Last-gen FIFA 17 gets terrible Amazon customer reviews over lack of The Journey story mode
"FIFA 17 ON Xbox 360. Stick it up your Arsenal!"
FIFA 17 on PC and current generation consoles has The Journey story mode. FIFA 17 on last generation consoles does not.
It seems a lot of people who bought the game on Xbox 360, for example, didn't realise this - and have taken to leaving negative customer reviews to express their anger.
The Amazon page for the Xbox 360 version of FIFA 17 is dominated by one-star customers reviews, left by those who feel misled by EA's marketing.
The disgruntled customers range from parents who bought the game for their children to adults who bought the game for themselves.
Almost all of the complaints revolve around the lack of The Journey mode in the game (a mode we very much enjoyed). But there's also mention of the last-gen version not being built on the Frostbite game engine, as the current-gen versions are. In all, it amounts to a feeling that FIFA 17 on PS3 and Xbox 360 is too similar to FIFA 16 and therefore does not justify the price tag.
Here are a few examples:
And my personal favourite:
Now, there are some who counter the complaints by suggesting people should do more research before buying a video game, but we're not talking about core gamers who F5 websites such as Eurogamer, here. We're talking about parents buying games for their kids off of Amazon - store front marketing is often all they're exposed to.
So, let's look at the FIFA 17 Xbox 360 page on Amazon. Is it misleading? Well, there's no mention of The Journey in the list of available game modes, but perhaps it would have been wise for EA to stress that The Journey is not included, rather than just leave it off.
Here's a bigger issue: scroll down and you get to the manufacturer's description, that is, the one provided by EA. This mentions Frostbite, which is not in the Xbox 360 version.
And if you look at the images on the side of the FIFA 17 Xbox 360 Amazon product page, you see screenshots taken from The Journey. We see its star, Alex Hunter, mention of Frostbite and manager Jose Mourinho (managers aren't in the last-gen version, either).
The whole thing raises the thorny issue of misleading video game marketing once again (we're still waiting for the Advertising Standards Authority to make a decision on the No Man's Sky Steam store page). In the context of that game's high-profile controversy, EA would do well to tweak the online store pages for FIFA 17 on last-gen consoles.
We've asked EA for comment.
