EA making gains

Electronic Arts (EA) is continuing to cash in on its golden child FIFA while its customers complain of the increasing number of glitches in the game. Not only that, but a YouTuber has now suggested that the next edition of the soccer game has so many bugs that it is essentially “broken.” 

The games developer announced its results for Q1 of the 2023 fiscal year on Tuesday. Perhaps most notably, EA announced that FIFA Online and FIFA Mobile both delivered record quarters, while FIFA Ultimate Team – the developer’s cash cow – grew 40% year-on-year in weekly and daily average players.

driving net income up 52% to $311m

The company saw revenue of $1.77bn for the period, up 14% and well over its $1.3bn expectation. While the firm’s popular Apex Legends game clearly also generated profit for the quarter, FIFA gathered more than 150 million accounts in Q1 to equal 600 million total, driving net income up 52% to $311m.

While the company’s profits increase, however, its customer satisfaction levels appear to be hitting an all-time low.

FIFA 23 “broken”

Just prior to EA publishing these mind-blowing numbers, US-based YouTuber Jake Barford took to Twitter with claims regarding FIFA 23. He said that the game’s next edition is set to be even worse than its predecessors in terms of glitches, describing it as essentially “broken:”

The FIFA YouTuber claims that he spent the last two years working with EA on its Design Council for the 2023 edition of the game. There, he says, he learned that “the basic foundational code of the game is too old and has been built on top of for too long to be fixed.” This means that the developer can not make the changes that everyone wants.

the 2024 edition of the game will go by the name EA Sports FC

Due for release in October, FIFA 23 will be the last game bearing its world-famous title. In May 2022, EA announced that it had split with soccer governing body FIFA after failing to reach an agreement over licensing. Instead, the 2024 edition of the game will go by the name ‘EA Sports FC.’

While Barford’s revelations might disappoint gamers across the world, he has suggested that the 2024 changes could benefit the user. “EA have always been tied down with FIFA, as they control a lot of what EA can and can’t do with the game,” he explained. “Once EA loses the FIFA license, EA will have the choice to make some massive decisions that would really change the game.”

Long-running issues

If Barford’s claims about FIFA’s negative impact on the soccer game are true, then the change really can’t come soon enough for its users. FIFA gamers have complained about glitches for years, with the 2022 edition of the game particularly criticized across social media and YouTube.

penalties given for fouls outside the box

Glitches routinely associated with FIFA 22 include inexplicably bad goalkeeping, penalties given for fouls outside the box, and AI scoring ridiculous own goals. In April, one Twitter user called Kennedy even shared a video of two supporters who had somehow found their way onto the pitch:

Another grievance held by some FIFA gamers is the abundance of promotions in its Ultimate Team feature. After the announcement of EA’s profits for Q1, YouTuber Fuzzball40 released a video highlighting this issue. He noted the provider’s 20% increase in live service net bookings – which includes FIFA Point purchases – to $5.45bn.

Fuzzball40 linked this increase to a “ridiculous” number of promos. “I believe we only had a total of three weeks on the game cycle this year without a promo, such as a special card,” he explained. “That encourages people to spend a lot of money on FIFA points to engage and the figures show that.”