The reveal of EA Sports FC 24's cover art has been less than positive, with many players poking fun at the faces of the many players seen on the ultimate edition, but EA is now assuring the in-game visuals will deliver at the game's release. Despite featuring the star power of Pele and David Beckham on the cover, there has been no shortage of jokes about their potential in-game designs as part of EA's first post-FIFA soccer game. The game is set to run on DICE's Frostbite engine, which serves as the de-facto engine for most of EA's biggest titles, which may give players an idea of what the in-game faces will be.
EA Sports FC 24 is the latest soccer title from EA Sports and will be the first game to be released since the end of EA and FIFA's roughly 30-year partnership. Despite the separation, the game is still set to feature top clubs from the world's top football leagues, including England's Premiere League and Italy's Serie A. It was also confirmed Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, considered one of the best players in the world, will serve as the cover athlete for the standard editions of the game.
While Haaland will be the lone star on the standard edition, FC 24's ultimate edition will feature a who's who of current and past stars players will be able to enjoy in-game. The design of several players' faces, though, became the subject of criticism by many on social media who were worried if the faces on the cover were reflective of how they looked in-game, which EA is now assuring will not be the case at release. EA VP and executive producer John Shepherd echoed this point to IGN in a recent interview, pointing to the game's multitude of licenses as playing a role in the ultimate edition's cover.
Despite the end of EA's partnership with FIFA, the publishing giant still maintains hundreds of licenses with teams and leagues which, according to Shepherd, were difficult to navigate when putting the ultimate edition's cover together. He said "the amount of approvals" needed for a cover featuring so many players have been "highly complex" compared to the fewer approvals needed for a single athlete. He goes on to assure the studio is "doing so much to improve player likeness" and appreciates all the feedback from players following the cover's debut.
The first trailers for FC 24 featured only a limited amount of gameplay, despite all footage being rendered in the Frostbite engine, meaning it may not reflect the final game at release. Some players could argue, though, Shepherd's comments show the disappointing visuals on the ultimate edition's cover may only be an issue related to the cover and not have any direct impact on the game itself. Only time will tell if this is the case or if the ultimate edition's cover art was an accurate representation of the in-game graphics.
EA Sports FC 24 is scheduled to release September 29, 2023, on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: IGN
