA is being their usual self.
Please for the love of god, just one! I just want one journalist that, when interviewing an executive who tries to bring up that you can't cash out lootboxes, responds straight to their face with:
"So it's worse than gambling, because there's no chance for you to get back what you've put in."
Which means that idiots are spending money on something for no other reason than to be competitive in a video game.. I have more respect for people who spend a months wage down the bookies. At least they can accept what a risk-reward factor is
@@flinchus Those "idiots" are the poor people who are just trying to have fun with a game.
@@flinchus
Or the neurodivergent who go to games to escape and instead fall right into EA's horrible trap.
@@flinchus people like you are also somewhat responsible for misunderstanding the situation. While not too bad in way , you're targeting the wrong people. Yes some idiots may exist who spend lots of money in game to look cool or better but gambling in another story , it's basically psychological trick. Your opinion is however crucial for us to know people like you also exist and how can we take the situation further. I'm happy to be an idiot if my statement is mislead or wrong.
Huh. Turns out there are some remnants of proper, honest, large scale journalism still alive and kicking. A pleasant surprise for the weekend 😆
You won't be seeing that in the U.S. and any that go down that path would likely not be long for this world.
Indeed
"At 52 I don't have as much time as I did before. When I was 22, I could play and build the kind of team I wanted to build"
Except FIFA Ultimate Team didn't exist 30 years ago, let alone loot box gambling. In football games of the past you just picked your favourite team or country and just played with/against friends or the AI.
In fact in the 90's there were way more football franchises available to choose from (Actua Soccer, Virtua Striker, Sensible Soccer, etc.). That was real player choice, but now it's pretty much just FIFA and whatever the hell PES has become.
I effing lover winning eleven!!
I'm not much of a soccer fan but even I could tell those were really the golden years for soccer games.
I remember having good times with my cousins even though I had no knowledge of teams, players or even the game rules.
It's so sad to see sports games being treated as casinos these days. Every other game genre like rpg, action etc has progressed so much.
PES could have overthrown Fifa easily by being a decent soccer game without gambling and transactions... But no, Konami is just as greedy as EA. Just a lot dumber.
You can still play with your favorite team against AI or a friend in kick-off mode in modern fifa
stick with old games that has a modding community that supports it to keep up to date rosters granted you have to know how to mod in the first place
Old sports games were pretty fun too.
Dumped all my PS2 sports games and still play them today
I've said it elsewhere, when a corporation says "We/I hear you" I believe it's only half a statement, the second half being "We/I just don't care."
This reminds me of a key person who helped bring World of Warcraft Classic back. He spent a lot of time re constructing it and then Blizzard added store mounts and the such and the guy left cause of the monetization ruined the feel of the classic game. The ground floor employee did a great job and the higher ups added monetization to mess it all up.
He's on twitter and he absolutely hates blizzard, if anyone wants the @ just ask I'll find him
@@Miki-hk6vy I'd like his @
@@Pexil_Effex @Grummz
"FIFA lootboxes accurately reflect the real-world sport."
You mean the gambling and betting part? If EA getting bankrupt, I wished someone would reply to EA why the failed: "Just like real life"
so they could put on box game rating 18+
I mean, actual football (soccer for you yanks) has pleeeenty of betting and gambling going on, but thats all regulated, age restricted.
@@VentusTheSox if EA had to answer your statement, it would be like this: "well you see, we have a feature that demand parental control for children when playing FIFA, it discourages spending and promote safe play for children, we also have a website that gives knowledge for parents about in-game transaction and monetization mechanic, you see, like real life, we're regulated too!"
(Even though those features are horribly ineffective at doing their job, at least it gives them ammunition to say 'we're doing something', you see, this is why I hate corporate speak, they always find a reason to argue, no matter how stupid or downright pathetic their answer, they still treat it as 'hey at least I give you answer')
horse race gamblers
but we bet on humans- squid game front man
Props to the interviewer. This is what journalism should be, instead of the "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" that we see so often.
he's the next Jason Schreier
Boy, this video actually stirred me to real anger. And I know why because my two nephews (both under 13) play FIFA games. But fortunately my brother is a gamer himself and on top of the lootbox problem with extensive security around card spending systems. I do remind him every so often because I’m truly worried about my nephews falling into a gambling addiction.
I know the older boy has been really involved in Fortnight because when I asked him what he wanted for his latest upcoming birthday he asked for Fortnite currency vouchers. V-bucks was it? I can’t remember as it was nearly a year ago. Uncertain about it I said I’d have to check with his Dad-my brother but if not Fortnite vouchers then what else? And he asked for a Pokemon game.
So later that day after I’ve taken the kids home after babysitting I asked my brother about the Fortnite currency vouchers. And my brother was cool with it. Apparently both boys like buying some of the fancier character skins because it looks cool and his Fortnite friends and team and builds his reputation within the game. Indeed wearing default skins can get a player mocked and disrespected. But I had been given permission from the father so that was that.
I wrestled with my conscience for a couple of days because I felt my nephews spending money on Fortnite currency for fancy character skins a waste of money but… I eventually decided it has value to my nephews and my brother bans the use of spending any real money on lootboxes. If his sons earn the FIFA or Fortnite currencies through gameplay then fine. But never through currency acquired by converting real world money. I wouldn’t allow the birthday money to be used on lootboxes but although I had doubts about it being used for skins I did eventually go to the local “Game UK” branch and converted the value of what the Pokemon game I’d otherwise gotten him into Fortnite vouchers and slipped them into the birthday card.
