FIFA 22 players accuse EA of manipulating the market
The FIFA 22 Ultimate Team market has been unusually dead ever since the game launched, and players have now accused EA themselves of manipulating the market to alter the prices of meta players.
Ever since FIFA 22 launched on October 1, 2021, fans have noticed that the Ultimate Team market has been oddly slow.
From day one, even some of the game’s top-rated players have been selling for a fraction of what they would have demanded in past years.
Now, after a sudden surge in the market, fans have claimed that EA are manipulating the market to make meta players more expensive.
Reddit user CernMagic started the discussion in a post that claimed the publisher tampered with the FUT market, in a tactic they described as “grimy.”
According to the player, in a matter of minutes meta cards like Mbappe, Kante, and Neymar “magically” rose in price by over 100,000 coins in some cases.
While high-end cards like these did start the year with high values compared to the rest of the lackluster market, their Buy It Now price has been slowly falling in recent weeks.
Others also responded by questioning the dramatic shift in the market. “Messi was down to 430,000 and back up to 550,000 in an hour – no way it isn’t market manipulation,” said one player.
Some accused EA of tampering with the market because they have a big SBC planned, such as the rumored Flashback Mbappe, and want to make it more appealing to players.
From the FUTBIN screenshot below, by looking at the blue line we can see that the price of Mbappe’s normal gold card shot up rapidly on PlayStation between 8 AM and 10 AM on November 8.
One player even accused the publisher of “milking” its players, and urged fellow fans not to be “naive in thinking EA are good company.”
While plenty pointed the finger at FIFA 22’s publisher, some fans argued that this may instead be the work of trader groups who occasionally buy dozens of cards at once to make a quick profit.
The fact that the prices seemed to spike “like clockwork” and only on the PlayStation market has led many players to feel like this may be the case.
- Read more: FIFA 22 Rulebreakers: Team 2 & FUT upgrades
EA haven’t addressed the controversy as of yet, so it remains to be seen if devs will offer fans an explanation for this sudden market switch. As always, stay tuned on Charlie INTEL for future updates.
For more on FIFA 22, check out our predictions for the latest Team of the Week, as well as everything we know about this year’s ICON Swaps.
Image credits: EA / FUTBIN