The maiden release of EA Sports FC is set to arrive later this year and it will surely come with improved gameplay, graphics and a fresh menu design.
EA's annual football game release will be a landmark one this year. The first edition of the newly-branded series will enter the video game market, as the successor to the iconic FIFA series which has run since 1993.
The game has constantly evolved over its 30-year life cycle, and gradually players have been treated to a more realistic and in-depth experience over the years.
Gameplay development is constantly on the up, and EA constantly accumulates more licensing to increase the number of clubs and players present within their games.
Ultimate Team will, of course, take precedence, but there have been rumours and hints that other modes within the game could receive significant upgrades in the upcoming title.
Here we will look at three reasons why we believe EA Sports FC 24 could be the greatest football video game to date. From improvements to fresh additions to the game, let's discuss why the game could offer an unprecedented level of experience to past football video games.
1 Gameplay
Since the introduction of HyperMotion technology back in FIFA 22, the game has turned a page in terms of how realistic its gameplay is. This has allowed players within the game to have realistic movements and animations that were never possible prior.
This was achieved by machine learning, through capturing footage of 11v11 fixtures, so that the game engine could mirror the style of movement.
EA Sports FC 24 could represent a fresh peak in the quality of gameplay. Tweaks will, of course, be made to the FIFA 23 engine to offer an even more realistic experience. Early hints about the new game's match engine suggest it is more accurate to the real-life game than ever.
The animations and motion styles in the upcoming game are set to be realistic to the extent that they will be used to help coaches teach football drills in real-life.
Skill games from EA Sports FC will be used as a tool for professional coaches to teach training drills as part of the EA Sports FC Futures Initiative in which EA is providing significant investment into football at the grassroots level.
The match engine has reached a remarkable level at which it can be used to teach the sport that it originally based itself on.
The latest grassroots pitch unveiling as part of the EA Futures Initiative was in Aix-En Provence, France at Zinedine Zidane's Z5 facility.
Zidane and David Beckham officially opened the new pitch at the centre, and we caught up with EA Sports Senior Director James Salmon where he talked about the match engine, and how it can even lend itself as a tool to teach real-life football.
Speaking to GiveMeSport at the EA Futures event in France, Salmon said: "There has been a backwards inversion. Originally, the game was modelled off the real-life sport and now the match engine is of the quality that we can utilise it to simplify training drills for coaches to learn".
This method of developing coaches' skills is said to be incredibly effective, which can be owed to the game's spectacular match engine. We also spoke to Les Howie, UEFA Grassroots Mentor at the event. He helped us understand how the game is helping to improve the quality of coaching in the real world.
Howie told GiveMeSport: "We will be able to use the EA Sports FC game to improve our knowledge due to this initiative.
It helps us become more connected to the game, and we are constantly improving our methods of coaching".
The fact EA's latest football game release will have an impact on coaching in the real-life sport suggests that the gameplay is set to provide the most authentic experience yet.
2 Women to be featured in Ultimate Team
It has been confirmed by reliable leaker @FUTSheriff on Twitter that female players will be featured in the new EA Sports release. This will provide a wide range of new cards that will be available in the flagship Ultimate Team mode.
🚨This front row will be reality in EA FC.
Women are coming to FUT and most likely Mixed Teams will be playable!#EAFC24pic.twitter.com/8v3giFXMIH
— Fut Sheriff (@FutSheriff) April 6, 2023
EA have teamed up with world-class Chelsea forward Sam Kerr, as they look to bring new women's football content to EA Sports FC.
While new Heroes and Icons each year add an element of freshness - women players could provide a unique aspect to the game that betters the addition of legends of the past.
The addition of women to the game will likely mean fresh body types will be introduced, which is a huge factor in determining how well a player will perform in the game.
This means that fresh metas could be born in the new game - there will be fresh player types that create a wider range of options for use in Ultimate Team than ever before.
It should also not be forgotten that one of the main aims of a sports video game simulation is to represent real-life as accurately as possible. Featuring both sides of the game in Ultimate Team allows EA to take another huge step toward offering the most authentic experience possible.
Players such as Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas deserve to be represented in Ultimate Team.
Football is played at a high level by men and women, and EA Sports are ensuring this is represented in their most popular game mode.
3 Other game modes could receive overhauls
The FIFA community have long craved a variety of additions to their favourite modes, such as Career Mode and Pro Clubs. While Ultimate Team is by far the most popular game mode, the other areas of the game will surely not be ignored in the landmark release of EA Sports FC.
On the Career Mode side of things, fans of the mode have long craved an online version of their favourite mode. This would allow them to go head-to-head with friends as managers of a club competition in real-life competitions.
There have been rumours of this finally being delivered in the successor to the FIFA series, but nothing is concrete yet. We believe it would be the ideal time to add an online sector to Career Mode. This could set the tone for the new game - EA can show ambitions to deliver the greatest product for all of their player base rather than just fans of Ultimate Team.
Football is for all, and the new game should be aimed at fans of all of FIFA's iconic game modes too.
Pro Clubs players have also long asked for improvements to their favoured mode. Most notably, the addition of cross-play to the mode would be massive. The isolation of players between different platforms no longer exists in Ultimate Team. Now is the perfect time to take that same approach to the Pro Clubs mode.
Overall, EA Sports FC will undoubtedly offer a gameplay experience that betters anything that a football video game has offered before. According to reliable leaks, women will finally feature in Ultimate Team, which could create the most authentic experience yet.
In terms of the other game modes, there have been murmurs of much-needed improvements to the Career Mode and Pro Clubs modes. If EA delivers on all of these potential avenues, then their new release will by far be the greatest football video game to ever enter the market.