A couple days later it was my older nephew’s birthday. I’d made special arrangements to get there fairly early in the morning so I could be there when he opened his presidents. He was one excited little 12 year old boy and had been awake early but had to wait for my arrival at 8:30am. It was a fantastic little party with us making the most of things. Since I live only with my cat and I’d taken a Covid-19 test the day before I knew I was safe for them. My nephew had a wonderful time opening all his presents and getting mostly what he wanted.
Then I handed him my present in the form of an enveloped card. Seeing as I wasn’t giving him a separate wrapped present his expression filled with hope as he carefully opened the wrapper, slid the envelope out the opened the card itself to reveal the Fortnite currency vouchers within.
I’ll never forget the look of mingled surprise, joy, astonishment and like he could barely believe what he was seeing. He examined the vouchers for a good few seconds then caught me in a hug with plenty of’thank yous” and gratitude.
Because I’d have otherwise gotten him a Pokemon game I’d chosen the worth of the vouchers to equal that. Thus I’d enabled him to afford several of the most sought after skins instead of one so my nephew was truly delighted.
In retrospect despite my reservations about buying skins using real money, the emotional meaning and reaction were genuine. Including the jealousy his younger brother exhibited. (Always felt a bit sorry for him. Being a whole five years younger he’d never match his brother in size of skill.) I think the older brother was persuaded into letting his brother have just enough currency to buy a single cheap small skin to ease the jealousy.
As for lootboxes I’ve hated them from the time before they became infamous, in Star Trek Online I’d occasionally open a few wi
People with ethics and morals: "How is promoting gambling to children ethical?"
EA: "What is ethical? Can we monetize that?"
@@DisemboweII ?
Yu-Gi-Oh and magic promote gambling to children, when are yong's self-righteous fans gonna cry about that ?
@@la7127 Yea it's pretty bizarre. Also just RNG in general in games being a thing means you're spending a disproportionate amount of time on countless online games gambling on whether you make it to the next tier, the next elo, get the next weapon or item from a drop, etc. Time is money in essence anyway.
Gambling should really be a human right to do whatever they please with their own property. Parents should ingrain and teach children the dangers of gambling, because such risky and self-reinforcing behavior is not isolated to a casino slot machine, but is in fact pervasive in many facets of life. There is always, always the risk of overinvesting yourself into something completely useless and coming out with a huge hole in your pocket or a hole in your allotted time in this life.
@@la7127 at least you can sell the cards you don't need...
That alcohol comparison was perfect.
Bill Gates came up with something similar in an interview. He donates a massive amount to charities each year. One of them lowered the percentage of poverty in a certain area. He said it doesn’t matter that it’s lower, we should aim for 0%.
But we certainly shouldn't ban alcohol just because that number isn't 0, but for some reason Yong Yea wants to ban lootboxes because there's gambling addicts.
@@uraloser5553 not ban per se but have them labeled as what they really are. Gambling which can come with an Adults only ESRB rating and equivalent ratings in other regions. What's clear is children should not have access to any such mechanics that involve real money input.
@@mwperk02 I wouldn't argue with this approach one bit... rate the games with lootbox mechanics as adults only. But I think it's a bit silly to think that it would make any legit difference in regards to children. If little Billy already has access to Mommy's credit card with no or minimal supervision and is racking up thousands of FIFA pack purchases every season... do you really think Mommy is going to give two shits about a little rating label in the corner of the game case that says "mature content, ages 18+"?
@@control_the_pet_population For some reason we know that they actually do care about the mature content label more than the money control... Lets just say current generation parents are neglectful as fuck, but bizarrely are very proactive too..... Once a game is rated Adults Only it's basically a garbage niche game.
@@setcheck67 don't get me wrong, I'm sure it would cost them some money... But I doubt that FIFA and Madden would go from global cash cow juggernaut to niche game over an ESRB ratings change to 18+.. especially for established franchises that parents know won't have any lewd content.
"Keep going, we're almost to China!"
- EA digging that hole
Honestly they can have them
The hole to success!!!, LMFAO
China doesn't even want em anymore, with that 3 hours a week
@@rhysofsneezingdragon1758 hah that is hilariously poetic
The "Dig Straight Shovel" is a Super-Duper-Uber rare from the "How Low Can You Go" loot box. The free version they're using will land them in North Korea.
*"You know, seeing all this vitriol for FIFA really grinds my gears. Real people work on developing these games!"*
_"But people aren't directing this at the developers, they understand most of them wouldn't want lootboxes in FIFA if it was their decision. The point is that it ISN'T their decision, and it's people like you, who don't work on the game but work on the business surrounding the game, that they're angry at."_
*"Well, that's a difference without a distinction, all of our development staff come from a lot of different backgrounds and make decisions all the time, so really, they're collectively responsible for lootboxes alongside us"*
*WARNING: SLIME LEVELS OVERFLOWING*
Someone call the fucking Ghostbusters, get these poltergeists out of here!
@@pauperslament3467 Aren't the higher ups in charge of paying these developers? Are you suggesting that the developers just say no and get fired, and losing their source of income?
@@pauperslament3467 Choose one:
1.) Standing up for the gamers.
2.) Food
But it's not like they have a gun to their heads, right?
@@pauperslament3467 they're only highly replaceable because the gaming industry has an inflated supply of hopefuls and would be thrown out like rotten seafood if they rocked the boat, but sure, it's not like they have a gun to their head. Sheesh.
@@AbsoluteSkycaptain Gotta love Capitalism
I know that when I watch FIFA on the TV, my favorite part is where the players go to the field side slot machines to spin them a few times and new players pop into existence to give them a hand.
Exec that treats people like 'paypigs' and 'whales': "Treat me as a human!"
Literally a bit from the show Silicon Valley
Why won't anyone think of the shareholders??
