Electronic Arts (EA) started its inquiry on employee accounts allegedly caught selling FIFA 21 icons. In the #EAGate scandal, EA found possibly erring accounts.

EA IDENTIFIES ‘CONTENT GRANTING' EMPLOYEE ACCOUNTS THAT SELL FIFA 21 CARDS

In their latest Pitch Notes update on their inquiry, EA explained what ‘content granting' is. There are employee accounts that can send FIFA Ultimate Team 21 (FUT 21) content directly to FIFA 21 accounts. “It happens all the time – for the right reasons,” says EA. However, the abuse of these employee accounts led to what became known as the #EAGate issue.

EA listed three ways that employees can legitimately send FIFA 21 icons to other accounts. The first one is as a form of customer support, to rectify in-game bugs or as goodwill for errors. The second is for internal testing and quality control. The third and final one is for “discretionary content granting,” where employee accounts can provide the icons as recognition for contributions made by “certain Pro Footballers, celebrity partners, or even our own employees.”

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Meanwhile, some employee accounts may have been using the content granting to earn some cash. EA employees sold FIFA 21 icons to players and granting them the FIFA 21 cards directly, hence #EAGate. Usually, players have to spend hours of their time or hundreds of their cash to obtain these FIFA 21 icons, which they use in FUT 21.

“When our investigation is completed,” reads the report, “we will take action against any employee found to have been engaging in this activity.” In the meantime, EA will be disabling FIFA 21 content granting while the investigation is taking place. For those who have been receiving content illegally through these means, beware. EA warns that aside from removing the content obtained from illegal means, the accounts themselves may also be in trouble. “EA will permanently ban any player known to have acquired content through these means.”