EA's reveal of EA Sports FC 24 was an exercise in not saying the word 'FIFA', even though everyone knew that was what they were talking about. The 45-minute event had speeches from EA executives who tried unconvincingly to regale the crowd with their love of football, while icons like Luis Figo, Didier Drogba, and Ronaldinho were wordlessly wheeled out wielding out carrying trophies that were already in FIFA anyway. We saw a gameplay trailer that mainly focused on a first-person, non-gameplay perspective, and heard a lot of buzzwords. One thing that slipped by all too quickly was that they're making a turn-based FIFA. Sorry. Not FIFA. A turn-based EA Sports FC 24.
Towards the end of the showcase, there was an emphasis on the actual game modes rather than EA bending forwards to blow its own trumpet, beginning in the obvious place: Ultimate Team. The money-draining game mode is remaining and is even keeping the name, even as the series changes its own. FIFA Mobile, now FC Mobile, is getting an "update this Fall" according to senior vice president Nick Wlodyka, but details were sparse. The launch of FC Pro, a specific esports branch of EA Sports FC made in collaboration with pros, is also coming. We were told EA had "never been able to do this before", but exactly why was not elaborated on, and it seems to be a simplification of the qualifying process. Mixed in with all of this was FC Tactical.
This is the turn-based version of Not FIFA, and will be a mobile game. We didn't see any distinct gameplay trailer for it, but it appeared to be playing in the background while Wlodyka discussed it briefly. And when I say 'briefly', I ain't kidding. "A turn-based strategy game offering entirely new ways to experience the world's game," is the only information we got, and the gameplay clip at the end of the segment might not even have been it. Assuming it was, what we saw was a top down view of a pitch (think Football Manager or when you simulate matches in Career Mode) of Liverpool playing Man City, as well as a clip of a stadium being upgraded in classic mobile freemium format. With these two pieces of information, we can make some educated guesses about the game.
First off, the line-ups were the real teams (if slightly outdated with the presence of Gundogan), meaning it may function more like traditional Kick Off or Career Mode rather than Ultimate Team where you build a team of legends. The stadium upgrade also suggests this could be a game with focus on the business management or city-building side of things - I'm imagining The Simpsons: Tapped Out but instead of buying donuts for Homer it's isotonics for Trent Alexander-Arnold, or something.
As for how the football itself would work, I'm not quite sure. It could be a digitised Subbuteo, but we have more advanced and tactical football board games that include deck-building and dice rolls to determine moving, shooting, passing, and tackling. Will the player's base stats play a factor? Is the turn-based game as simple as clicking the player you want to pass to and the opponent trying to guess, or is it a chance-based engine like X-COM?
I love football and while FIFA's (now EA Sports FC's) fast-paced and frantic arcade realism is one of the best interpretations of the beautiful game put to pixel, I'm always fascinated in seeing new takes on the sport. I know why EA Sports is emphasising the tweaks to Ultimate Team and trying to convince us that this year's dribbling is based on the dribbliest dribblers who ever dribbled, but it's the completely fresh ideas that are far more exciting to me. I hope FC Tactical doesn't let me down.