EA and FIFA 23 are in the news again, not for a good thing. An Austrian court rules that loot boxes in the form of sober FUT are illegal bets and orders PlayStation that refunds some on PS4 and PS5.
The FIFA franchise by Electronic Arts comes months with multiple investigations in Europe, but the last of them -unlike that of the Dutch Supreme Court- has condenado a Sony PlayStation.
As we read thanks to GameIndustry.biz, the German website Gamesmarkt has reported that the company is not appealing this sentence; so now this has a cost on the company.
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This dispute between FIFA players on PlayStation y Sony Interactive Entertainment Network Europe it has paid off now, since then the ability to sell player cards on a secondary market qualifies them as illegal gambling.
And while the exact details surrounding the case itself have not been made public, Gamesmarkt reports that it is now Sony has to return the plaintiff of the 2022 case a total of 336.26 euros.
This may not sound like a huge thing, but They are only the initial costs. The Padronus law firm says it has “several hundred” more clients in line and now that the first case has been decided and there is a precedent, they can also get their money back.
The world logo of the game is now on the cover for bad…
And now you will ask yourself,why is Sony the one that has to do it and not Electronic Arts? They are not your developers. And it is because the transactions in this particular case were made in the PS Store, therefore PlayStation is responsible for it.
Given the court ruling, one would think it would be easy to apply the same rules to sales of the game – and its FIFA Ultimate Team Packs– on any other platform it’s available on, from Xbox to PC and Steam Deck.
The official Padronus website specifies that there are games that also serve as an example, be they Counter-Strike, Fortnite and Call of Duty, to which the same demands could be applied.
For the moment, no representative of both Sony and Electronic Arts has answered Gi.biz’s questions, but FIFA Ultimate Team is without a doubt one of the most popular online modes.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia increases its investment in Electronic Arts by 55% and the sports festival is on Steam, although the game recently crashed on PS5 due to a curious bug.
And with this the new ruling against loot boxes will force PlayStation to return the money for some FIFA FUT packs.
