FIFA’s Free of ‘Dynamic Difficulty’ Case; Lawsuit Dropped by Plaintiffs

In November 2020, Electronic Arts faced a class-action lawsuit that blamed the company for altering the FIFA Ultimate Team’s difficulty. The giant company was accused of making strong teams underperform, which would force enthusiasts to buy loot boxes to win.

A group of three Californians sued EA for using a technology called ‘Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment.’ According to plaintiffs, EA modified players’ stats behind the scenes using this AI technology, making them weaker than their listed abilities. 

This would make players want to invest in players that make gameplay relatively easy. So basically easy bucks for EA!

“This is a self-perpetuating cycle that benefits EA to the detriment of EA Sports gamers, since Difficulty Adjusting Mechanisms make gamers believe their teams are less skilled than they actually are, leading them to purchase additional Player Packs in hopes of receiving better players and being more competitive.”

Lawsuit

EA revealed that they don’t indulge in such unfair means, and apparently, it seems they did not! Next time you lose, blame your controller or something.

EA has announced that the lawsuit against Dynamic difficulty or scripting has now been withdrawn. After getting “detailed technical information and access to speak with our engineers”, the company said that the plaintiffs dropped their claim.

“While EA does own a patent for DDA technology, that technology never was in FIFA, Madden or NHL, and never will be,”  

Electronic Arts

“We would not use DDA technology to give players an advantage or disadvantage in online multiplayer modes in any of our games and we absolutely do not have it in FIFA, Madden or NHL.”,

Electronic Arts

If you want to dive deeper into the patent that EA holds on Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment, click here. Here, EA discusses their goal of “maximising a player’s engagement throughout the entire game.” and clarifies their stand on the difficulty adjustment model.

About FIFA 21

FIFA 21 is a football simulation video game, developed and published by Electronic Arts on October 9th, 2020

Featuring more than 30 official leagues, over 700 clubs, and over 17,000 players, the game offers various game modes such as VOLTA Football, Ultimate Team, House Rules, as well as a Career Mode. Despite that, the game remains largely unchanged from the previous two entries.

FIFA 21 is available on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with an enhanced version for Xbox Series S/X and PlayStation 5 coming soon.