There’s a new FIFA 12 Ultimate Team and EASPORTS Football Club update on the way which will hopefully dramatically reduce scamming attempts, fix some bugs and introduce some great new features to the Ultimate Team Web App.

The update’s set for release on Xbox globally and on PS3 in North America on March 13th and on PS3 in Europe and the rest of the world on March 14th.

FIFA 12: Don’t Get Hacked!

The update is a great leap forward in protecting our Ultimate Teams from hacking and phishing attempts but remember it’s still really important NEVER to give your account details to anyone!

New security measure will include:

• It will now only be possible to send trade offers to people on your friends list.
• On entering FUT on your console for the first time after the update, you will be required to provide a unique answer to a security question.
• If anyone else attempts to enter your FUT account from a different console, they will be required to enter the answer to your security question.

Compensation for End of Game Disconnects

The update also promises to fix the end of game disconnection problems experienced by some PS3 and PC players.

In recognition of the problem EA are going to compensate players with “a haul of FUT content significant enough to demonstrate just how thankful we are for sticking with us while we tackled the problem. “

March FIFA 12 Update Details

The full details can be found in Romily Broad’s post on the Official EA Forum.

FIFA 12 Ultimate Team

Trading

• To better keep you protected, you can now only send trade offers to friends.
• A new trade notifications system will be deployed.
• A new design will be released for the Trade Feed.
• We have increased the maximum bid price from 10 million coins to 15 million.

Tournaments 

• New Prize types have been added with additional Packs and Items.
• The prizing on offer for each tournament will now be displayed before you select one to enter.
• A new tournament reward structure has been introduced, varying the prizing depending on the number of times a tournament has been entered.
• We have introduced new tournament types, with entry criteria that allows for teams of mixed leagues, mixed nationalities or mixed clubs.
• A new tournament type will only allow users a limited number of attempts over time.
• Your team’s eligibility for tournament entry is now visible on the Squad screen, and requirements that aren’t being met will be highlighted.
• We have introduced a new difficulty level – Ultimate Difficulty. The toughest difficulty level in the game, it combines Legendary AI with a chemistry rating of 100.

Squad Building

• You’ll now find a new Squad Wizard to help build and/or fill out your squad quickly.
• Introduced the ability to copy a squad to create variations more easily.
• The chemistry links between players will now be more obvious, with a bad connection coloured red, mediocre coloured orange, and good remaining green.

Team of the Week

• You can see the full Team of the Week and navigate and interact with it
• You can now bring up Team of the Week player bios.
• You’ll have access to new navigation to change between current and previous Teams of the Week.

Bug Fixes

• We have fixed the end-of-game disconnection error affecting some PS3 and PC users.
• A recently discovered bug that allowed an Ultimate Team player to gain control of another player’s team has been fixed.
• Coins will no longer be awarded if a user Alt-tabs away at the beginning of FUT games on PC.
• Addressed a disconnection bug if a user tried to add more than 100 cards to their Watch List.
• Fixed a problem where the user receives a Debug Text error message in the Watch List when attempting to bid on an item that has already expired.

EA SPORTS Football Club

• Users now have the option to choose the Skill Level they want to play the EAS FC Challenge on. Each Skill Level will offer different XP rewards. You’ll still only be able to complete the EAS FC Challenge once, though.
• EAS FC Challenges can now utilise Be A Pro to have player-specific objectives, rather than having to play as the entire team.
• EAS FC Challenges can now start from a Yellow Card scripted sequence, so you can be thrown into a crucial part of the match from the get-go.
• The
  [X] Button has replaced the [BACK] button to open up the EA SPORTS Football Club hub on Xbox 360, while the [SQUARE] button has replaced the [SELECT] button to open up the EAS FC hub on PlayStation 3.
• EA SPORTS Football Club is now a selectable option in the Main Menu bar. Selecting it will open up the EAS FC hub.
• A new visual effect will now appear over the top of the EAS FC widget when you level up.

Bug Fixes

• Completing an EAS FC Challenge was not awarding XP for some people. This has been fixed.

FIFA Ultimate Team Web App

Full Screen Mode

• Enjoy FUT Web in full screen, including enhanced high-resolution graphics and all the new visual improvements. Note: Typing will not work in full-screen mode in Flash, so a keypad has been added for auction features.

Console Security Question

• The FUT Web App’s existing security question now works in conjunction with FUT on your console. You can no longer create your question on FUT Web, it must be created from your console. Your old security question will continue to function until you change it from FUT Console.
• When logging into FUT Web on a new computer or browser, or after 30 days, you will be asked to verify your answer.
• You now have the option of locking your account from the security question screen on FUT Web if you feel it has been compromised. If you do choose to do this, you must login into FUT on your console to recover your account.

Auction Info Tooltip

• All active auctions now have a tooltip that displays all relevant auction information – simply hover over the item.

Bidding Changes

• When you are outbid on an auction, the new amount will be highlighted in red beside the current bid. This is to warn you of a potential drastic change in bid prices where some people have been tricked in to losing many coins.
• The Bid button will be delayed for 2 seconds if you have been outbid. This ensures everyone has fair time to review the latest bid.
• Holding down the increment and decrement button will raise/lower the price, making it quicker when clicking.

Squad Management

• Copy any Squad directly from the squad selector.
• Your Active Squad is now highlighted on the squad selector

Dynamic Icons for Auction Search Filters

• Each search filter now has a unique icon.
• Flags, leagues and team crests are now displayed for Players.
• Player positions now co-ordinate with their respective colour, as well as the formation icons.

Active Messaging

• Replaced the play/pause controls with icons for each message.
• Dynamic messaging now appears in the Store.

Usability and Art Improvements

• You will notice a wide range of improvements to the design and usability of FUT Web, including better design elements, updated search filter options and a new filter for manager nationality. There are too many individual changes to list here, but you should certainly notice the difference.