EA Sports FC 24 Players Say $30 Launch Week Loot Box Highlights Everything Wrong With Ultimate Team

ign.com:

Ultimate Team is EA’s controversial cash cow that brings in hundreds of millions of dollars to the publisher’s coffers every year. While FIFA players are well used to EA Sports adding expensive and powerful card packs later in the year-long life of the annualised football game, with the launch of FC 24, the community has reacted in shock to a $30 pack available to buy before the game even properly launched.

The Elite Season Opener Pack, currently available in the store, cost 285,000 Ultimate Team coins (the in-game currency), or 3,000 FC Points (the premium currency). 3,000 FC Points costs around $30. In true video game monetisation fashion, FC 24 does not let you buy 3,000 FC Points exactly in one bundle.

This Elite Season Opener Pack is so powerful it's causing some players to call FC 24 pay-to-win right out of the gate. It contains:

It’s worth pointing out the cards included in this pack are untradeable, which means owners can’t sell them on the FC 24 transfer market. Still, it’s a pack that theoretically provides the buyer with a powerful squad at the launch of FC 24, which we should remember is a $70 video game on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S (and $60 on Nintendo Switch).

And here are the probabilities, as of the morning of October 1:

Why is the Elite Season Opener Pack causing such a stir? Not only is it one of the most expensive store packs in the history of Ultimate Team, it was available before FC 24’s official release date. FIFA fans can’t remember EA Sports dropping a pack this expensive this early... ever.

And even though this pack offers buyers a better chance of getting one of the best cards currently in Ultimate Team, the odds are that you will not. It may well be the case that you get 45 players