[Disclosure: This is a sponsored post]

Merry Christmas to FIFA 18 Ultimate team fans across the world, Christmas is here and that means only one thing; FUTMAS has arrived.

EA have come in for a lot of criticism from the FIFA community in recent months, they have patched the game no less than four times since the initial release back in September, they continued their Black Friday tradition of giving players zero discounts on packs and their continued lack of new content, despite being promised before release, is an all too familiar feature of games produced by EA these days. The hashtag #FixFIFA has become a trend on various social media platforms due to EAs seeming ineptitude in regards to listening to its fans and the less said about the criticism they received upon the launch of Battlefront 2 the better.

EA are trying hard in order to make FIFA into a popular esport. Esports viewership is huge right now due to online streaming platforms such as Twitch and the popularity of gaming so EA are seemingly determined a get onto the bandwagon themselves. FIFA as an esport is certainly growing due to the increasing amount of FIFA esports news and betting sites and the global FIFA esports tournaments which any FIFA player in the world can win, but many of the professional players are not happy with the gameplay – gameplay which comes under constant criticism from professional and amateur players alike.

However, Ultimate Team continues to be the most popular feature of the FIFA franchise and the Christmas period is usually one of interest for all FUT players.

FUTMAS has so far brought FIFA players a variety of different squad building challenges to complete – this is something they promised upon the first announcement of the game so it is nice that is has been implemented, more ICON SBCs are expected to arrive as Christmas gets closer with players hoping that at least one of the top Icons are dropped (R9, Maradona, Ronaldinho, Gullit, Maldini or Vieria).

FUTMAS is also expected to bring more lightning rounds where players can open the top tier 100k and 125k player packs. Of course, don’t expect to see any discount here nor should you expect EA to gift players any free gold packs, not even on Christmas Day.

Hopefully EA will offer us some surprises in regards to what they offer us FUT players. Unfortunately, there has already been a confirmed leak regarding the future FUTMAS SBC players that will be on offer.

EA are making more money than ever off the back of FIFA Ultimate team. They make $1.3 billion per year off of extra content in their games with the Ultimate Team feature in their franchises FIFA, Madden and NHL the largest contributor to their earnings.

However, unrest within the FIFA community is growing, EA have a strangle hold on the football video games market but every empire crumbles eventually, PES anybody?