/jk
MASSIVE kudos to Eurogamer for going out of their way and being blunt as fuck in this interview. Need more of this.
I like to imagine he wasn't at all expecting an interview that aggressive. He just went in thinking "I'll give these cattle a few words about how we're 'doing what we can' then get back to our regularly scheduled extortion", then he gets fucking hammered.
No one who uses “i’m a real person too ya know” is a person deserving if sympathy, empathy, of kindness of any sort. If you are in a position of power at EA you are literally a real life comic book villain.
My response to that would probably be "Yeah, psychopaths and criminals are real people too. What's your point?" It's such a dumb deflection.
EA has its own share of problems and has done shady things in the past. But to equate this as "gambling" is as silly as buying a special edition game box with a random choice of plush toy inside, or continuously buying Magic The Gathering booster packs to get the exact cards you want, or even just spending large amounts of time in a game(since time is, essentially, money or value in one form or another) just trying to beat certain RNG systems and luck out. No one is forcing anyone to participate in it, and those that do are either expending time, money, or both to luck out. A company making money isn't evil. Pure hyperbole and, at worst, tribalism over a company that has, in too many gamers' eyes, grown too big for its britches.
I doubt YongYea is going to back off EA any time soon, but when you start calling people villains: Take a sip of water, step away from RUclips and Reddit for a moment, take a deep breath, and ask where the hate is coming from.
Deez nuts are human too
@@niarazu3883 Wow, my comment got deleted. I guess trolls are still alive and kicking. Normally I'd just dismiss you as a troll, but nowadays you're probably just that dumb.
@@CCook-wv1gk So that's a no on specific counterarguments? Either way, what reason do you have to assume disingenuousness on my part, specifically? I as soon assume that the original commenter is making their comment in good faith about EA.
Imagine being a gamer growing up. Loving games, loving computers. Taking the time, effort and money to become a developer. So excited to make games for others to play. Maybe inspire a new generation of kids to follow the same path............only to end up working for EA making copy and paste yearly releases that have a terrible reputation that pray on people with gambling addictions and a majority of the gaming community hates it.
With all that gambling mechanics experience, they can resign and work in Las Vegas.
I mean they always have the choice to leave if they dont like how EA is doing things. If it were me I'd get as far away as I could from this ticking time bomb
Ive thought about this. I'd want to end myself and wake up questioning my existence and everyone else's realizing that people who fill pot holes on the road truly have a much higher value to civilization than the compromised excuse for entertainment that is the garbage I am a part of producing. It would devalue everything I did throughout the day and night, coloring every thought and plaguing every moment of my life with an insurmountable cognitive dissonance between my actions and my values.
Well if I'm payed I don't care
Add Raid Shadow Legends and many other mobile games to that list.
Now THIS is real video game journalism!!! Getting to the meat of a problem and asking the real burning questions!!!
IGN and Kotaku, take notes.
I think Kotaku redeemed itself, especially in the Schrier era. But yeah, IGN is never gonna compromise it's access to these companies with difficult coverage
@@josueayala1249 Yep, the amount of games industry shifting articles Kotaku published is actually pretty insane. They have been really good with pushing through lies in the industry for a while now. Jason Schrier's crunch investigations come to mind the most. My personal favorite outlets are: Gameranx, Eurogamer, Outside Xbox and Kotaku
I also like Polygon sometimes but it depends on what they're reporting on
People give Kotaku a lof of shit but sometimes they do mange to write some insightful stuff without pulling punches. It just that most of the time they churn out some hot stupid takes that make Gamers rage.
The point EA kept making with the "9 out of 10 packs are opened with coins, not points" actually makes the situation more worrying. That means their insane revenue from Ultimate Team comes from a tiny portion of the player base who over spends a lot. Rather than a large portion spending a little. They're creating and praying on problem gamblers and they know it.
“We need the money to make these games…”
Aside from the licensing, which I would argue shouldn’t even be that much, considering that the FIFA games have pretty much been running off the same engine for well almost a decade, where exactly do we need the money to make sense? At this point you could just take the engine, put it for sale for like 30 bucks, and then do individual team packs, player group packs, Or yearly seasonal DLC. The only reason we still have your yearly sports games in an era where you can easily update these things online to adjust for stuff like that is because these companies are greedy as hell. Yearly sports games stopped making sense once it became possible to patch the content for consoles; the fact that it’s even still done at this stage is ridiculous. The moment you take away their profitability from this FUT scheme, that’s when they’re actually going to have to do something different.
"The only reason we still have your yearly sports games in an era where you can easily update these things online to adjust for stuff like that is because these companies are greedy as hell."
Well... the leagues and players are greedy as hell also. The pro leagues of the world could shut this shit down in a minute if they really cared about gambling mechanics aimed at children... but they don't. The pro players of the world could shut this shit down in a minute if they really cared about gambling mechanics aimed at children... but they don't either. Why? Because the leagues and players look the other way after they demand and receive cargo containers filled with cash in exchange for the exclusive rights. Let's not forget, gambling addicted children playing FIFA/Madden become gambling addicted adults watching (and placing bets on) FIFA/NFL games. Weird how nobody screams at the leagues or the players, as if EA put a gun to their heads and forced them to accept all that dirty gambling money, as if they aren't raising their asking price at every contract negotiation.
@@control_the_pet_population While I get your point and agree somewhat, it's EA that's making the call on a lot of these choices. They have the power to change the mechanics yet don't. Fifa/NFL could very easily step in and say "No", but as you pointed out, they won't do that because of the money they're bringing in. Even then, it's still EA's call whether that actually happens, and until they're forced to do so, they won't change a thing.
