The price tag on the cover of most sports video games is only the beginning of what players are being asked to pay.
The genre is teeming with microtransactions, in-game purchases that tantalize those who want to be competitive during online matches in the most popular and robust game modes. Rare “cards” of the most coveted players are hidden in packs acquired using in-game currency, which can be slowly earned by playing or bought with real-world money.
A soccer fan who wants to build a competitive squad in FC 24’s Ultimate Team mode — or who simply hopes to have Kylian Mbappé or Lionel Messi as a captain — has to either spend a lot of money on card packs or grind out virtual currency over hundreds of hours of gameplay. It is the same story in NBA 2K24, whose MyTEAM mode requires players to shell out for card packs to build a team with the likes of Kevin Durant or Luka Doncic.
The exhortations to spend can feel like being in a casino. Upon starting NBA 2K24, players are immediately overwhelmed with opportunities to buy new items and limited-edition packs. Opening them is designed to be compelling aesthetically: Rather than simply revealing their contents, the packs explode and scatter, accompanied by intricate animations and sound effects meant to dazzle.
“The game is constantly presenting you with, say, a special LeBron James card, and you can only get him for one week, he’s only available in such-and-such a pack, and the chances of you getting him are absolutely astronomical,” said Jordan Middler, a critic for Video Games Chronicle. “They allow you to not spend money just to say that they can. But it’s completely unavoidable.”
Virtual trading cards are incredibly lucrative for the publishers 2K and Electronic Arts, which uses them in the soccer game FC (formerly known as FIFA), the N.F.L. game Madden and the resurrected College Football.
Take-Two Interactive — the parent company of 2K and Rockstar Games, which makes Grand Theft Auto — said in financial statements that microtransactions made up 79 percent of its revenue last fiscal year, about $4.2 billion. NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K24 were among the largest contributors. Over the same time frame, microtransactions accounted for 73 percent, or $5.6 billion, of revenue for Electronic Arts, which also publishes The Sims and Apex Legends.
A representative from 2K declined to comment. Electronic Arts said that microtransactions were optional and helped pay for the content updates that audiences now expect regularly.
“We no longer just ship discs and walk away from them when they’re done,” said Kerry Hopkins, the senior vice president for global affairs at Electronic Arts. “The expectation for most of our games is for us to keep delivering live and dynamic content and to continually evolve and deliver even more value for our players.”
With so much money at stake, companies often prioritize the parts of their games that use microtransactions. That incentive is a significant shift from sports games of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the emphasis was on improving gameplay and graphics to produce the most realistic simulations possible. Titles like NBA 2K1 and Madden 2003 remain among the most acclaimed ever made.
Now games in those very same franchises, which have no direct competition because of exclusive or expensive licenses, get middling reviews. “NBA 2K24 wants you to open up your wallet, and punishes you if you don’t,” one critic wrote for IGN, calling the game’s microtransactions “heinous.”
NBA 2K24 features two kinds of in-game currency: VC (virtual currency) and MTP (MyTEAM points), both of which can be purchased. For $4.99 a player can buy 21,000 MTP or 15,000 VC; discounts to encourage bigger purchases can produce 1,000,000 MTP or 700,000 VC for $149.99. If this sounds convoluted, it is seemingly by design. The opaque process makes it harder for players to track how much they are spending.
Entry-level card packs, which cost the equivalent of about $1, include bench warmers like Dennis Smith Jr., Jordan Nwora and Malachi Flynn. Limited-edition packs run as much as $50, and advertise “a high chance” of including N.B.A. legends like Hakeem Olajuwon or Allen Iverson. The game occasionally promotes special offers to buy high-end player cards outright; a highly rated Victor Wembanyama, last season’s unanimous rookie of the year, cost about $20.
Microtransactions have been part of video games for at least two decades, enabling players to buy real estate in Second Life and horse armor in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Cosmetic upgrades like weapon skins and character outfits are pervasive in almost all genres, bankrolling games like League of Legends, Overwatch and Genshin Impact.
But sports games go beyond selling jerseys and sneakers.
Since Ultimate Team, the elaborate fantasy management mode in which players can construct their dream squad by collecting and trading digital sports cards, was introduced in FIFA 09, it has become by far the most popular way of playing games like FC and Madden, supplanting the modes that allow you to play using the complete rosters of real-life teams.
Other sports franchises have replicated the model, a kind of lottery system based around “loot boxes,” which have faced legislative challenges in some countries. Belgium banned loot boxes after a case involving FIFA 18, while the highest court in the Netherlands ruled that FIFA’s loot boxes were not gambling.
Developers are often mindful of the stigma around microtransactions, tweaking levers in their economies when player complaints grow loud enough. Electronic Arts emphasizes that players are not obligated to spend money to participate in Ultimate Team. It is possible to play entirely with virtual currency that is earned through in-game challenges.
“When players spend $70 on one of our games, we want to make sure that they have a full and complete experience regardless of their choice to spend further in the game,” Hopkins said, adding, “Spending is always a choice.”
Critics, however, insist that it is almost impossible to play Ultimate Team without spending on card packs or feeling completely left out. The online multiplayer mode heavily favors teams stacked with premium talent; without the kinds of ultrarare cards that unlock these players, standard teams simply cannot be competitive.
IGN’s review of FC 24 argued that Ultimate Team “always feels inherently unfair because people who are willing to spend real money on microtransactions to get packs will have a much better squad in a shorter amount of time.”
To encourage players to spend money, Electronic Arts and 2K have made the experience of virtually opening card packs as appealing as possible. A tiny dopamine rush triggers a desire to buy even more.
Jamie Madigan, a psychologist who specializes in video games, said these systems operated on the same principle of random rewards as slot machines. The anticipation is more important than the reward itself.
“There’s been research,” Madigan said, “to show that the exciting part isn’t finding out what’s in the box, but before you open the box — seeing the little effects pop up, hearing the sounds, watching the opening animations.”
By embellishing and amplifying these elements, sports games are making the act of buying card packs irresistible, which is of particular concern to groups worried about the well-being of children. (Madden, FC and NBA 2K are all rated E, for Everyone, in the United States.)
“The game is not Loot Box 3000,” Madigan said. “It’s FIFA. They’re there to play virtual sports, not to open loot boxes — that’s not the advertised experience.”
Celia Hoden, the founder of the group Ethical Games, said loot boxes are especially problematic for children because the part of their brain that helps regulate compulsions has not fully matured.
“It’s really hard for kids to refrain from trying to get the thing that they want to get,” Hoden said. “If you have mechanics like these in games for kids, it’s clearly unethical.”
Hopkins, the senior vice president at Electronic Arts, said games like FC were tapping into a longtime tradition of sports collectibles, such as baseball cards or Panini stickers. She added that collecting cards in these games was a more sophisticated system than merely hitting a button to receive a random reward.
“It’s more than collecting; there’s strategy, skill and chemistry to consider when building a successful team,” she said, referring to a system of complex player attributes.
The large audiences for sports games suggest that many players do enjoy the process of managing their card collections and building a successful team. When the next Madden or NBA 2K is released this year, millions of players will buy the new title, leaving all of their past player cards behind.
Enjoyed NBA 2K24 and want to pick up NBA 2K25 this fall? You’ll be starting from scratch.
“All of your players are basically made irrelevant, because although you can still play the game, everyone moves on to the new one, and all your money’s gone,” Middler said. “You could have spent thousands, and it’s done.”
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