When it comes to the business side of gaming, there are certain desires that can’t be overlooked, not the least of which is the fact that most companies prefer to make the most amount of profit possible for their titles no matter what. They’ll still try to be fair to the consumer, but they know that many gamers will go and buy something at a high price if they know the product is quality. This goes double for sports games, because the teams behind them know how dedicated those fans are. But in that act, karma is created, and for Electronic Arts, it came back to bite them with FIFA 23 in India.
Sadly, this act of Karma wasn’t worldwide, but you have to take what you can get. The situation is thus: gamers in India got to buy FIFA 23 for 5 Indian Rupees. We don’t expect you to know the translation rates for foreign currency, so we’ll just tell you that this means they were able to buy the game for a mere six cents. Yes, really, they got this full game for just six cents. That’s not just highway robbery, but basically giving the thing away for free. This was obviously awesome for all the people in India who got to snag the game for this low, low cost.
As you’re all likely predicting, Electronic Arts had something to say about this. But whether it was going to be a good something or a bad something was up for debate given the history of EA. Thankfully for those gamers, the outcome was very positive, as a statement on the Epic Games Store made the following declaration from the EA FIFA Sports Team.
“A few weeks back, we scored a pretty spectacular own-goal when we inadvertently offered FIFA 23 pre-purchase on the Epic Games Store at an incorrect price,” they noted. “It was our mistake, and we wanted to let you know that we’ll be honoring all pre-purchases made at that price.”
Yep, it’s true, they’re actually going to let the gamers who bought it for six cents go and keep it for that price. This is a stark change from what others have done in the past, such as last year when NEO The World Ends With You was accidentally released a week early and fans had their copies revoked and basically had to buy the game all over again. For EA to take the high road here is honestly very surprising.
Then again, given that the game is ripe with microtransactions, maybe it was the right call.
Source: Twitter