@@thecornettmultiverse well, I think its obvious that either side (the ones selling the rights versus the ones paying for the rights) could change this dynamic whenever they wanted...and while neither side does... one side gets 95% of vitriol. It just doesn't make sense to me. EA is a long established pile of shit.. but to paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi... What smells worse? the pile of shit or the people who willingly jump into bed with the pile shit?
@@control_the_pet_population To be equally fair, FIFA has a LOT MORE important stuff they get ragged on for on a regular basis compared to this. I mean, take a look at John Oliver's first two monologues about FIFA. It's also highly possible that FIFA can't do anything about it until a potential shift in the rights. Keep in mind, these licensing deals are usually worked out for years at a time, so even if they wanted to protest it, barring them getting sued for breach of contract, there may not be anything FIFA can do until it comes time to renegotiate the rights.
@@thecornettmultiverse Not doubting there are contractual obligations at play... but if the NFL or FIFA stood up and said "no more lootboxes! too many children are being harmed. We request that EA immediately enters into good faith renegotiating to eliminate this scourge on our children!"
EA could go tell them to fly a kite, no doubt there... but at least the tone would be set... gambling mechanics would be going away... the league looks like the good guy and EA is the villain. At the end of the day, EA doesn't really have leverage at all.. there are more video game developers then there are FIFAs or NFL.
I get it... we want to root for our favorite team or player... we want to * like * them... while nobody gives a flying shit about a video game publisher... But at the end of the day, the buck stops with the leagues and players. They don't have to allow this to happen. Just look at how fast EA reversed course when Disney put their foot down over that disastrous Star Wars Battlefront loot box nonsense.
Wow, good on Eurogamer. That interview was pretty ruthless, I'd love more gaming news outlets would be this tough on publishers.
If you ask me, it wasn't ruthless enough. EA deserves to get things blown on their face with someone that calls out harder on their executives' poor attempts at deflection. Definitely a step on the right direction but the interviewer could've done more to keep that money-craving worm from squirm away.
@@nicocchi When conducting an interview, you can't just sit there and harass the person you are interviewing, you won't get answers that way. In this interview, the interviewer is both direct but not too aggressive in order to get the best responses
What about Football Manager, that mimics real world football, where I can buy the players I want with the fake money from the game and feel a sense of pride and acomplishment with my team that cost me 0 euros in real life other than the money for the game itself? Wes should have asked this.
Regardless, fantastic work on his side, I wish for more interviews like this.
Exactly. I wish we have a football game with the licenses of FIFA, the gameplay of PES (not that rubbish eFootball) and the depth of Football Manager.
I was going to bring up Football manager having 0 microtransactions and you can build the team you want for literally no real money. Low and behold, here it is.
@@wdf70
That's also basically Fifa manager career mode as well, it's only ultimate team that has these predatory features. I myself have stopped playing ultimate team a long time ago for this reason and only play career mode (and of course in one of the older titles that's on huge discount rather than the newest one).
Football manager sells more than FIFA aswell and they are still afloat by changing engine and pushing updates to Thier player base
@@GTAVictor9128 Good for you man. I'll tell you what you haven't missed out on much by not buying the newer titles so you're good :)
“Why do you have loot boxes in FIFA in the first place?”
EA: “We want to compare it to the real world sport”
*[Speech: 0]*
Nah, more like
EA: [Speech 13/100] it's like the real sport
(Enter news site name here): [Failed] yeh yeh, what ever you say EA
At this point that speech skill has got to be in the negative numbers
You have to hear a lot of really stupid things in life before you die, but this one takes the cake.
You see, the problem is EA's execs have all built Barter instead of Speech
@@darthvaderreviews6926 dang you right, you would think I would have caught that for the hundreds of hours I have in fallout games 😆
"These are all real people and so am I... We should be treated like people too".
Pretty ironic that they want to be treated like people when they use dehumanising language such as "whales" to refer to their "customers"
They’re absolutely pure narcissists. They only abuse others’ empathy but will give none. This whole interview just was a big showcase of the mental gymnastics these execs will do in order to sidestep any criticism.
But “whales” aren’t humans either
8:58 I would've immediately pointed out that it means potentially 10 million players, 1/10th of it's player base according to him, are buying packs with cash. Remind me how much profit has Fifa generated again from lootboxes?
It infuriates me that EA used percentages to attempt to downplay the big number. Just because they say 10% of FIFA players purchase loot boxes, doesn't mean it's a small number. If 31 million people bought FIFA, then 10% is about 3 million players that have bought loot boxes to pay to win. That is not a small number EA, that is you hiding the fact that you've hooked that many humans into your greedy business practices of addiction, cheating, and greed!
Interviewer: So we've noticed you've literally copy and pasted games in both football sports the last 10 years. I mean the lack of actually effort is GLARING! And we can see you clearly are only putting money and time into your casino modes that thrive off children in your cheap scape way of being a shady ass company.
EA: It stays the same. It's our moto. We feel if we were to put what you call "effort" in to making the games better then people would expect us to do that every year could you believe that? Yet we charge them 65 dollars for the same game because FUCK YOU GIVE ME MONEY is our moto now
why should they change? serious question, why should they change anything? why should they put effort into updating the game? its obvious how ever much you and I dislike it enough people are going to throw money at them so why exactly should they bother changing?
