FIFA 15 Ultimate Team loses trade offers as EA continues to combat cheating

Back in August, with the release of FIFA 15 growing closer, Electronic Arts promised to bring great vengeance and furious anger down upon those who dared to cheat in FIFA Ultimate Team. Now the publisher has gone one step further in its efforts to clamp down on bad behavior by eliminating trade offers from the game entirely.

EA acknowledged in a message posted yesterday on the FIFA Ultimate Team forums that some players use the trade offer feature to conduct legitimate trades, but said it's also commonly used by coin sellers to sell and move coins. Account phishers make similar use of trade offers to clean out stolen accounts, and while the practice of "bid bumping," used to force players into over-bidding for items, is probably more annoying than actually in violation of any specific rule, the elimination of trade offers will end that practice, too.

"It was a tough decision, but this is the right step towards improving security, showing cheaters the red card, and keeping FUT safe for all FIFA fans," EA wrote.

To further secure FIFA Ultimate Team accounts, Origin Login Verification prior to accessing the Ultimate Team web app will be made mandatory in the near future. Details on how to set that up are available from the EA help site . FIFA 15 comes out on September 23, but if you want to get a feel for what's cooking ahead of time, you can grab the demo now .

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.