With FIFA 15 only a month away from its release date, EA has reminded the dedicated fan base that cheating will not be tolerated and the “actions [they’ll] be taking to address cheating” in FIFA Ultimate Team. EA has explained it will be cracking down on bots, coin buyers and sellers and match cheating. Players engaging in these activities could find their FIFA accounts (or EA accounts) banned permanently.
Bots that players use to farm coins and automatically make purchases are the biggest problem; they are able to “make an incredibly high number of Transfer Market searches and bids significantly higher than humanly possible”, not only creating an advantage over honest players but also push the FIFA server to the edge, causing numerous side effects like stuck transfers, lost players, missing coins and no search results on the Transfer Market. Bots aside, selling or buying coins is considered cheating and a “violation of the terms of service”.
EA has even provided a graphic breakdown of its steps for violations. For coin buyers and promoters, a first offence will be issued with an in-game and email warning, the second offence will result in FIFA point loss and a club reset, while a third will have a permanent ban on all FIFA games. Gold farmers and sellers will be hit with a hefty, instant and without warning ban across the entire EA catalogue.
As for the match cheating, all users caught using cheats to record fake matches and those using exploits to increase their Online Virtual Pros will have an immediate and permanent ban on their FIFA online account.
EA stated “from here on we’ll be more proactive in upholding our Terms of Service and banning those who violate the Terms of Service. We plan on giving you regular updates on our progress against cheaters throughout the year”.
For all the FIFA fans out there, check out the official report here.