The one and only thing that will force them to update their game is when a decent competitor comes along and steals all their whales
@@TheNzFox in which konami fails lmao
Wise lootbox words from EA 😂
@@TheNzFox that still won't do nothing my guy EA own the rights to most teams and who will be rich enough to afford the licence to buy it from ea
Also you are correct they don't need to change at all these people actually think that the once complaining about FIFA and ultimate team is the majority there sadly mistaken I can garentee that ea will lose more players by removing the pay to win stuff
I read that last line in Angry Joe’s voice
Normally, offering a choice where one option is intentionally and obviously much worse than the option to just give endless amounts of money, is called coercion.
Like the vax choice of “you don’t have to you just lose your job”
@@alumpycow6694 Yeah, except the Vax choice is "Endanger other people's lives, intentionally, and we're going to fire you.". Which is completely reasonable, unless you live in the states or Australia, where stupidity runs rampant.
@@belland_dog8235 His point is still valid though. If you have to choose between taking a vax or not taking it and losing your job and thus your way to survive in society then it's not really a choice. This said i have taken the vaccine and are pro-vax.
@@alumpycow6694 You either get vaccinated like a SMART person or get fired for being STUPID and a DANGER to society.
I remember when my coach used to make us stack loot boxes out on the pitch. Expensive and absolutely tiring but really sharpened up the playing skills.
I remember when we did that and a young George Best fell out.
Love it when my favorite team buys 100 lootboxes and opens them up to see what random human beings they have in them
As a guy with ADHD I can confirm that loot boxes are a nightmare to my pocket and patience.
The fact you made this video wearing the “sense of pride and accomplishment” shirt is really inspired
Whenever they say "Player Choice" especially if it's a single player game, journalists should ask back "Then why not include cheatcodes in the game instead?"
remember when games had those?? the good ol days.
@@shadowdragon714 truly golden times
@@Akodakun ,
How do I turn this on?
There is nothing more satisfying then seeing these big corporations get their comeuppance hand served after they've tried to get away with their monetary money schemes for so long. You gaming news channels get a lot of complaints for covering these stories but I absolutely respect you for keeping at the fight after years of Lootboxes being a reoccurring villain. Eventually even the most unaware of costumers even smell the lake being filled of crap.
And it's not just the people who watch this: we can, in turn, warn our children, nieces and nephews
Oh yeah:
Funny how I can’t remember, Manchester United having to gamble in the summer, to sign either Cristiano Ronaldo, Jaden Sancho or Raphaël Varane.
I could’ve sworn, that Clubs just had to meet the players valuations and then they got to sign the player, that they actually wanted.
But no I just imagined it didn’t I EA; Football clubs actually get their players randomly, with astronomical odds of getting any good players don’t they; NOT
Well done Eurogamer. Man to be a fly on the wall in that room, knowing they were going to ask these questions ahead of time they shoulda made Chris slightly uncomfortable like that episode of Brooklyn 99. Shorten one of the legs to his chair to make it wobbly, kick up the heat to get a sweat goin and make the table in front of him (if one is present) sticky from dried up soda. haha
Eurogamer as a whole has done such great work in the game space, between Digital Foundry and the articles on Eurogamer proper, they're a cornerstone of video game journalism
A lot of US "journalists" can learn something, mostly something called Integrity and something else called Honesty...things most US "journalists" lack completely
I wonder if Eurogamer will get blacklisted by EA over this going forward.
Jason is the other complete 3/4 if you agree with him or not. Fo sho.
@@Shipfaced I'll give Jason Schreier his dues, he does a ask some hard questions. Far from a saint but he does good work.
@@Creationeer Lol no.
“I like how we gloss over the fact that 9 out of 10 lootboxes are bought with coins”
-Local moronic executive moments after glossing over the idiotic argument he made about lootboxes emulating what it’s like to actually play football
I like how we gloss over the fact you need 100 to get a good item.
Can't you buy coins in the game? Sounds like a lot of in-game currency needed for specific items
I bet that statistic also secretly includes the free packs in the 9 of 10
The "9 out of 10 packs are paid with coins" is a trap. The 1 out of 10 feels less significant than the fact that some people are spending thousands to tens of thousands for the chance to get a few good players. It's absurd that this is possible at all in an All Ages game.
100 million players. 10% is 10 million. That's a lot of revenue
It's not gambling, so I can see why it's possible this is an all ages game, and plus kids don't have access to money without the permission of their parent/guardian, and they can't have their fully independent bank account until they're of age (18 years or older), and if you spend that much of your own money, that's on you as the adult, so I don't see a problem with it personally, just like I don't see a problem with alcohol, despite the fact that there's alcoholics, we don't ban it for everyone else, just because some dumbass motherfucker can't control themselves.
Or in other words "Our players are only gambling 10% of the time with real money, some could even be children. So how do we make more-err I mean only so many people are gambling."
"But gambling is bad, especially for children"
"You seems to be glossing over the fact that players are only gambling 10% of the time"
The fatality rates for covid is lower than this but look at what that did to our world. It's not 1 out of 10, but 1 million out of 10 million packs, or so.
Also I think some players may actually buy coins with money thereby using them for packs…
"In real world football, you can use resources to assemble the best possible squad"
Except in real life you don't put football players in loot boxes and have the team managers spend money to have a CHANCE to get this specific player in their team.
Though not gonna lie, I'd love to see that beeing how players are shuffled, I'd love to see the faces of people getting someone they really don't want XD
@@Kelthis LOL it'd be wild
What a shockingly legitimate bit of journalism... I'm actually stunned that someone got to ask these questions. Right on man. 10/10
Interviewer: "The problem with it, and the point with the loot boxes, is you're buying gameplay-affecting items. Your loot box contains players you use to play in a competitive multiplayer mode - or you can do that, right?"
Chris Bruzzo: "Just like real world football!"
