24 Nations in UEFA EURO 2012 are Unlicensed

A word of warning to those considering a purchase of the UEFA EURO 2012 expansion pack – 24 of the 53 nations are unlicensed which means they include fake players and kits. Host nation Ukraine is even among those which have generic replications rather than their true representation. In response to immediate consumer backlash EA Sports provided a statement to Eurogamer:

“The inclusion of national teams is negotiated between EA and each national football association, which we need to license individually. Licensing teams and leagues is a business decision based on market size and limited resources, and within these parameters, we were not able to negotiate an agreement with every football association to have their national team included within the game.”

When EA announced UEFA would be DLC the overwhelming reaction was positive. The problem is consumers may not have fully analyzed what the lower price meant – reduced resources for development and ultimately less value to be had out of the product. Expectations may not have properly been adjusted. No one would have unanticipated this though and it borders on deception by EA. The company promoted all 53 nations being included but made sure never to mention that nearly half of them are actually generic until they got called out on it.