EA Sports FC 24 gets release date, trailer, and better Switch version

During a starry livestream on Thursday, EA announced that the new era of its soccer games — minus FIFA branding, after the publisher parted ways with the sport’s governing body in 2022 — will begin when EA Sports FC 24,The film is set to be released on 29 September.

The release date was widely expected, as an end-of-September berth is traditional for EA’s football games. Indeed, there were few surprises during EA’s official reveal event for the new game. Maybe that’s what the game was all about.

Over its 30-year history, the FIFA series become a juggernaut that makes over a billion dollars in yearly revenue from its Ultimate Team mode alone, and EA must be keen not to fix what isn’t broken. This is why the key word for EA Sports FC 24, seems to be “continuity.” EA stressed its extended licensing deals with the biggest leagues in the sport, including the U.K. Champions League, Spain’s La Liga, and the UEFA Champions League. In a brand new gameplay video, the company chose to focus on visual and animated upgrades.

There’ll be improved representation for women’s football, with women joining men on the pitch in Ultimate Team for the first time. The cover star will be Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.

There’s one area where EA Sports FC 24, will break with tradition, though: a very welcome break with one of the FIFA games’ worst traditions.

For four consecutive years, EA has released what it calls “FIFA Legacy Editions” on Nintendo Switch — all essentially reskinned roster updates of the Switch version of FIFA 19The game has no new features or improvements to the gameplay. IGN is one of the critics who has been stinging with its criticism.

EA Sports FC 24, It will be different. The Switch version, as detailed in its trailer, will use the same Frostbite engine that is used on other platforms, and be closer to them than ever before. Switch users will have access to a more limited version of Ultimate Team as well as Volta Street Football, player and manager careers modes, as they are able play a five-aside game.

It seems the clean slate offered by the change of branding has motivated EA to clean up its act on Nintendo’s console. EA’s decision to drop the notoriously hard FIFA game as a partnership has many advantages. Here is an unexpected one.