Ah yes, when I buy contracts of a player to play for my team I too bought clone homunculus with only 10% of the ability of the real player while the other team manager got another clone with better stats, only because I was unlucky.
EA could just release the best cards separately for $5 each with a 100% chance of getting them instead of robbing players.
@@Hauntaku which is how "real world football" contract buying works.
And other people try to contract out the player, and you don't know who else is trying to get them or how much they're offering, so it's up in the air just like in Fifa lootboxes, I think that's what he was trying to say.
@@uraloser5553 Yeah but thing is we don't have "stats" in the real world that literally affect how individuals perform, and in FIFA stats vary between different "rarities".
In actual real life world if I bought Messi's contract and he underperform I can increase his pay or change training regiment or something else, instead of just hoping to get Messi who just perform much better from the get-go.
With lootboxes you got hardwired "weaker or stronger" version of players solely through chances, AND multiple people CAN have high rarity players. This isn't some weird shit NFT where only one person in the world able to have Gold SSR Ultra Rare unit or whatever, this is gacha game gambling mechanic where everyone have CHANCE to hit jackpot it's just gonna cost them billions because, uh oh, that 1% chance sure is big. 1% chance from how many pulls? Lol we won't tell it might be from 10 it might be from 10000 pulls find out yourselves!
@@mill_ania Okay first things first, It's not gambling, second I might've worded it incorrectly so I'll rephrase, I think he's trying to say that multiple people are bidding for the same player, just like in FIFA, and it's not a garentee you'll get it, I think that's what he was trying to say.
Would have hit him with "If the goal is to be realistic, then wouldn't you just sell the players for people to buy for their team? Like how REAL teams directly buy players? When did FIFA teams start drafting teams via lotto in the real world?"
Well that would be a hilarious concept for real life football. Imagine like Panama winning the world cup because they bought like 5 packs and had insane luck.
Imagine paying close or over $1000 to a scalper for the current gen consoles just to play FIFA, NBA and Madden
Peak shmuck.
Certified Bruh moment
Imagine paying $60 every year for the same game just with a roster update.
Dude i saw someone asking if they should buy a PS5 or get Stadia to experience True next gen games and that they want to play the new Fifa on it.
You could get an high end hooker for an hour for that kind of money.
If a fire broke out in one of the offices at EA headquarters, the executives wouldn't even bat an eye. They'd just make an announcement over the intercom like "There is no cause for alarm. Only 12% of the building is currently engulfed in flames. The remaining 88% should provide more than enough space for you to continue your shift as scheduled."
There's an actual game called Shadow of Loot Box. It parodies everything about lootboxes. It also includes Preston Garvey asking the player to help yet another settlement. It looks like Minecraft as far as graphics go.
Shadow of Loot box is amazing
I think I’d respect EA more if they just said “we’re a publicly traded company. Not only is game development expensive, but our shareholders demand profits and continued growth. This is how we do it.”
If they did this people will probably go "fair enough"
Yeah, that's fair enough tbh.
Expensive? EA probably spends less then the budget for an indie game on the years copy/paste of FIFA and other games.
Yeah, I still wouldn't. Sorry but I don't consider that an adequate excuse for selling child gambling
@@belland_dog8235 i didn’t say it’s good, just that honesty is preferable
Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow: *has harmless recreation of a slot machines, which doesn't affect gameplay and can be bypassed completely with ease*
FIFA: *has gameplay mechanics identical to slot machines that affect gameplay to the point of countering the fun factor, and even generating (or worsening) addictions on its userbase*
You can easily farm money and exchange it for "coins" to get the prizes in RBY (like Porygon); FIFA plays with FOMO, between releases, and cares not about who spends the money.
As long as lootboxes are in a FIFA game, it should be rated "+18", with an additional BIG warning on its content.
Oh, and RBY should be given FIFA's current age rating.
They had to remove the slots from the release if I’m correct been forever but I always wondered why they had to remove it and fifa is still going at it
Respect isn’t given, it’s earned. Was taught that a young age, something clearly these execs or certain people at EA don’t understand
In Pokemon Red you cannot "cash out" either and it was rated as gambling
I'm still upset over this.
"Children shouldn't be spending money in our game"
THEN WHY IS IT RATED "E" FOR "EVERYONE" OR PEGI 3
18:38 you shouldn’t need parental controls for a game rated G (for kids) the parental controls should just not let you play games over the rating you picked, if I put parental controls on Netflix it’ll let the kids watch Pokémon or YUGIOH but will not let them watch Breaking Bad.
Wait, you guys don't receive giant strange boxes in real life that have a random Item/living body inside? ooooh... uh, yeah, me neither.
You know what, I'd probably watch a sports game where teams are decided by picking random boxes with players inside.
Would make for far more interesting sportsball imo XD.
Uhhh... what? ... I better start strapping down my random boxes in my planes cargo... You said some had people in? Seems I need to have a word with my RNG supplier...
Sports would definitely be a lot more interesting of the teams were made of randomly picked players. Though considering it's still sports it would still be boring
When I was a kid we didn't have loot boxes. If you wanted a character in a game you had to be either A) really good at the game and beat challenge levels to unlock the character, or B) gain alot of ingame currency and then buy them. No where in there does it involve a credit card. FIFA has gotten so bad with lootboxes my cousin didn't realize he was spending close to $50 a day opening packs. My uncle nearly had a heart attack realizing what EA's business practices are....
"It's like real football" yes because in real life the players all arrive in a box and pop up at random and the club never knows who they'll get no matter how the money they spent. It takes some nerve to be this brazen and expect everyone to buy it.
When I saw the title, I couldn't stop my finger from launching the video. I almost died laughing at the exec's really pitiful attempts to point the finger anything else but how shady and disgusting the loot boxes are, just for him to turn around and say that, on record mind you, "children shouldn't be spending money."
