For years, the box carrying the EA FC logo also carried a number that most parents would have found reassuring: 3+. The game, which reliably tops the UK sales charts each autumn and sells to tens of millions of players across Europe, South America, and beyond, was officially deemed as suitable for toddlers as it was for teenagers. That number changed this week, when the trailer for EA FC 27 — fronted by Kylian Mbappé with his customary cool — revealed a new rating stamped in the corner: 16+. The shift was not caused by anything on the pitch.

The culprit, if one chooses to use that word, is Ultimate Team — known almost universally as FUT — a mode in which players spend real money on virtual card packs containing a randomised selection of star footballers. The appeal is obvious and the mechanics are deliberate: the thrill of not knowing which player will emerge from a digital envelope is precisely the sensation that critics have long compared to gambling. Pan-European Game Information, the body that assigns age ratings across 38 countries including the United Kingdom, announced earlier this year that any game containing such "loot boxes" — paid random items — would be classified as PEGI 16 by default, regardless of its other content. Electronic Arts has pushed back firmly, arguing that players are never required to spend money to participate in FUT and that the comparison with gambling is unfair.

The UK government has sided, at least formally, with that position, declining to bring loot boxes under the Gambling Act 2005 on the grounds that no causative link to harm has been proven.