EA Sports To Ban 'FIFA 15' Cheaters For Buying Coins, Using 'Bots'

Better forget about cheating in EA Sports' soccer simulation game "FIFA 15" when it comes out next month. The developer has warned that players caught breaking in-game rules by using such techniques as bots and coin trading could be permanently banned from the game.

“Although they are a minority amongst ‘FIFA’ fans, cheaters disrupt the gameplay experience and enjoyment for honest ‘FIFA’ fans in a number of ways,” the Vancouver, Canada-based studio said Friday on its blog. “These include things like overloading servers, phishing and compromising other player accounts, and participating in the unauthorized exchange of virtual currency. It’s time for us to draw a clear and strong line against cheaters who negatively impact the ‘FIFA’ experience for our millions of players online.”

EA also listed a number of ways that players have typically cheated in previous franchise games like 2013’s “FIFA 14.”

“Cheaters use online tools known as ‘bots’ to automatically buy items off the Transfer Market and farm coins with the intention to sell. These illicit coins are often sold online for real money through Coin Selling websites,” the studio explained. “The use of bots and third-party bot services to automatically buy Transfer Market items in order to gain an unfair advantage is a form of cheating. Gamers detected using bots, third-party bot services, or scripts for any purpose will be subject to our ban process.”

EA Sports also advised players against coin buying and selling, warning users that they’ve already banned hundreds of thousands of “FIFA 14” accounts for the in-game violation. Promoting coin-selling sites is also a big no-no.

“Moving forward, we will be more proactive in taking action, including banning accounts, against players engaged in coin buying, coin selling, coin promoting, and the use of bots,” EA Sports said in the blog post.

The developer said that boosting the stats of in-game avatars, or online virtual pros, is also prohibited. This is done in the pro clubs mode, a mode played by some of the game’s most diehard fans. EA Sports promised it was improving security and working tirelessly to keep cheaters out of pro clubs. The studio also told players it would clean the leaderboards of online gaming tournament FIFA Interactive World Cup biweekly for cheaters to prevent false match results.

“FIFA 15” will launch on Sept. 23 in North America and on Sept. 25 in Europe for the PC, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PSVita, Wii, iOS, Android, Xbox One and Xbox 360.

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