Fifa 13 released September 25th but already EA has their ban hammers in sight on some players. Apparently there are users who have been exploiting the FIFA 13 Ultimate Team web app, and was taken offline for maintenance to sort out the issues before bringing it back up and running. The exploit had  people gaining illegitimate access to restricted packs of football player cards such as Christiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid and Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona in their packs and then selling them for profit.

Via Twitter, EA Announced that

Yesterday, a very small number of users attempted to gain an unfair advantage on the FUT web app. The FUT13 Web App had to be taken offline to be stabilised and ensure a level playing field for all FUT users. Permanent bans for FIFA 13 FUT have been served to all users who attempted to gain an unfair advantage. Thanks for your patience while we create the best experience for all fans of FUT.

This isn’t the first time something like this happened, as last year happened with FIFA 12’s Ultimate Team. This exploit however could have a lingering impact on the Ultimate Team economy even after the perma-bans that were issued, as players from the restricted packs will still remain in the game. In five days we will see how it will impact it as FIFA 13 releases September 25th in North America and September 28th in Europe.