Electronic Arts are certainly not the most beloved company at the moment – or ever for that matter – as they are amidst both controversy for microtransactions in Battlefront II and also closing more beloved studios. Now it seems even their most popular games are having problems, as users are reporting that they are being banned from FIFA 18, despite never owning the game.
In a post to the gaming subreddit, RSgodson showed an email stating that he was banned from FIFA 18 for cheating. The user revealed that not only had he never cheated, he had never even purchased a game in the soccer franchise, let alone the latest version.
Not only did players in the comments for this story share their own similar tales, others also lamented their own odd bans that were given out by EA.
“I got hacked from Taiwan (I live in Norway) and I never got an email. And then when I emailed EA about them resolving this, they decided that it was the correct decision,” said Redditor superpill. “Do they honestly think I went to Taiwan, cheated in Battlefield, then went home to Norway and asked if they could open it again?”
While EA does have appeals process for their bans, many have still come out empty handed, despite facing similar situations to the ones above.
According to EA’s website, players are banned from their games for a number of reasons that violate their term of service. For FIFA 18 players can be banned for promoting coins, using auto-buyers, making false claims, as well as a multitude of forms of in-game cheating.
It’s entirely possible that the post above could simply be a repost, but considering how many people claim to run into the same issue all across the internet, it’s not entirely too far-fetched to believe that the email and the story are real.