EA Sports FC gets release date — and Switch version that might not suck

By James On Jul 14, 2023

During a stars live stream on Thursday, EA announced that the new era of its football games – minus FIFA branding, after the publisher parted ways with the sport’s governing body in 2022 – will begin when EA Sports F.C. 24 appears on September 29.

The release date was widely anticipated, as a late September berth is traditional for EA’s football games. Indeed, there were few surprises at EA’s official reveal event for the new game. But maybe that was the intention.

Over its 30-year history, the FIFA series has grown into a juggernaut, earning over a billion dollars in annual revenue from Ultimate Team mode alone, and EA must be keen on not fixing what ain’t broke. So the password for EA Sports F.C. 24 seems to be “continuity”. EA highlighted the extended licensing deals with the sport’s biggest leagues, including the British Champions League, Spain’s La Liga and the UEFA Champions League. Elsewhere, it chose to highlight visual and animation upgrades in a new gameplay trailer.

There will be better representation of women’s football, with women taking the field alongside men for the first time in Ultimate Team. The star on the cover is Erling Haaland of Manchester City.

There is one area where EA Sports F.C. 24 however, will break with tradition: a very welcome break from one of FIFA gaming’s worst traditions.

For four consecutive years, EA has released what it calls “FIFA Legacy Editions” on Nintendo Switch – all of them essentially revamped roster updates of the Switch version of FIFA19, with no gameplay improvements or updates. IGN, for example, has been stinging in his criticism of these expenses.

EA Sports F.C. 24 will be different. As detailed by its own trailer, the Switch version will head to the same Frostbite game engine as the other platforms for the first time and will be much closer to its siblings in terms of features. Switch players can enjoy a less limited version of Ultimate Team, as well as the five-on-five Volta street football mode and career modes for players and managers.

It seems that the clean slate afforded by the rebranding change has motivated EA to clean up its act on the Nintendo console. Dropping the notoriously difficult FIFA as a partner has a lot of benefits for EA; here, unexpectedly, is another one.