After over 15 years of playing and purchasing each FIFA game released, this year with FIFA 21, I have decided that I will no longer be bothering to buy and play the latest edition, and probably any of the future releases. There are many reasons why I haven’t bothered, from the change to next-gen console and not wanting to purchase the same game on 2 consoles, through to the rise in pay-to-win microtransactions. I will admit that I am in-part stopping playing as I am not that good at the game, and have less time on my hands now I have adult responsibilities to contend with, however it felt personally quite monumental to have not bought the latest release, considering my shelves contain every edition since 2003.

In this post I will discuss a few of the main reasons why I decided that I didn’t want to play the game, as this decision is half based on personal choices, but half based on the game itself not being as appealing as it has been before. There is no real purpose to this post, as I wouldn’t ever suggest my decision is the right thing to do, and I would love to hear from a current fan of the games to see if they could tempt me back, as I have spent hours, days and months of my life playing previous editions, and I still have an interest in the game. Ultimately however, FIFA 20 was the last stand for me, and unless I perhaps pick up a copy in the sale later down the line after purchasing a next-gen console, it will be the last I play of the FIFA game series.

No Longer Appealing

The first reason why the game has lost my interest, is that it simply is no longer appealing. Despite the move to next-generation consoles, the game has introduced little/no improvements over the past 5 years or so. None of the game-modes have, to my knowledge, undergone any major overhaul to change things up or make them more enticing to play. The game still remains focussed on Ultimate Team and Career Mode, which I will be discussing later, and then Pro Clubs, which although entertaining on the odd occasion isn’t enough to tempt me to buy a copy and play the game.

I will admit that I did like the style of advertising and the cover design of the latest issue, involving Mbappe, however again I knew that the style doesn’t translate to any change in the actual game, and consequently after looking past the cool new layout, the game remained unchanged.

I feel like an old man talking about the game in this way, as my parents often used to ask why I needed the new version as it just had updated kits and transfers, but I have really started to see this in action as the game doesn’t really have any massive improvement to entice me back in. There has been some attempts to improve the game, with the story mode being an interesting addition, however again I lost interest in the story on both attempts to play through some of it in previous editions. Meanwhile, last years’ inclusion of ‘Volta’ football really excited me again, as I was a massive fan of the original FIFA Street games, but once again it felt like a fairly dull, ‘mini-game’ attempt to reclaim that FIFA Street style. Therefore, while the last few editions have been more experimental in introducing new game modes, none have come close to the big 3, and those have remained almost identical in their format each year.

Career Mode Chaos

Moving onto the first of the 2 game-modes I wanted to discuss, and what had been my favourite mode to play for years since starting out in FIFA 04, Career Mode has been a car crash of a disaster in the last few versions of the game, and feels like an after-thought of the game creators, despite it being one of the games biggest selling points. Because Career Mode doesn’t earn them a consistent flow of money, it seems almost like EA don’t give it much thought, and last year in FIFA 20, the game was a absolute disaster.

Everything about Career Mode feels like a missed opportunity. From the unrealistic simulations to only scratching the surface of what a management simulator could be, it’s been a bit let down for some time. Particularly as I have moved over to Football Manager in the last few years, I have seen what a management simulator could be, and FIFA are way off in their output. Football Manager gives a much more in-depth and engaging game that makes you want to sink hours into perfecting and mastering, while FIFA’s Career Mode feels like it’s been so watered down from what it could be, that there is none of the detail brought by FM. Admittedly, I do understand and appreciate that the FIFA games are based on actual gameplay, however having had this game-mode for over 15 years, they could have easily developed the game to make it similar to FM or at least more in-depth and realistic. Playing through a hungover weekend of Career Mode on FIFA 20 highlighted how poor and uninteresting the game is. After switching off from Ultimate Team over recent years, losing interest in Career Mode was losing my last reason to play.

Pay To Win

The final, and most important factor in why I have not purchased, and don’t intend to purchase FIFA 21 and possibly future releases, is due to the rise in pay-to-win gameplay. Back in FIFA 11, a decade ago, I fell in love with Ultimate Team, being a young kid enjoying the new phenomenon of FIFA YouTubers who would show their ‘road to glory’ series’, highlight coin making techniques and discuss hidden gems and building unplayable squads. I fell in love with being able to create a dream team of my favourite players, and trying to play games, trade players and pick up bargains to build an unbeatable squad. Those days are long gone however, and quite frankly Ultimate Team has become a money printing machine for EA Sports, in which the only way to build a squad with any talent is to open packs. These ‘packs’ are filled with the intangible cards costing actual money, in a lottery-style format where the likeliness of receiving a half-decent player is very low. This of course leans into a wider discussion of video games, which we are seeing more and more squeezing every penny through microtransactions to get ahead of the competition. I am irritated by this so much, as I grew up loving the FIFA games, playing Ultimate Team in it’s early stages, and now as an adult, seeing parents having to spend several pounds after already purchasing a £300+ console and £60+ game, just so their child can have the chance of playing with Mbappe in their team.

This desire to squeeze money out of the wallets of young children and their parents is clear to see, as each week there is a new special edition or version of the team of the week or some Halloween nonsense, encouraging another few pound on packs from parents who are already forking out a huge amount each year on the game. Meanwhile, FIFA YouTubers will make video after video with clickbait titles claiming to have ‘packed’ all these top players, without acknowledging how much has been spent to do so, how many packs are opened with nothing, or next to nothing and it’s another waste of a few quid. From a young age, watching children spend physical money on these video game microtransactions each and every year really encourages a mentality of pay-to-win, or paying to get ahead which is being shown to link to gambling addictions later in life. As soon as these children who spend 100s on packs turn 18, this feeling of a brief Serotonin boost then could lead to major gambling issues. Of course, that’s not purely FIFA to blame, however I just think they’ve lost sight of what Ultimate Team was really about when they started it.

For me personally, losing the feeling of being able to work hard and build the best team and have success is completely gone from the game mode, which was the big selling point of FIFA for me since the 2011 edition, and knowing that after splashing out on the game, I will need at least another £100 to spend on packs and FIFA points to ever have a chance of earning a decent player means I lose any desire or determination to play the game and put in time and effort, only to lose it all in the new edition and have to start from scratch.

Overall, I think there may be a time where I return to the video game series, or at least pick up a newer edition as a time killer on the next-gen consoles, however there is little/no chance at all that I will be buying the current versions on release days or even in the first few months. The games have lost all interest to me, they give no real satisfaction or reward, and without a feeling of completion or achievement, there’s no point in playing. I would much rather stick £50 on a 100/1 accumulator than spending that money on FIFA packs, as that feels more likely and rewarding (I am not encouraging either of those actions). So, while it might sound like I’m making a big deal from nothing, or that I am just complaining because I’m old and rubbish at the game, and both those things are incredibly true, but on a personal level, the issues I have pointed out are why I have made a genuine decision to stop playing and not purchase the game.