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EA’s mismanagement of their microtransactions has put the publisher under the hammer in recent years. Most recently, it seems that an employee at EA has been accused of selling rare FIFA Ultimate Team cards for personal gain. This is a serious issue for EA, with the company already having a bad reputation in the gaming community for overcharging on DLC, running small studios into the ground, and the company’s push for microtransactions in its games.

FIFA 21’s Ultimate Team mode is a big moneymaker for EA, with players able to spend real-world money to try and unlock elite players and fill out their squad. Ultimate Team is quite popular, as the mode allows players to collect cards of famous real-world players and construct their own personal teams. However, as the FIFA cards can be traded and hold some monetary value to players, EA has encountered various issues around third-party sellers trying to capitalize on the card market and make a profit off of dedicated players.

Early on Wednesday morning, #EAGATE turned up in the trending section on Twitter, with various accounts on the social media platform that claimed a certain EA employee were selling FIFA 21 Ultimate Team Player mode cards for large chunks of money. According to some users on Twitter including streamer Nick28T, an Employee at EA has been directly adding the card packs to player’s PlayStation or EA accounts through their IDs. Nick28T also posted the images and some video footage of the alleged EA employee’s chat messages between them and a potential buyer, selling rare FIFA Ultimate Team cards for money. A spokesperson from EA has released a statement acknowledging the accusations, according to Kotaku the statement says that “a thorough investigation is underway, and if we identify improper conduct, we will take swift action.”

The employee is allegedly selling rare FIFA Icon and Team of the Year cards for over $1193 USD each, with some cards going for as much as $2000 USD. The screenshots of the conversations in the tweet above show that the people selling the card parks are available in two options - one that contained three Icons for 750 Euros ($893 USD) and another pack that contained three Icons and two Team of the Year players for 1,000 Euros ($1,191 USD).

The Team of the Year and FIFA Icon cards are the rarest in the FIFA franchise. Icon cards are based on classic legends from the real FIFA league and world cup, such as Lionel Messi. The Team of the Year cards were only released in January, based on the best players in the FIFA league from 2020, all of which feature boosted stats compared to their regular cards.

FIFA 21 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Stadia.