​A status update regarding FUTWIZ Sync

An update regarding FUTWIZ Sync

A question we've been asked countless times since the launch of the game, when will we be launching FUTWIZ Sync for FIFA 18?

For those that don't know, FUTWIZ Sync was a tool that read the contents of your club via the old Web App in FUT 16 and 17, providing you with a wealth of data about your club and players





We're afraid that the short answer is that we won't be launching it, see below for our reasons.

EA's Terms of Service has been updated with regards to third party extensions and modified platforms.

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https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/fifa/fifa-rules/#connecting-to-ea

Connect to EA Servers using anything other than EA Web or Companion apps or an unmodified platform

"You can only access FIFA, FIFA Ultimate Team, and our FIFA servers using an official version of EA SPORTS FIFA, otherwise it breaks our rules. An official version is one that you bought from us or an authorized retailer. You must also use either an unmodified platform or the official FUT Web and FUT Companion Apps to avoid breaking our rules. An unmodified platform is a console or PC that no one has adjusted or added anything to that would change the way it functions. In other words, the console must work the way it did when it came out of the box from an authorized retailer, and the PC does not have any software running to modify the game or the game’s interactions with EA.

If you share your credentials with someone who is using a modified platform, that breaks our rules too.

We don’t want you to use third party apps and browser extensions because it puts your account at risk. When you use these third-party apps and browser extensions, your login info can be visible to third parties and someone could use that info to take over your account. Browser extensions can capture your passwords, track your web browsing, insert ads into web pages you visit, and more."

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Due to the nature of the requests (both in terms of volume and speed) Sync makes on your behalf it could potentially be seen as a modified version of the FUT Web App and as such puts user accounts at risk.

Having discussed the matters at length with our friends at Futhead at the start of FIFA 18 we decided not to launch Sync unless we were able to guarantee account safety, which of course we are now unable to do. With changes in the Web App including the new SBC functionality, like Futhead we were looking at new functionality within Sync that could automate things like SBC completion, this flagged up enough concern that led us to our decision, that we would not release Sync for 18.

Regarding the FUTWIZ Sync feature we had in 16 and 17, as confirmed on the page we did not see any login details and at no point did we store any personal information. It is true that third party extensions grant both read and write access to your club which is another reason we have decided to stay clear of Sync rather than risk the possible consequences of being responsible for account bans.

Whilst FUTWIZ Sync was obviously a powerful and useful tool in both 16 and 17, the downsides heavily outweigh the benefits and we believe a blanket discouragement of third party extensions is in the best interest of game health, whilst we want to do as much as we can to improve user experience we have absolutely no desire to compromise game health as that can have devastating effects further down the line. If third party extensions become commonly acceptable we are in danger of returning to the widespread phishing issues the community has faced in the past, we will do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen even if it means limiting our own features.