There are plenty of EA Sports FC rumours circulating on social media, with the future of the Ultimate Team transfer market being one of them.
Later this year we'll see the first football video game from EA Sports in 30 years without the FIFA title, with EA Sports FC set to be released in its place after the publisher and FIFA put an end to their partnership in the early months of 2022. With no FIFA name on the box, EA has been tipped to make some big changes to its game in EA FC 24, with EA Sports' VP of Brand David Jackson telling Mirror Gaming that the new series will give EA a platform to meet player expectations.
As we enter the final few months of the FIFA 23 lifecycle, there is plenty of speculation regarding what to expect in EA Sports FC, with little information on EA's new game having been shared at the time of writing. We've already seen the brand-new EA Sports FC logo, whilst Nick Wlodyka, SVP & GM of EA Sports FC claimed we would learn more about the new game in July.
From women's players in Ultimate Team to Online Career Mode, we've seen a host of leaks circulating on social media ahead of EA Sports FC's release, with one major talking point being the Transfer Market in the Ultimate Team game mode. EA has come under fire in recent years for its use of loot boxes in FUT, so could we see EA make one of the biggest changes in FUT history to walk away from the heat?
Should it stay or should it go – the future of EA Sports FC Ultimate Team's Transfer Market
Here are three ways EA could potentially change the Transfer Market in EA Sports FC to make the game better.
1: The return of trade offers – but with a twist
A Transfer Market feature that was used and adored by many was Trade Offers, where players could exchange one or multiple players for another player on the Transfer Market rather than just using coins. When you made your offer, the Items, and coins if you also used them, would be removed from your account until the offer was accepted or declined.
A fantastic feature, but sadly, EA removed this in FIFA 15 due to coin sellers using Trade Offers to exchange high-value items in a trade for a non-rare bronze item. Trade Offers were also flawed when hackers were able to gain access to other players' accounts, meaning they could transfer players from the account they were into their own FUT account with ease.
EA could easily bring back Trade Offers in EA Sports FC, but with some changes of course. EA could introduce a new, separate Transfer Market where players can make trade offers, but only using untradable player items. This would remove the coin element from the transaction because you are trading cards with no coin value.
This would be a great way for players to use duplicate items rather than just quick-selling, and towards the end of the game when players may possess multiple versions of the same player, they could trade the versions they don't use for a player who could fit in their side.
2: Average prices – making sure you don't lose out or get ripped off
I'm sure many players have at one point or another bought or sold a player for way more or less than they should've on the Transfer Market. If you want to find the correct price in-game, you need to search pages and pages of the Transfer Market to try and find the average price, or you'll be hopelessly trying to snipe a player for cheap if you don't know their value.
A new feature that EA could add to help players in buying and selling is an average price calculator. For example, the calculator could work out the average price of the last 30 sales of the player to tell you the average price he is being sold for on the market.
It could even offer warning messages to players who are about to list/buy players for way over/under their average price, to make sure you aren't losing out on valuable coins. Third-party apps like FUTBIN and FUTWIZ already offer something similar with a live lowest-price calculator for every FUT player, and with these all successful on their respective websites, it seems to be a feature that could only work in EA's favour.
3: No Transfer Market at all?
There have been rumours circulating that EA could remove the Transfer Market for good in EA Sports FC, which would be the most drastic change we've ever seen in Ultimate Team history. With pressure on EA regarding loot boxes, removal of the Transfer Market would make all items in FUT packs untradeable, so it wouldn't matter if the players you packed were worth 1,000 coins or 1,000,000 coins.
In the last few FIFA titles, more and more of the rewards on offer are untradeable, with Objective rewards, SBC rewards and other types of rewards untradeable 90% of the time. The majority of promo packs available in the FUT Store in FIFA 23 are also untradeable, meaning you could spend 500,000 coins on a pack and get none of that back in coin value.
This could prove to be a soft launch of life with only untradeable items in Ultimate Team, with not many players kicking up a fuss about these changes. And, with no coin value in any Packs, it would take a lot of heat away from EA regarding gambling in their game.
No Transfer Market wouldn't change the fact that EA Sports FC would still be a pay-to-win game, because the more Packs you buy with FIFA Points, the higher chance you will have in earning higher-rated players. But, EA may need to adjust the pack weight if they were to remove the Transfer Market, otherwise, it would become very difficult for players to earn certain FUT cards if they can't purchase them.
What do you think should happen with the Transfer Market in FIFA 23? Let us know in the comments below!
