Pretty good looking Ultimate Edition cover art...

EA have announced the release date for their next FIFA title, Fifa 13. They have also let us know that a Limited Edition version will be available for pre-orders and for customers who buy the game on the release date.

For the past year or two this has been EA's way of battling piracy. We approve. Anything has to be better than some of the heavy DRM that the big Pubs have tried...

Fifa 13 Ultimate Edition includes a total of 24 Gold Packs, one gold pack per day. Each gold pack includes a mix of 12 items, such as  players rated 75+ in-game, and include one rare item, such as enhanced player attributes, longer contracts, and the most coveted players...

If you're per-ordering Fifa 13 from a retailer like Amazon, you'll also receive Adidas All-Star Team pack which includes  23 top 10 players from the world.

Fifa 13 Ultimate Edition is only available through the pre order or at the release date, which is 28th of September. Pre orders will be starting from 29th of June.

So are we on the verge of an auction system for FIFA?
With success found using these content delivery systems in other games, its little wonder EA arent thinking about doing this in some of their games also. They generate money, interest and make piracy a lot harder.
A couple of successful games that include this sort of approach are Diablo 3 auction house and of course Team Fortress 2, which switched to free to play, while offering up random drops that may cost to unlock.

Some of these are certainly starting to sound a lot like gambling, whats your opinion on all of this?