Online games have checks in place to ban players using cheats, hacks or toxic language. However, EA Sports has taken it a step further by banning a FIFA 19 Pro player for criticizing the game.
Kurt Fenech is the FIFA 19 pro player banned for launching “personal attacks”. According to Fenech, he received a 2-month ban which pretty much ruins his entire season.
However, he added that even if they banned him for a week, he would never play another game. He noted that the reason for banning him is his opinion about the state of EA and its games.
He noted that it’s his right to voice his opinion even if it means upsetting other players. According to FIFA 19 pro players, the game is in an unacceptable state and EA did nothing to improve it.
He further added that his time with competitive FIFA is over. Fenech will seek legal advice and will go on from there.
This certainly doesn’t look well for EA. The company is already on the bad side of the majority of gamers for its business practices. Micro-transactions are perhaps the one thing EA is notorious for.
This will only add to the list of problems EA is already facing. EA is currently under criminal investigation in Belgium following the company refused to comply with Belgium’s gambling law. The law states that loot boxes are gambling and should not exist in games.
EA refused to comply with the law despite 2K and Activision Blizzard complying with it. Following that a 15 country joint investigation against video game gambling is currently underway.
Surprisingly Ireland has noted that loot boxes are not gambling. According to the minister of state at the Department of Justice, the department “does not have a role to regulate game developers on how their games work nor, in the offering of in-game purchases”.
FIFA is a soccer simulator developed by EA Sports. The is available for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
