EA Sports FC's release date leaks and, unsurprisingly, it's in FIFA's old September slot
Plus, closed beta reportedly coming soon.
It's all change this year in the world of video game football, as EA - after some seriously big-money tussling - readies what will be its first major football game not to carry the FIFA branding in nearly 30 years. And now, thanks to a new leak, we've got a good idea of when EA Sports FC will likley be showing up - which, unsurprisingly, is pretty much slap bang in the same late-September slot FIFA has occupied for the last few years.
According to data miner billbil-kun - who has a amassed a pretty compelling back catalogue of accurate calls when it comes to video game leaks (Sony's monthly PlayStation Plus line-up being a particular specialty) - EA Sports FC will release on 29th September this year.
Given that FIFA 2023 and the series entry before it both launched on 27th September in their respective release years, it's hardly a huge surprise to learn EA's new FIFA-in-all-but-name game will follow suit, but it does give us an intriguing window to watch as we prepare to see how EA Sports FC will fair without its familiar branding.
EA, you might recall, officially announced it was ditching the FIFA branding in May last year, after it failed to reach a licensing deal with football's top governing body. Reports claimed FIFA wanted to "more than double" the price of EA's licensing agreement - asking for over $1 billion for each four-year World Cup cycle - as the publisher continued to rake in billions from the game and its loot boxes.
If nothing else, the resulting public spat was entertaining, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino at one point suggesting the organisation did not need EA's hugely-successful series, and that it would simply take its branding elsewhere. "The constant is the FIFA name and it will remain forever and remain THE BEST," Infantino said. Since then, the FIFA branding has been slapped on a variety of Web3, blockchain and mobile apps, alongside an "immersive experience" on Roblox - a platform accused of being both exploitative and unsafe for children.
In other EA Sports FC rumour-news, dataminer Aggiornamenti Lumia (via Insider Gaming) has let it be known that Microsoft's systems appear to be pointing to the launch of an EA Sports FC closed beta in the not-too-distance future.
It's unlikely to be long before either of today's leaks are confirmed or disproven; EA previously announced it'll begin sharing "detailed product updates" on EA Sports FC in July.