Screenshot: EA Sports
Some of the biggest streamers in the Madden community have announced that they will be doing a “pack strike”, creating a hashtag and refusing to spend any money on Madden 23’s Ultimate Team mode until publisher Electronic Arts makes some changes.
Both Madden and FIFA have wildly popular multiplayer game modes called Ultimate Team, which allow users to create their own teams of all-time greats. The advantage is that you have to get your players through cards, and those cards are sold blind in sealed virtual packs, and those packs are paid for with real money.
As Polygon reports, the streamers — who make up a huge part of the online community for sports games like this — have created the hashtag #packstrike and are urging all players, not just their content-creating peers, to decline a penny. to be issued to Ultimate Team until EA addresses their concerns.
Speaking on behalf of both himself and “other creators in the community,” Zirksee shared the group’s demands earlier today, saying they are calling for “better rerolls” and “better pack opportunities in general” among other things when opening games. the more expensive player packs, as well as the restoration of rewards previously offered for games (including some that were initially offered during the first week of Madden 23’s release) that have since been removed:
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As I mentioned this week, there is no amount of tweets, reviews, or comments that could cause publishers to cut back on how much money they’ve made from major sports game series by 2022. The only thing that moves the needle with these companies is money, so the only way for disgruntled players to get their point across is by withholding that money.
So it’s heartwarming to see content creators mobilizing as a means of protest! While it’s also bizarre to think that a decade where sports games have turned into shakedowns has normalized things to the extent that people “stand out” not to ditch the modes or make them completely free considering you already have $60 on the game issued. Instead, they want some of the game’s most exploitative systems to be made a little less exploitative.
It’s like asking your prison warden for softer pillows. It remains to be seen, of course, how successful this “strike” will be, but if it has any sort of impact on EA Sports, I hope it sets a precedent for fans of sports games at the very least – if they’re really sick of this constant brooding, as much as they say they are – to take some more drastic measures.