There has been much talk in the FIFA 23 Ultimate Team community recently about certain cards feeling worse in-game currently than when they first unlocked them.
This led some FUT fans to believe EA had nerfed cards without announcing it or that there was some kind of in-built obsolescence within cards.
That situation was not helped when some FUT Centurions items had their attributes altered without warning, and the same thing has now happened again!
The Story So Far...
Angel Di Maria's Team of the Tournament SBC card in FIFA 23 Ultimate Team was a topic of hot discussion, with those who completed him at the time saying since his SBC expired he just hasn't felt the same in-game.
None of his attributes had been changed when looking at his card, so despite many feeling a nerf had occurred, the claims of some kind of in-built obsolescence or underhand changes from EA could be brushed aside as theories.
However, the situation was not helped by the release of FUT Centurions Team 2 in FIFA 23, when some truly incredible cards were unleashed, including fan favourite Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Team 1 hadn't been a smooth release, with many card images showing lower ratings than what player attributes actually were.
The Team 2 drop was a disaster, with loads of players having their attributes downgraded after already being released!
These weren't just small adjustments to attributes either, as you can see from the changes that were given to Ibrahimovic's card:
- 85 Agility → 76 Agility
- 82 Balance → 58 Balance
- 85 Stamina → 61 Stamina
- 95 Heading → 89 Heading
It wasn't just the fact that these changes had been made without warning that outraged the community, but also that many had lost out on hundreds of thousands worth of coins on transfers from incorrect items.
No compensation was issued, but through their FIFA Direct Communication Twitter account, EA announced they had addressed the issue, with players reporting the attributes had been returned to as they initially were.
Unlike the release of Team 1, where EA said it was just a visual issue and the in-game performance of cards was not impacted, they did not say the same for the Team 2 error, which suggests that in-game performance was effect - even if not specifically stated by the company.
Altered Attributes
That should be the end of the story, however, it seems an error is always just around the corner when it comes to FIFA 23 Ultimate Team!
Thanks to some investigative work from the FUT community, it was found that more cards had had their attributes changed at some point since release, with Franck Ribery and Edin Dzeko's Rulebreakers versions both affected.
A couple of hours after Donk had spread the news to the wider FUT community, another message had to be delivered from the FIFA Direct Communication account.
It announced that four players had their attributes lowered unintentionally during a recent Price Range update.
The impacted players were:
- Rulebreakers Franck Ribery
- Rulebreakers Edin Dzeko
- Road to the Knockouts Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
- Winter Wildcards Gabriel Jesus
Once again, the attributes were returned to their correct values from the initial release.
The Trust is Broken
Despite the attribute issues being resolved there is a bitter feeling within the FUT community.
FIFA fans have to put up with a lot of errors - and not just in FIFA 23, but in previous titles too - which is unacceptable, especially for one of the biggest games around!
This is just the latest error in the series, but it may also be the most impactful.
Word was already spreading that people thought EA may be nerfing cards in an underhanded way and then the exact worry that could have been seen as a conspiracy theory happened!
We have to trust that only four players were affected by the Price Range update as EA stated, yet that trust has been broken - not just with this error but through previous ones too.
If the community discovers that more FUT players have had their attributes changed since their initial release EA will have real trouble on its hands.