Flawed set heavily exploited in Madden NFL 17 Ultimate Team leading to market crash

Ultimate Team in Madden NFL 17 earlier today experienced its first major disruption of the year and the ramifications are significant and widespread. A new set introduced to the mode was supposed to require five NAT (which are untradeable and unsellable) Elite level cards in exchange for a player rated 87+ with no restrictions.

Unfortunately the set was improperly programmed and accepted five Bronze cards instead. For several hours users who were aware of the issue were able to capitalize on the repeatable set and collect a near unlimited number of the previously rare Elites.

This of course is a serious dilemma for EA, and not just for balancing concerns in team-building and even the tie-in eSports events, but due to the money that consumers spend in order to buy packs. The value of packs has dropped significantly and the time and money invested in the mode seriously impacted by those who took advantage of the flaw. Meanwhile the Auction House experienced a crash given the influx of Elite supply with those who picked up a ton of them looking to turn their newly found surplus around for coins.

EA Sports has yet to comment on the situation however the Auction House has been temporarily closed down. It’s unclear when it will reopen and what potential solutions they are considering.

[Update] On Saturday morning the Auction House reopened. EA has temporarily banned some accounts and retrieved cards and coins from those they deemed violated “terms of service violations” to acquire them. The company has also given everyone a free bonus of 10,000 coins for what they termed an “Auction House outage.”