Nobody likes the thought of a pay-to-play game; such a structure creates systemic inequalities that can hurt and frustrate large majorities of the community. Unfortunately, EA seems to be connected to another pay-to-play controversy, although not as direct as Star Wars: Battlefront 2. The newly awakened controversy has to do with FC 24 Coins. the latest installation in EA's long line of FIFA games.

Fans have come forward claiming to have discovered EA employees who offered to sell them Icon cards and Team of the Year cards for exorbitant amounts of money, upwards of a thousand dollars. These weren't just any cards either -- fans allege that these employees were selling the rarest and strongest cards in FIFA Ultimate Team, bypassing the game's intended random loot drops. EA says it's investigating the issue, newly dubbed EA Gate by fans, but it's only getting more complicated.

For those who don't know, FIFA Ultimate Team is a gamemode that has been part of the FIFA franchise for some time now. Players try to collect cards representing famous players from throughout soccer history and use them to build their own soccer teams to pit against each other. Players get these cards out of lootboxes, which can be earned in game or bought directly. The FIFA loot drops have gotten EA in some hot water already, landing it in a legal debacle over the definition of gambling in European courts.

Regardless, loot remains a crucial element of Ultimate Team. Random chance is meant to level the playing cheap FC Coins field a little, even if people invest lots of money into buying extra lootboxes. That's what makes these new allegations so grim if they're true. If certain wealthy Ultimate Team players happen to connect with certain EA insiders, apparently they can bypass the loot system to buy whatever players they want.