FIFA 23 – Everything You Need to Know About EA’s Last Licensed Football Game

FIFA 23 will be the last licensed football game by EA Sports, as they decided not to renew the FIFA license. They will focus on a new brand called EA Sports FC, while FIFA aims to find another developer to make the 2024 game.

That said, EA Sports has promised FIFA 23 will be the most complete version of the game they have ever made.

Pricing, release date, platforms

FIFA 23 is already available for pre-order. The Standard Edition is priced at $59.99 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while PC, Stadia, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X users will have to pay $69.99.

The Standard Edition includes:

• Untradeable TOTW 1 Player Item
• Kylian Mbappé Loan Item
• FUT Ambassador Loan Player Pick
• Career Mode Homegrown Talent

The Ultimate Edition is priced at $99.99 and includes:

• FIFA World Cup FUT Hero Player Item (Untradeable) on November 11th
• 4,600 FIFA Points
• 3 days of early access: Start playing FIFA 23 on September 27th
• FUT Ones to Watch Player Item (Untradeable)
• FUT Team of the Week 1 Player Item (Untradeable)
• Kylian Mbappé Loan Item, for 5 FUT matches
• FUT Ambassador Loan Player Pick for 3 FUT matches
• Career Mode Homegrown Talent, local youth prospect with world-class potential

FIFA 23 will be available on September 30th for PC, Stadia, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S|X. Crossplay functionality between these platforms will be added for the first time in the series, though it won’t work in cooperative modes for some reason.

Genre, licensed cups, and teams

FIFA 23 is a simulation football game. It’ll be the first to feature both the men’s and women’s FIFA World Cups in the same game, with modes dedicated to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 being added at some point after launch for free.

Additionally, FIFA 23 is the first football game to feature women’s club teams from the Barclays Women’s Super League and Division 1 Arkema leagues. Other licensed men’s leagues and tournaments include the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, CONMEBOL Libertadores, CONMEBOL Sudamericana, Premier League, Bundesliga, and LaLiga Santander.

FIFA 23 also sees the comeback of the Juventus FC license. The Italian team has now signed an exclusive multi-year partnership with Electronic Arts, which will obviously continue with the aforementioned EA Sports FC series.

Cover stars for this edition are Kylian Mbappé and Sam Kerr.

Gameplay Mechanics

FIFA 23 will introduce many new gameplay features while improving on other existing ones. Most of the additions will be only available to the next-generation versions of the game; that is to say, they won’t be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

One exception included in all versions is Power Shots, a new skill-based type of shot that rewards players who can carve out enough space and aim accurately towards the goal. Power Shots generally need higher wind-up time and do not behave like regular Assisted Shots, requiring manual aim to be accurate.

HyperMotion 2, the updated (sporting over 6K true-to-life animations) version of the machine learning technique introduced with FIFA 22, is the underlying technology behind all of the exclusive next-gen features, beginning with Technical Dribbling.

This is an entirely new dribbling system based on the Active Touch system. The developers’ goal is for dribbling to feel more natural and responsive simply by using the controller’s left stick. Any player can perform Technical Dribbling in FIFA 23, though the results will vary based on the dribbling attributes.

Defenders won’t feel left out in FIFA 23, thanks to ML-Jockey. This feature is a direct counter to Technical Dribbling, allowing for tighter control, increased responsiveness when jockeying, and the ability to turn at various angles. Women players will feature unique and authentic jockeying animations captured from a real women’s match.

The player movement system in FIFA 23 is further enhanced by AcceleRATE, which splits players into three archetypes when it comes to acceleration. Controlled players (the vast majority) will accelerate uniformly and in a controlled manner; explosive players, usually the shorter and more agile ones, can accelerate faster but will slow down the acceleration rate after the initial burst; lengthy players of the taller and stronger type will start slowly but eventually catch up and possibly even surpass the other types over longer distances.

Another major new feature is called Composed Ball Striking. Its goal is to allow smoother transitions into shots, particularly first-time and air-bound ones.

There are many other gameplay tweaks and improvements coming in FIFA 23. Setpieces, for example, have been redesigned to be more intuitive. Free kicks and corner kicks now include the ability to tweak the curl, elevation, and style of kick with the controller’s right stick. On the defending side, just like in the real sport, it’ll be possible to put one player lying down between the wall of a free kick.

Penalty kicks have also received some changes. A so-called Composure Ring has been added; players will want to time their shots when the ring is at its smallest to get a powerful yet accurate shot.

Improvements are coming to semi-assisted shots, too; generally, shots will be more varied. There are new ways to control the ball in FIFA 23, such as step-ins and shield pushback actions; tackles have been updated to include a new type (hard slides); defenders will now attempt reflex blocks when they cannot accomplish a controlled block. Players’ top speed has been increased (though more space will be required to reach it). Last but not least, new settings allow for greater control of player switching.

Trailers

The FIFA 23 reveal trailer dropped on July 20th.

The gameplay deep dive was shared on July 27th.