EA is continuing its internal investigation into claims that developers with access to behind the scenes tools profited from selling Fifa Ultimate Team content in under the counter trades to players. Currently colloquially known as EAGate, this scandal has confirmed that at least one, but likely more EA staff were involved, and that though all involved parties will be banned from the game, it's not clear yet whether the potentially involved developer accounts (and the developers who owned them) were doing so willingly, or whether the accounts were compromised.
"Regardless of these actions, we appreciate how concerning this is to all of our players, and we apologize for the impact of these improper grants within the community," EA said in a blog post in an attempt to calm the storm among players.
"We also appreciate how extremely annoying and frustrating it is that this practice might have come from within EA. We’re angry too."
To make sure that this can't happen again while the investigation is ongoing, EA has suspended the ability for any developer accounts to award content to players. This was officially used to give out special cards during promotions and as the result of competitions. It's also used in support cases where players accidentally delete cards, or lose them due to a bug in the game.
It's not clear what effect this will have on the support system in the mean time, but presumably EA will make special cases and handle them manually.
