By Rob Leane

Published: Friday, 30 September 2022 at 12:00 am


3.0 out of 5 star rating

The final whistle has been blown. The FIFA franchise, as we know it, is doomed to die a death (of sorts). EA Sports has already confirmed that it will be parting ways with FIFA, the governing body of world football, with EA Sports FC due to be launched next year instead – EA will be breaking out on its own and FIFA will seek new partners in the gaming space.

Before that can come to pass, though, pre-existing contracts seem to dictate that EA and FIFA must share the pitch one last time, with the newly launched FIFA 23 marking the final collaboration between those two giants of the footballing scene. If the final whistle has already blown, then, this last hurrah must be the awkward period of extra time that follows.

Seeing as FIFA 23 is the last FIFA game that EA will make, there’s more attention than usual on this year’s entry in the decades-long football simulator franchise. Here at RadioTimes.com, we’ve been playing the game for a little while now, and we’re here to bear witness and share our opinions as FIFA 23 brings this era to a close.

To keep the metaphor alive, we’d argue that FIFA 23 is floundering rather than flourishing in this extra-time period, and you can’t help but wonder if EA is already looking ahead to next year’s rebrand rather than putting all its attention on the here and now.

That’s not to say that there aren’t changes and improvements here. Women’s club teams have been added for the first time, which is no small feat, and the catchily named HyperMotion 2 technology has been deployed (on the next-gen systems only) to add an extra layer of realism to the on-pitch antics.