EA Sport officially announced FC24

The beloved football game series FIFA has come to a close this year, with EA Sport officially announcing its rebranded successor, FC24. Despite EA’s separation from FIFA and consequent inability to employ the FIFA name and trademark, FC24 has still secured “over 19,000 fully licensed players, more than 700 teams, and over 30 leagues”, including favourites such as the Premier League, La Liga, and the Champions League. Thus, it is merely the game’s moniker that has altered; the core remains largely unchanged.

The most conspicuous transformation in FC24 this year pertains to the cover endorsement: the French football star Kylian Mbappé from FIFA 23 has been replaced with one of the new generation’s brightest talents, Erling Haaland, the striker from Manchester City. This shift is potentially influenced by recent transfer rumours surrounding Mbappé, whereas Haaland’s impressive performance over the past six months coupled with his positive public image have elevated his popularity. EA Sport undoubtedly knows its fans well.

The game continues to be constructed with EA’s proprietary Frostbite engine. EA Sport remains dedicated to promoting its HyperMotionV technology, allowing player-controlled characters to perform more realistically. While FC24 will also be launched on the previous generation of consoles, HyperMotionV will only be implemented on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Furthermore, EA has optimized the tactical playstyle of in-game characters based on Opta data, thereby replicating their real-world performances more faithfully.

Regarding game modes, Ultimate Team is an indispensable feature. It now allows the inclusion of female players in user teams. Modes like Manager Career and Player Career are retained, as is the VOLTA FOOTBALL street football mode, among others. Interestingly, FC24 will also be released on the Nintendo Switch handheld console with the Frostbite engine, marking the end of its “legacy edition”.

FC24 is now available for pre-order on Steam, with a considerably lower price tag than its Western counterparts, standing at 248 yuan for the standard version. The hardware requirements for the new game remain similar to the previous generation, with a minimum requirement of a GTX 1050 Ti and a recommended GTX 1660. Considering the current crop of new games, it is relatively undemanding on hardware, although it does require substantial storage space of up to 100GB.