Ultimate Team history and monetization

Ultimate Team began as a paid downloadable expansion for FIFA 09 on 19 March 2009: collect bronze, silver and gold player cards, manage chemistry, trade on a market and compete online — a structure recognisably intact today. Built into every release from FIFA 10 onward, it became the series' live-service centre, funded by coins earned in play and by FIFA Points (now FC Points) bought with real money and spent on packs with randomised contents. That model has been both commercially central for EA and persistently contested: Belgium treated paid loot boxes as gambling in 2018 and EA removed paid packs there, a Dutch fine was later overturned on appeal, Austria's Supreme Court ruled FUT packs are not gambling, and EA has defended packs publicly as optional 'surprise mechanics.' The fair summary is that packs are optional, odds are now disclosed in-game, and regulators still differ by country.