Five takeaways from the ‘FUT Birthday’ annoucement

After weeks of speculation, EA have finally come out and announced some details about the annual FUT Birthday event. The event, celebrating the eighth birthday of FIFA’s most successful and popular game mode, will kick off on the 31st of March and run for one week.

In the past, EA have celebrated FUT Birthday through new tournaments, daily free packs for users, and special items being put into packs (last year, we saw special position changed items, such as ST Ronaldo and Bale).

However, this year promises to be very different. FUT birthday has come a week and half later this year than it has in past FIFAs, and the removal of tournaments, as well as the dearth of free packs this year, suggest that EA might have something else up their sleeve.

Let’s take a look at five things we know/have learned about EA and their eighth FUT Birthday celebration:

1. It’s probably going to be huge. EA rarely announce events ahead of time, and if they do, it’s usually only a day or two in advance. Announcing this a whole eight days before the event kicks off suggests that there are big things to come.
2. There are going to be SBCs. EA love SBCs this year, as they are a great way to take coins the market, and force people into buying FIFA points to replenish their bank accounts. SBCs are also a great way to introduce some really cool players into the game, without affecting the market too much.
3. There are going to be special packs, and special cards. In every event so far this year, we’ve seen an abundance of special packs, and EA love throwing special card types into packs. I wouldn’t expect to see any new card types, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see special packs, TOTW packs, and position changed base-cards.
4. The in-game effects are going to be minimal. None of the DKTs have special requirements or details, and there are no other tournaments or game modes. Aside from hugely laggy servers (due to everyone logging on at the same time to check out the promotions), and potentially some new players and kits you’ll encounter, you’re unlikely to see anything new in the game-play section.
5. EA are becomingly exceedingly unpredictable. Everyone was expecting this event to drop earlier this week, and this announcement came entirely out the blue. Therefore, it’s really hard to predict exactly what we’re going to get in this event - our best bet is to just wait and see.