EA Sports FC 24 will arrive in 2023, with the game set to signal the start of a brand new era in the world of football gaming.
This new era represents the chance for EA to make meaningful changes, and we think Ultimate Team is a mode in desperate need of a refresh.
With EA taking things in their own direction, it's time for the developer powerhouse to shake away the shackles and begin to make meaningful changes across their major modes.
With that in mind, here's why we think promo cards and events should be removed from EA Sports FC 24.
End Promo Events in EA Sports FC Ultimate Team
For those that don't know, promo cards are upgraded versions of base items in Ultimate Team.
For example, the current Team of the Season promo event in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team takes every individual league and significantly upgrades the best players from that division.
You can have someone like Erling Haaland go from an 88 OVR on his base card, to a 97 OVR on his TOTS offering.
The same goes for lower rated players as well, with Leyton Orient goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux jumping from a 65 OVR all the way to 91 thanks to a Team of the Season boost.
Whilst there's nothing inherently wrong with these upgrades, it does create an entirely broken market place that no one wants to use.
Our pitch for EA Sports FC 24 is simple:
Remove regular promo events and instead make it possible for players to develop their own team.
Let's go into more detail...
Market Madness
We've touched on this above, but the Ultimate Team market is suffering big time in FIFA 23, and has done in the years prior.
FIFA fans often complain of the marketplace being 'dead' and this is due to an overabundance of highly-rated cards that are added into the mode on a weekly basis.
Case in point is Harry Kane's team of the season card, which is 95-rated, but is currently only selling for 150,000 coins.
In previous years, this card would have sold for at least 1 Million.
Whilst it's great that high-rated cards are becoming more attainable, it makes forming the ultimate squad less of an achievement and more of an expectation.
Instead, we think EA should strip away their weekly promo events and simply focus on Team of The Week, Team of the Year and Team of the Season.
Less Is More
These three events, one of them being weekly, solve a number of problems.
Team of the Week keeps new cards coming into the game and allows these in-form cards to feel both usable and valuable.
Team of the Year will come at the start of January and encourage people to spend heavily on packs, as people are naturally more excited when special events are more infrequent.
Team of the Season can be what it is right now, a celebration of those stars that have succeeded throughout the year, whilst also giving players the chance to try out different cards.
Having infrequent promo events will make bagging a big star feel more rewarding and it will undoubtedly get people spending heavily when they roll around, a key factor in any Ultimate Team-based decisions.
Steady Shaping
It's not a perfect concept, as it could lend to things becoming stale if you're struggling at a certain skill level.
However, EA can still release SBCs and other special content that allows you to unlock untradeable high-rated cards.
Instead of flooding the market, you would be gradually improving your own squad with players that can actually have an impact.
So many people simply complete SBCs in order to tick a box and that needs to change if EA Sports FC 24 is going have sustained success.
We all know the Ultimate Team formula needs to change, and a marker can be set down at the start of the EA Sports FC era if EA make necessary changes.
With a big year ahead, something drastic needs to be done to make sure that Ultimate Team doesn't once again become a chore, instead of feeling like a genuine dream team building exercise.