I can't wait for someone to really drive that in and really weaponize it against them. It would be great to see the execs squirm and try to get themselves out of that one
Gather the firebombs and start throwing bricks at their faces with notes with that quote coming onto them.
Only 1 in 10 FUT packs are purchased with money, oh you're right, something with such a small probability shouldn't be important.
Give me just a minute, I need to go tell the 16,850 kids that got cancer last year that 1,730 (1.03 in 10) of them dying isn't enough for us to continue searching for a cure. Oh! Also I need to tell them that the 15,120 of them that will live, will probably have horrific damage to their bodies for the rest of their lives.
Thank you for the insight, Mr. Bruzzo.
I’m always looking forward to see how much deeper EA digs their grave
Sadly it doesn't really matter if they dig that grave so deep that it reaches the planet's core if nobody's willing to push the bastards into it.
@@Quintus_Fontane damn, so true
I hope to one day see it in my lifetime would be a great gift from god
Meanwhile, sports gamers keep putting dirt back in the grave while complaining.
I got a shovel and a lot of time 2 w8 🥴
If EA wants to accurately simulate real life, they could start by paying their players
Thanks for keeping this argument going Yong. I expected the same corporate answers though from EA. I think I'd have the smallest amount of respect for them if they came out and said ,"look we do this because it earns us a lot of money"
I would've been less mad and disgusted if they directly asked us;
"how can we make more money without angering everyone?"
To which I answer;
"by NOT doing what you are doing right now?"
I would've at least appreciate the honesty, still mad, but less than now.
What EA should've done: Ask people what forms of monetization are acceptable. It's obvious that EA only cares about the money, but there's a way for them to make money without their manipulation tactics. DLC and expansion packs.
@@Hauntaku but then later on, it'll give EA another reason to not finish their games even more and just adding them in later as "expansions" like how other companies are doing in their games nowadays
EA: Fifa's Loot-boxes are realistic, that's just how football clubs get their players.
Everyone with a functional brain: Elaborate on that.
EA: No.
"the other really important thing is that 78 percent of players of all FIFA 2021 players never spend anything in the game"... those free-loaders who spend 60$ on a game every year. It's just missing that last part of the sentence.
They’d say “That’s spending ON the game, not spending IN the game” lol
The only aspect of real-world football where gambling occurs is inside, for the most part, bar-rooms where fans bet on which team wins and loses and earns money based on the outcome.
The best response to “but only a small fraction of these loot boxes are bought with real money!” is to say “okay cool, if it’s no big deal then take out real-money loot boxes.”
And then laugh as their heads explode.
I would absolutely LOVE if Yong, Joe, and Act Man all interviewed the EA, Activision, and Blizzard executives and just straight blasted them with hard hitting questions like these and they were hooked up to lie detectors with actual police or federal agents to moderate.
The government needs to find some legal reason to raid their corporate HQs, confiscate every document, and interrogate every employee.
Unfortunately many of these companies are based in America, and America is the place where the rich get to decide what is right and wrong.
Lie detectors would probably beep intensely before they even started talking
Honestly the truth probably is that when the chips are down and all three of these content creators were in front of the executives they probably would be too afraid to be honest and ask the hard-hitting questions. The end of the day these content creators are business too who just want to make money
@@diligentone-six2688 which is why I think if they had a really big opportunity to be right in front of executives they'd fold and not want to risk their small income and small status. At least not yong yeh I don't see him with much of a backbone.
Wtf is this interview?! 😂 A huge facepalm on EA. This is ridiculous.
This interview should serve as evidence/proof/info to add in court!
Oh and props to Eurogamer! Good job 👏
Activision-Blizzard: Out of touch with their franchises
Mihoyo: Out of touch with their playerbase
EA: Out of touch with reality
Squeenix: Out of touch with themselves
The real life comparison of an establishment like FIFA, and EAs FIFA would be strictly financial- money gets you things. It’s very ironic that while they try to maintain a good connectivity with players, they use real life constructs that boost the disconnect between real life people. Your point on EAs monopoly on games like FIFA is a very good one, they have no competition and will continue to get away with it. Love your vids, watch them whenever I have enough time! Super relevant, great stance!
i like that "works like real football" in the thumbnail. because in real football the team managers open a box and pull out a random player for their team and if they are lucky and open enough boxes, all teams can have Messi at the same time
Exactly 0 people surprised by EA with this one
Actually, I was... for real. To the point I need to ask : when did they start to drink ?
I would not believe they are so out of reality. It goes beyond denial, and delusion... They're nuts.
@@sirjazz1268 The true denial and delusion are those playerbase that are still paying into such craps.
@@NexTJesS no doubt I’m glad I never let myself get caught in they’re bullshit I’m happy to say I never gave EA a cent
@@drgamebit6218 Neither did I-the last good EA game I played was _Spore._
this is why the "whaling" video is so good. we have a CEO telling us how to manipulate consumers
It amazes me that interviewers just don't go straight to that confessional video. I mean, EVERYTHING they deny doing is RIGHT THERE. The How, the Why: right there with science and everything
"We are people too."
If you were, you would understand the problem.
We need to somehow point EA and Take-Two towards each other with some legal shit. Have them fight in court over nothing until both monsters are dead, like in Eternal Darkness.
I find it hilarious how Bruzzo keeps saying the interviewer’s name, like he’s saying “Why can’t you just accept my cover-ups?” or “Papa’s getting angry, you’d better stop this this instant.” It really shows that he’s put himself in a corner and is desperate to get out of his situation.
