This year marks the end of an era. It still feels weird to say it that way. Really, my lip is trembling a little: FIFA 23 will be the last FIFA soccer 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 completely fall asleep. The publisher will continue to produce soccer games, and they will most likely play exactly as we know it, including all modes. But they won’t be called FIFA anymore, but EA Sports FC.

At most, there is still a chance that FIFA (i.e. the federation) will push the license 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 computer as on the current-gen consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X again. Even cross-play is possible from this year on.

Well, fiddlesticks, I’m not allowed to write it yet. Because Electronic Arts didn’t put an embargo on FIFA 23 like usual, but with eight Embargoes. This will probably be a slightly different preview than usual.

A look behind the scenes

GameStar, what’s going on?you will ask yourselves now. 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 content 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 then subject to an embargo. As soon as a certain day and a certain 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 may well set a date from when the confidential information is no longer confidential – i.e. from when it may be reported on.

The long list of FIFA embargoes

So, that’s the standard. And now we come to Electronic Arts and FIFA. In the meantime EA has changed the procedure with FIFA, here there is not only an embargo. 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 info about the career mode than for info about FIFA Ultimate Team or about the gameplay in general.

That’s still good to work with. But this year it’s a bit different again. This year there are eight different embargo periods, including several for certain gameplay content. Although I was able to play FIFA 23 already, I’m not allowed to inform you fully today about what exactly I played, what I liked and how the new features work together.

That’s because I’d have to wait until all the embargoes on each piece of 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 can see the difficulty. However, I still 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 with pleasure. There are really some exciting things.

• The cover athletes of FIFA 23 are again Kylian Mbappe and for the first time Sam Kerr. Kerr is the first female athlete on the global cover.
• FIFA 23 will also be the first FIFA to feature women’s soccer in the form of club teams. Known here are, for example, Chelsea FC as well as Olympique Lyon.
• The PC version of FIFA 23 is identical to the current-gen version on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. In addition, 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 should be represented in FIFA 23. Possibly for the last time, after all FIFA hosts these tournaments and the FIFA license is gone next year.

So much for the general information. What I can tell PC players in addition is this: 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 court action much smoother once again and creates numerous realistic animation sequences. 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 are [top secret].

What EA intends to do with it

FIFA has been a difficult subject for many years. Of course, there’s often still an entertaining sports game in there. However, as with all of its sports simulations, 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. One example: Of the 5.6 billion US dollars in group revenue in the 2021 financial year, 1.62 billion flowed from the Ultimate Team modes of the sports games alone. substantial share 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 soccer game like in the old days and talk about the actual gameplay! As Adi Preißler said: Decisive is’ on’m Platz!

In the meantime, however, EA is directing its marketing primarily at influencers, who are much more comfortable with Ultimate Team and benefit more from several scattered individual messages than we at GameStar, who would rather focus on the gameplay. After all, sports games are not without their mechanical complexity; from the AI to the ball physics to the animations, many systems interlock here. And just how well they interlock can only be explained if you really get 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’ll tell you in full about what makes FIFA 23 special in a review at the latest at the release. Then there won’t be any embargoes anymore – after all, a released game is no longer confidential.

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