EA apologized for an ad published in a British children's magaz
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EA apologized for an ad published in a British children's magazine for promoting "FIFA21" microtransactions and said that it appears "where it shouldn't be" and will review all future releases.
Netizens previously discovered that the ad for the "FIFA 21" Ultimate Team appeared in Smyths toy magazine, and the second step explicitly mentioned the use of FIFA Points to open the package. Since many countries in Europe compare the mechanism for opening random boxes with games of chance, the marketing for children has caused particularly sharp criticism and resistance from fans.
Note the ads in children's magazines Step 2
Related article: Embarrassing: FIFA 21 Targets Children With Loot Boxes
A Reddit user wrote:
I think this is extremely wrong, because not only does it appear in a children's magazine, but they say you should play the game by buying points and opening packages.
FIFA professional player Tim "Tim Latka" Schwartmann announced that he will not buy FIFA coins in FIFA 21.
In a statement to foreign media Eurogamer said that they have conducted an immediate review of all future media releases and admitted that the "FIFA 21" krypton advertisement should not have been published in children's toy magazines.
After EA reported and followed up on the matter, they issued a statement to Eurogamer that they would review all future media releases and apologized for the ads in the magazine. EA said:
We take our responsibility to promote EA games and experiences on the children's channel very seriously, but we are still aware that FIFA scoreboards appear where they should not. We have worked hard to work with Smyths to ensure that this ad does not appear in any of the remaining 2020 paper catalogs. We have also immediately reviewed all future media releases and worked hard to ensure that each of our marketing efforts better reflects our responsibility for the experience of young players.
EA has been repeatedly subjected to a sea of criticism due to microtransaction issues. Like the unboxing mechanism in "Star Wars: Battlefront 2". Finally, ESRB stepped in and stated that the game had to indicate when microtransactions appeared on the game label.