“The football drafting system is to be replaced with a pachinko system for all following seasons, where players will all be dumped back into the international pool each year with the new release cycle.”
-FIFA apparently?
while it might sound interesting, coaching the team would be a nightmare i assume if we do that in real life XD
The true football experiance
I'm pretty sure when Leeds (the team I follow, don't hate me) suffered badly at the start of this season due to injuries, they didn't just go and pay for a randomised load of players off the market.
I'm pretty sure that the rules regarding the transfer market are just a wee bit different ;)
19:51 if you think “kids should not be spending in our game” then the game should be rated R18+ (or whatever the age of gambling is in your country) it should be a adult only game
EA is a corporation owned by shareholders which want profits. They aren’t going to get rid of pay to win unless there is regulation.
It’s a free market without limits.
I lament what has become of this industry, as someone who has been with gaming since the NES it breaks my heart to see how sleazy it has all become... I'm happy to see someone who's not a youtuber actually asking the tough questions, Yong can only do so much with the audience he has, and it's imperative that journalist actually do real journalism and Wesley Yin-Poole deserves credit for finally probing an executive with these questions because by doing so he's hurting his bottom line and that takes balls. I hope he continues to provide us with the journalism we deserve, cause I don't believe any statement that comes out of any publishers anymore, they have lost that privilege DECADES ago.
I just want an executive to be literally handcuffed to a chair and not allowed to leave until they give us an honest answer
They'd happily die in that chair. You want honest answers, you've gotta hit them where it actually hurts. For every second they don't give an honest answer, take a hundred thousand dollars or so from their offshore accounts, and divy that up between the developers and programers and such. They'd start talking immediately.
Maybe interrogated like in Casino Royale 🤣
I'm just imagining that meme of the skeleton sitting on the park bench saying it's been x amount of years lol
Honestly, the entire executive team should be doing life sentences.
We've seen this before, with the tobacco, asbestos, and fossil fuel industries. They all knew that their products were harmful and dangerous, but they concealed, denied, and downplayed the severity of the problem, until it couldn't be denied any longer, and then the executives just walked away scott free. Worst case scenario, the company got fined. No personal accountability.
I'm fully supportive of laws that would hold executives personally, criminally accountable for coverups of this nature. In the case of the tobacco and asbestos industries, there are countless people you can point to whose deaths were the direct result of these coverups. Those industries have blood on their hands, and the execs get to walk? That's wrong. Every tobacco industry executive who denied the severity of the problem as evidence was mounting should have been thrown in prison for the rest of their lives.
@@2020-p2z You know some folks would start saying " That's communism!"
Keep covering this, please. Your passion for the subject is needed.
I kinda wish the interviewer had examined that "one in ten players actually pay to open lootboxes" line that kept throwing out. Specifically I wish they'd ask how many people actually play FIFA, and then divide that by ten to get an actual count of people spending money on the game instead of being stuck with a deceptive fraction.
it's worse, it's not one in ten players. It's one in ten FUT packs are opened with coins. The question should be how many FUT packs are bought and opened in the span of the year?
@@shadowfury2030 Ah, thank you for the correction. Yes, that's much worse.
The "one in ten" statistic is deceptively vague. Some people both buy packs and earn them, how are they counted in that statistic considering they do both? There also isn't a designated time line for the statistic, so that statistic could mean one out of ten on a yearly average or one out of ten from a five second slice. Not to mention that they aren't even saying what the one in ten people are spending and how that affects their win/lose ratio.
@@OmegaZyion Oh, I'm aware. I think it's more than apparent by this point that slimeball executives intentionally pick misleading statistics that don't tell the whole truth specifically to make their deplorable actions look less problematic.
And even at that, I find that stat highly dubious. Yes 9 out of 10 are bought with coins.
However, he fails to mention how those players got the coins in the first place. From what I know you can buy coins with real money.
The cigarette companies would still be trying to sell them to kids if the government didn't intervene. This sadly needs to be done for the laws to catch up.
If i want a "strategic feel" to my "player purchases" I play a soccer management sim... like Football Manager, Soccer Manager, etc.
Ripping open a Trading Card, doesn't give me that feeling.
EA EXEC: Treat us like people!
GAMERS: We are! We're treating you like a person who's bullshit we're sick of!
*Surprise mechanics warrant surprise inquiries.*
You know... I gotta give props to EA for having the balls to practically walk into a gunfight with two pool noodles as weapons.
Dev: "Looks like there's another bug in the accounting transaction code. It appears a few pennies from every micro-transaction is being sent to some unknown bank account..."
CEO: "Fix that bug and find out who's taking my money!!!!"
Dev: "We found the bug, apparently the code was not charging the actual amount for points so that money essentially doesn't exist."
CEO: "YOU'RE FIRED!!!"
Dev: "Ahhhh, retirement early is so nice!"
I’m an ex-gambling addict. I did two years of counseling, some inpatient rehab, and took part in group therapy for over a year. Somehow, EA has taken classic gambling (the typical casino games) and made it WORSE. When you lose in roulette, you can say to yourself “it’s okay, I can make it back when I win.” which, while an unhealthy line of thinking, is true. You can (in theory) make up your losses. In lootboxes, however, there’s no getting that loss back. It’s paying $5 to have a computer roll a 100 sided die and you pray it lands on 15 (the player you want) Nope, it landed on 44. Try again? You can roll it fifty times, finally hit that number and walk away with that shiny new player, but you just spent $100 losing a dice roll. With casino gambling, you can potentially recoup your losses. In lootboxes, you will never get back any of what was lost.
And they use that argument to claim that loot boxes are not gambling. Yeah they're worse