Good news: FIFA 23 will finally be modern again on the PC. I would also like to tell you now in detail why, but EA makes that almost impossible.
This year marks the end of an era. It still feels weird to say it like that. Really, my lip is quivering a little: FIFA 23 will be the last FIFA football game!
Of course, this doesn”t mean that EA will retire its world star with a bouquet of flowers and an all-star match so that he can continue to play in the North American Senior League for a few more years until his legs fall asleep. The publisher will continue to produce football games, and they will most likely play exactly as we know them, including all modes. But they will no longer be called FIFA, but EA Sports FC.
At most, there is still a chance that FIFA (i.e. the association) will push the licence into the hands of another studio. However, that will then be a completely different series.
In that sense, FIFA 23 is already history-making. But FIFA 23 also marks a turnaround independently of that – a return to old greatness. At least for PC players. Because after two years of abstinence, we finally get the same version on our home computers as on the current-gen consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Even cross-play is possible from this year on.
And that alone makes FIFA 23 (on PC) a huge leap forward compared to last year! This is also noticeable in the new [top secret].
Well, again. You can also feel it in the new [top secret].
Well, fiddlesticks, I am not allowed to write it yet. Because Electronic Arts didn”t put an embargo on FIFA 23 as usual, but eight embargoes. This will be a slightly different preview than usual.
A look behind the scenes
What”s going on, you may be wondering. The situation is a bit tricky, because Electronic Arts is dribbling along a very bumpy turf for us as journalists when it comes to information about FIFA. This has to do with the way in which information is conveyed in advance in the games industry. To journalists like us, but also to influencers.
In order to prevent leaks and to be able to present a legal agreement as a basis for possible countermeasures, selected people usually sign a so-called Non Disclosure Agreement, or NDA for short. This is a declaration of consent to maintain silence about the contents shown until an agreed date. Some of you will certainly have heard of this.
Normally, all information from an interview, a play session or a presentation is subject to an embargo. As soon as a certain day and time occurs, we as a website can publish content based on it. By the way, nothing is prescribed for us in terms of content – except that we can of course only write about the things we have seen and heard.
And such NDAs are by no means illegal, as the rights holder of the previews and information shown in confidence, a publisher can certainly set a date from when the confidential information is no longer confidential – i.e. from when it can be reported on.
The long list of FIFA embargoes
So. that”s the standard. And now we come to Electronic Arts and FIFA. With FIFA, EA has now changed their approach, there”s not just an embargo here. No, EA actually presents us with a whole list of different embargo dates. In previous years, these embargoes were mostly for individual modes, so there was a different date for information about the career mode than for information about FIFA Ultimate Team or about gameplay in general.
That”s still good to work with. This year, however, it”s a bit different again. This year there are eight different embargo times, including several for certain gameplay content. Although I was able to play FIFA 23 already, I can”t tell you today in full what exactly I played, what I liked and how the new features work together.
For that I would have to wait until all embargos for every content have fallen. Only then could I talk about how FIFA 23 really plays. And that feels absurd, to say the least.
What I can tell you about FIFA right now
You see the difficulty. Still, I don”t want to leave you completely in the dark today. Today (the 20th of July) is the day when the first (for us relevant) embargo falls. This concerns general information about FIFA 23, which I can present to you here in detail. Because there are some exciting things in the beginning.
- The cover athletes of FIFA 23 are again Kylian Mbappe and for the first time Sam Kerr. Kerr is thus the first female athlete on the global cover.
- FIFA 23 will also be the first FIFA in which women”s football is represented in the form of club teams. Well-known teams here include Chelsea FC and Olympique Lyon.
- The PC version of FIFA 23 is identical to the current-gen version on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Also, crossplay will be enabled this year, with the last-gen versions (PS4, Xbox One) keeping to themselves. Crossplay also only affects one-on-one matches – so no Pro Clubs.
- A new coaching system should better introduce new players to the game.
- Due to the unusual scheduling of the World Cup in Qatar, two World Cups fall within the life cycle of FIFA 23. The Men”s World Cup and the Women”s World Cup. Both tournaments are to be represented in FIFA 23. Possibly even for the last time, after all FIFA hosts these tournaments and the FIFA licence is gone next year.
So much for the general information. What I can tell PC players additionally is the following: FIFA 23 will feel like a very different game to you compared to FIFA 22. Last year, after all, PC players missed out on the integration of Hypermotion, a new technology that allows for many more animations and includes an adaptive algorithm that “writes” new animations depending on the situation while the match is in progress.
This makes the action on the pitch much smoother and creates many realistic animations. FIFA 22 felt newer on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S than it has in a long time because of this. It”ll be the same on PC this year. Also, there”s [top secret].
Ah yes.
What EA is trying to do with this
FIFA has been a difficult subject for many years. Of course, there”s often still an entertaining sports game in there. But as with all its sports sims, EA rides the razor”s edge here more vehemently than anywhere else. Despite massive criticism of the business model and gambling lawsuits, EA generates billions in profits with Ultimate Team alone. Case in point: of the $5.6 billion in group revenue in fiscal year 2021, $1.62 billion flowed from the Ultimate Team modes of its sports games alone, a substantial portion of which was accounted for by FIFA Ultimate Team, according to EA.
FIFA, Madden and Co. have long been in a completely different league and are home to two completely different types of players. There are people and influencers for whom Ultimate Team represents the entire purpose of their leisure time or even their lives. And on the other hand, there are people like me who just want to have a good football game like they used to and talk about the actual gameplay! As Adi Preißler said: “What matters is on the pitch!
EA now focuses its marketing primarily on influencers, who are much more comfortable with Ultimate Team and benefit more from several scattered individual reports than we at GlobalESportNews, who would rather focus on the gameplay. After all, sports games are not without their mechanical complexities, from AI to ball physics to animations, many systems interlock here. And how well they interlock can only be explained if we are allowed to describe them all. At least we can show a few pictures:
In any case, none of this is particularly player-friendly. As soon as even information about the actual gameplay is only conveyed in fragments, the search for the new features resembles a scavenger hunt and could ultimately cause more confusion than alleviate it.
Sure: We will tell you in full what makes FIFA 23 special in a test at the latest by the time of the release. Then there will be no more embargoes – after all, a published game is no longer confidential.
