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A group of California players dropped a class action lawsuit accusing Electronic Arts of secretly using a “Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment” (DDA) to secretly affect the outcome of FIFA: Ultimate Team matches. The group did this after EA proved that the controversial patented system is not in use in the game.
We first covered EA’s dynamic difficulty adjustment system in early 2018, after an academic article from late 2017 presenting the basic structure. This research found that automatically adjusting the difficulty of a match-three game based on the skill level demonstrated by the player led to a 9 percent “improvement in player engagement” (meaning players wanted to play a little more) . On the other hand, it had a “neutral impact on monetization” (that is, it did not cause players to spend more money). EA filed for a patent on the same basic idea in 2016, and the patent was granted in 2018. Some FIFA players have long suspected that the patented technology worked in at least some of their “Ultimate Team” games. To hear these players tell, the game secretly uses a hidden, scripted “boost” system to adjust the results of specific shots or touches based on the current state of the game. It is all part of an effort to manipulate players to spend more money on Ultimate Team’s best player cards, as described by the DDA patent. Or so the theory goes.
EA has repeatedly stated that it does not use ADD in FIFA and that Ultimate Team results are a matter of player skill and sometimes the vagaries of generating random numbers. But these statements did not prevent three California players from taking collective action last November for their suspicions that EA was lying, partly claiming:
The undisclosed use of EA’s Difficulty Adjustment Mechanisms deprives players who buy Player Packs from the benefit of their bargains because EA’s Difficulty Adjustment Mechanisms, rather than just the declared ranking of players in the Ultimate Team of players and the relative skill of the players, dictates or at least strongly influences the outcome of the game.
This is a self-perpetuating cycle that benefits EA over EA Sports players, as the difficulty adjustment mechanisms make players believe their teams are less skilled than they really are, leading them to purchase additional Player Packs hoping to receive better players and be more competitive.
This brings us to this day, when EA announced that the lawsuit was closed. This change comes after EA claims to have provided complainants with “detailed technical information and access to speak to our engineers, who have confirmed (again) that there is no DDA or script in Ultimate Team modes. This is the right result.”
EA again confirmed that DDA technology “has never been in FIFA, Madden, or NHL, and never will be. We would not use DDA technology to give players an advantage or disadvantage in online multiplayer modes in any of our games and we absolutely do not have it in FIFA, Madden or NHL. “
It is good to have one more confirmation from EA, especially with the additional commitment that applies to other sports games of the company and also to the future. And now these statements also come with sufficient additional verification from EA’s own engineers and documents to apparently satisfy a set of contentious-minded players (and / or their lawyers).
On the negative side, the next time one of your photos in FIFA wide candles, you will not have a scary secret algorithm to blame.