EA Sports FC 24 — launching September 29 — has revealed a gameplay deep dive trailer, detailing the key tech changes coming to the annual footballing sim. The new iteration comes with HyperMotionV technology — promising more realism in player movement and interaction — alongside some player-specific abilities called PlayStyles and the inclusion of women footballers in its popular but controversial Ultimate Team mode. This marks the first football title from EA Sports to not carry the ‘FIFA’ moniker, after EA’s relationship with the global footballing federation ended due to financial disagreement over a new licensing deal.
As usual, EA Sports is aiming for realism with the upcoming EA Sports FC 24, thanks to the new motion capture HyperMotionV technology, which takes volumetric data from over 180 professional matches to recreate them in-game. This allows developers to motion capture players directly from their real-life matches, instead of having them come over to the studio and put on a suit. All data is captured from cameras present inside stadiums, helping EA produce authentic animations such as Erling Haaland’s iconic karate kick goal against former club Borussia Dortmund, which is now in the game. During FC24’s reveal event, EA claimed that developers could have all the latest animations ready to go in their engine, merely within days since it happened live on the pitch.
As you go about your game, you might notice some RPG-like icons popping in and out, serving as unique, player-specific signature abilities. EA Sports has partnered with leading statisticians Opta Sports to assign PlayStyles to players, enabling defenders like Liverpool FC’s Virgil van Dijk to perform a stop tackle, allowing them to cleanly steal the ball and trigger a counterattack. The ball reportedly sticks to the feet of successful slide tacklers, rather than just bouncing off in some random direction and causing you to lose possession. Players can have multiple PlayStyles, with some of the world-class footballers bearing the PlayStyle+ label, which is a juiced-up version containing stronger abilities. In the larger scheme of things — just like in previous FIFA games — it’s quite unclear how this is beneficial to the player.
Players like Neymar Jr. have always been good at skill moves and this new tech gives him a Trickster+ style — makes no sense because he would still function the same. In total, there are 34 of these PlayStyles and they can also be equipped on the player career mode for better personalisation and helps build a more viable squad in the Ultimate Team segment. Hopefully, those indicators can be turned off to not be distracting during the game. EA Sports also touched upon the returning Frostbite Engine in FC24, emphasising how the fabric on a footballer’s kit wraps itself and moves around bodies. EA does improve upon its visuals a lot, even if they’re minute changes.
As mentioned before, EA Sports FC24 will introduce women footballers to Ultimate Team — not as a separate division, but making them available to play with and/ or against male players in FUT. So, if a male and female player have the same attributes and height, they would function similarly on the pitch, being able to compete with other highly rated players. As you’d expect, the mixing caused some fans to retaliate, with John Shepherd, VP, Electronic Arts saying (via IGN): “We have a vision of connecting not just the 150 million fans we have now, but a billion fans,” he said. “We want this game and this brand, this club, this ecosystem, to welcome everybody. In terms of our decision around how we’re integrating women’s football into Ultimate Team, we feel really strongly about that.”
“There are other modes of play, such as Kick Off, where it’s more about that club playing together against another club. But Ultimate Team to us is a mode where you can have a mix of players and you can build the best team. And we think that’s going to be great for football, and we think that’s going to be great for our fans and our future fans.”
EA Sports FC 24 is out September 29 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and the Nintendo Switch. Pre-ordering the Ultimate Edition grants you seven-day early access from September 22.