EA’s flagship series has been covered in mystery these past several months, after the publisher issued a press release in October 2021 stating that it is reviewing its licensing agreement with FIFA.
Earlier in the week, I reported via VGC that EA’s CEO, Andrew Wilson, had told staff that it’s been ‘impeded’ by the FIFA brand.
Despite these comments, it seems that EA will be continuing with the FIFA brand for at least this year, with the next title being named FIFA 23.
There has been no indication from sources familiar with the project that FIFA 23 will be free-to-play, despite rumors circulating that it could be the case.
One of the biggest changes to this year’s FIFA title though, is that it will feature cross-play for the first time in the series’ history, bringing FIFA players across the PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms together for all of the title’s game modes.
In addition, FIFA 23 will contain both the men’s and women’s World Cups, with EA expanding its licensing partnership across all the major leagues to drive and build a single FIFA experience that brings males and females together.
There have been improvements to its new Hypermotion Technology too, which was first introduced in FIFA 22. The technology has been enhanced tenfold, and now allows the development team to capture animations from real footballers in real matches using stadium cameras, eliminating the need for Xsens suits.
This change has resulted in the team being able to capture over 100 times more data in a single league season than they have ever captured in the franchise’s entire 29-year history, it was claimed during a recent staff meeting.
Although these changes will be significant to the series, the biggest question still looming is whether or not EA will abandon the FIFA brand, with recent trademark filings suggesting it could be the case and EA opting to call the series ‘EASports FC".
EA did not give comment before publishing this story.
