In recent years, an increasing number of stories have surfaced of players spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on loot boxes, not just in EA games but in other titles as well. The fact that a number of people consider it less expensive to spend $1000-2500 to purchase FC 25 Coins card packs under the table through this EA employee speaks volumes about their faith in the likelihood of obtaining these items legitimately.

The ongoing controversy surrounding what FIFA fans are calling "EA Gate" continues to grow. EA has now responded to accusations that official accounts were being used to sell rare, high-value FIFA Ultimate Team items for thousands of dollars. As its investigation begins, EA has also made an immediate decision to suspend the practice of rewarding discretionary items indefinitely. That's unlikely to sate frustrations within the FIFA community, but it's a start.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of discretionary content granting for FIFA by EA, the publisher provided a brief synopsis. Basically, it's a way for EA to give FIFA Ultimate Team content to people automatically, bypassing the RNG elements of FIFA packs. These items are granted via EA employees or partners and cannot be traded. EA says they're only given to professional football players, celebrity partners, and employees, and absolutely not to "professional video game influencers."

Alternatively, EA says that discretionary items can be given by customer service agents to players who may have accidentally deleted items, or given by testing and quality verification users via test accounts when issues arrive. Obviously, these scenarios have very strict restrictions on them.

EA is clearly trying to head off the idea that it's been using these FIFA Ultimate Team discretionary items without restraint. It's easy to understand why buy EA FC 25 Coins Ultimate Team players would be worried that the YouTubers and Twitch streamers they follow are being manipulative and aren't relying on the same systems they are. Further, they worried that EA could be manipulating the FIFA Ultimate Team market with these discretionary items.