FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) is by far the most popular game mode in FIFA. The live service mode allows players to grind their time or (controversially) splash their cash to build the best sides in casual and ranked competition. It’s no surprise that EA Sports invests a lot in it.
It’s the long goodbye for FUT as we know it. FIFA 23 is the last installment of EA Sports’ soccer sim with governing body FIFA’s naming rights. EA Sports FC Ultimate Team EASFCUT – a lovely mouthful – comes next year. But will this year’s version hit the spot?
In an interview with GLHF, Michael Barnucz, line producer for FIFA Ultimate Team, was suitably stoked about the reveal, claiming “we’re excited to deliver more of what fans want in FUT 23.”
So, what’s new?
Chemistry, but not as you know it
In the biggest shake-up in FUT for years, the chemistry system linking your team to play at their best has been totally revamped.
In conversation, Michael stated “the new chemistry system will really help unlock squad building to give players more flexibility throughout the year. A new system allows your favorite players to share Chemistry no matter where they are on the pitch.”
This will make your dream squad, theoretically, easier to put together than ever before. Finally, you can shoehorn one or two ‘off chemistry’ players who had no links to those around them because they are from a different league or nationality. Messi thrown into a Premier League side? Easy.
This leads nicely into the position change updates. No more spamming cards to make a striker a central midfielder in order to hack chemistry and make them fit. Something that was demanded by the FIFA community is changing positions to match real-life player adaptability, such as the wingers who can also play as central strikers. Now, players will have a generic position change consumable to apply to those with a secondary position available.
EA Sports confirmed at the producer showcase that there would be no changes to custom tactics to go along with these position changes.
New Icons and Heroes will come to FUT 23, and soccer’s greatest ever players and fan favorites can take to the field again. The FUT Heroes roster has doubled and will include pre-order bonuses Yaya Toure, Park Ji-sung and Ricardo Carvalho. We won’t know if these cards will be useful in-game, but gameplay updates will hopefully bring more of these cool cards into the meta.
Michael implied they are more valuable than ever when it comes to teambuilding, “Icons and Heroes will provide a valuable boost to squads and open up team building by always playing at full chemistry when played in position. They’re contributing two player points worth of chemistry to their nation for Icons and league for the Heroes.” This sounds like we will see more players using Icons and Heroes, especially early in the game cycle.
When rumblings of a new chemistry system were leaked, the community wanted to know what that meant for the future of Squad Building Challenges (SBCs). What can we expect from them? It’s yet to be released. The puzzle masters at EA will find a way to mix up those crucial foundation SBCs which have remained identical for years, and daily content will follow on release.
Crossplay expanded and markets combined
Crossplay in FIFA 23 comes to the 1v1 matchmaking in FUT Rivals, Online Friendlies, Champions, FUT Play A Friend, and FUT Online Draft.
You can play against players on the same console generation, which should make it easier to find a tie in FUT Champions where at times, finding a similarly ranked clash can take a while.
Players can still play co-op with friends to grind Rivals or Squad Battles, but currently they’ll have to have the same console, not just be on the same gen. The expansion of EA Social from just 1v1 head-to-head games will be a welcome development.
Michael confirmed that the main transfer markets have been combined for FUT 23, “the transfer market is shared between PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Stadia. The PC transfer market is separate, as is the one for Nintendo Switch.”
“With the combined transfer market, there will be a larger volume of content for players to engage with and more opportunities to bid on the items you want. It’s especially beneficial for players on platforms with less players,” he added.
Trading and SBCs is such a large part of the enjoyment for many FUT players, the community is divided about this being a good or bad thing, and we are eager to see the effects in-game.
FUT Moments – for the casuals?
The biggest new addition to Ultimate Team is the new FUT Moments single-player mode, which is “a fresh way to play FIFA Ultimate Team.” This could be a great way of earning coins, completing objectives and making season progress for casual players who don’t want to play online and competitively, and those who want to top up their team when they’re short on time. Squad Battles at 12 minutes per fixture is getting tiring, and FUT Moments aims to bring flash soccer to the time-poor.
It’s almost like a campaign mode for FUT. Earn stars, play challenges as many times as required – with quick restart. Mbappé’s career progression is shown as an early example, and you can expect live, real-world scenarios along with evergreen campaign content.
In a FIFA forecast to have its biggest player base yet, does Michael believe FUT Moments brings enough for new players? “Moments will have a massive variety in scenarios for both experienced and new players, and they can toggle difficulty for increased star rewards. ”
Save up and spend these stars on dedicated, rotating rewards such as packs, players and customization content.
Main FIFA updates will affect FUT
HyperMotion2 took the headlines in the gameplay preview and Power shots. AcceleRATE running styles are another trait, along with weak foot and skill moves, to consider when building a competitive team. These developments will hopefully bring much-needed variety to gameplay, and gameplay producer Sam Rivera was optimistic in an interview that the new gameplay will deliver a “more refreshed experience where it’s not just the same meta.” (read the full article here)
There’s been a visual refresh to FUT, with a new game introduction and better matchday presentation. The FUT Stadium has extra customization capabilities, too. Make your home turf a hyperrealistic stadium fortress or a totally out there futuristic soccer setting. Animated large tifos and more pitch trophies have been announced, along with the new grass that EA wants us to get excited about coming to FUT.
Michael couldn’t reveal whether women’s football will come to FUT, but there are more details to come this summer on how the women’s game (including English and French club football) will be integrated into FIFA 23.
Winter (World Cup) is coming…
In winter 2022 we’ll see the men’s FIFA World Cup come into FIFA 23 and EA promises a host of dynamic content.
For the first time, we have a mid-season World Cup and this could impact other in-game promotions like Team of the Year, or run alongside it.
In FIFA 18, there was a separate FUT World Cup mode with its own tournaments, draft mode, objectives, and SBCs. It even had its own Icons from legendary WC performances. Players got juiced rewards in the main game and a whole team of World Cup Winner cards in packs.
For now, Michael couldn’t tell us anything more on how this will all look, but again, it’s another opportunity for FIFA to thrive as soccer takes the world’s stage. There is a women’s FIFA World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in summer 2023 to take into account, too.
This is an undoubtedly huge year for soccer, which will bring swathes of new players to FIFA for the first time. EA Sports know that FUT will play a massive part in their experience, and it seems like the simplification and redesigns are making this vast game mode better for casual players, whilst respecting those that hustle FIFA all week.
Want to see more? You can now watch the FUT Deep Dive Trailer on YouTube.
FUT fans can pre-order FIFA 23 now for release on Sept. 30, 2022. There are two ways to get ahead of the masses and start building a stacked squad. Those who have a FUT team in FIFA 22 will get FUT Web App access early (date TBC), and by pre-ordering the FIFA 23 Ultimate Edition to get 4600 FIFA Points to spend on packs at launch.
Interview edited for clarity.
Written by Alex Bugg on behalf of GLHF.
