With the World Cup just weeks away, IGN can reveal The World’s Game update for EA Sports FC 26 and EA Sports FC Mobile with exclusive screenshots and details.
The World’s Game Update, due out May 28, lets players lead a nation in a new 48-team international tournament mode starting June 4. EA Sports doesn’t have the official license for the FIFA World Cup itself (EA Sports’ FIFA series switched to EA Sports FC for the 2023 entry), but the new update features 53 fully licensed and playable national teams, 41 of which are competing in the actual World Cup.
Fully licensed and playable national teams include Brazil, England, France, Cabo Verde, and Uzbekistan. New stadiums include Gillette Stadium and BMO Field, alongside Central Maw, “a new stadium built to capture the atmosphere of top-tier international football.”
The slideshow below includes two exclusive images, revealing the Mexico and Morocco national teams as they appear in The World’s Game update. Other images included show Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, Virgil van Dijk’s Holland, and the United States national team.
EA Sports said the World’s Game features two non-licensed teams with authentic players (Egypt, Japan), and five non-licensed generic squads (Algeria, Curaçao, Iran, Iraq, Jordan). “National team inclusion depends on our ability to secure licensing rights directly and comply with applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. sanctions, which may limit our ability to partner with certain federations,” EA Sports explained.
EA Sports FC 26 The World’s Game Update list of fully licensed nations:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bosnia & Herzegovina**
- Brazil
- Cabo Verde
- Canada
- Colombia
- Congo DR**
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- England
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Ghana
- Haiti
- Holland
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Indonesia
- Italy
- Ivory Coast
- Korea Republic
- Mexico
- Morocco
- New Zealand
- Northern Ireland
- Norway
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Poland
- Portugal
- Qatar
- Republic of Ireland
- Romania
- Saudi Arabia
- Scotland
- Senegal
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Tunisia
- Turkiye
- Ukraine
- United States
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Wales
**Will feature generic kits as of June 4, updated to include authentic kits in a future update.
The standalone 48-team tournament takes you through three group stage matches, with the top two teams progressing alongside the eight best third-placed teams across all groups. From there, knockout rounds begin with the round of 32 before culminating in the tournament final.
Meanwhile, Ultimate Team gets a dedicated Event Hub, Festival of Football themed campaigns, and more. If you log in and play FC 26 between June 5 and July 24, you get a 93 OVR Festival of Football ICON Pelé and three ‘Choose Your Journey’ Evolutions.
Throughout Festival of Football, EA Sports will add over 100 new international players to the FUT pool of items, as well as two brand new ICONS: Rivellino and Mario Kempes. They’ll debut with special Greats of the Game Versions on June 19, before their Base versions are available in the FUT pool of items for Packs from June 26.
We also have additional FV 26 The World’s Game updates, including information on Evo, Tokens, Playstyles, and Clubs, courtesy of the Pitch Notes for the update.
EA Sports FC 26 The World’s Game Update Pitch Notes:
Evo Undo, Festival of Football PlayStyles Lab & Evo Repeats
As part of a server release following the World’s Game Update on June 4, you’ll be able to roll back and fully reset Evolutions in your Club, EA sports said. If you reset an originally Tradable Player, they’ll return to their Tradable status.
“We want your Evo choices to be meaningful to you. Previous Evo updates reduced the pressure of choosing the right player for each Evo, and we believe the Evo Undo change reduces the need to select the right evo for each of your players.
“We’ve heard your feedback that choosing your own PlayStyles matters. As we reflect on FUT Birthday Bakery Evolutions, this was a missing ingredient to allow you to experiment with new players and then sell them on the Transfer Market if you didn’t see them staying in your Club long term.”
Festival of Football introduces a new PlayStyles Lab, allowing you to choose your preferred PlayStyles and PlayStyles+ for the following:
- Festival of Football: Star Performer
- Festival of Football: National Pride
- Festival of Football: National Pride Champions
- Glory Hunters
FUT Birthday items will also be eligible for the PlayStyles Lab, replacing the Birthday Bakery Evolutions.
In addition we’ll be introducing a new item type – Evo Repeatables, which will allow you to earn additional evolutions entries. You’ll see these rewards in upcoming Festival of Football content.
Tokens
Tokens are a brand new reward type that have been designed to give you greater choice over how you play and what you earn in FUT. Starting on June 4 you’ll be able to earn Festival of Football tokens across a range of game modes including:
- Rivals
- Squad Battles
- Rush
- Live Events
- Select Objectives
- Select SBCs
We’re excited about the impact Tokens will have on FUT and your rewards. Starting in Festival of Football, Tokens will become the primary way to earn rewards in FUT each week.
No matter how or where you play FUT, from Season 8 onwards the aim is that you will feel better rewarded for the time you spend playing in game. By unifying mode rewards into Tokens you’ll be able to progress towards the same rewards no matter your mode, giving you greater choice where you play.
Like you see currently in FUT, higher rank finishes will reward you with both Tokens and Additional Rewards for competing at the highest level. As we balance FUT for the entire community, we’re introducing a cap on how many Tokens you can earn each week, placing greater emphasis on the rewards you choose to pursue. Throughout Festival of Football, you’ll be able to earn up to 1,000 Tokens each week (5,000 Tokens in total). Tokens offer a more flexible and reliable way to earn rewards across modes.
We expect that skilled players may be able to earn 1,000 Tokens through playing Squad Battles, Rivals or Live Events and completing special Objectives and SBCs each week. We’ll review this and listen to feedback to understand if this is an area we want to make changes to in the future.
Festival of Football Tokens are earned only through playing FUT and will not be made available inside Store Pack offers.
FUT Champions Tokens
In Season 8, we’ll also be introducing FUT Champions Tokens and a FUT Champions Store featuring a range of rewards, including a rotating selection of special Red FUT Champions Player Items each week. Champions Tokens give you greater choice over your Champions rewards no matter your skill level.
For those who pick up a handful of wins each weekend, you can get weekly rewards or save Tokens over multiple weekends in a Season for bigger rewards.
For those who pick up multiple wins each weekend, we think this change will give you greater choice over the rewards you get. Higher win finishes will still provide additional Coins on top of Champions Tokens, to reward you for pushing for your best finish each weekend.
We believe Tokens will give you greater control over the weekends you choose to play in. As mentioned, this is the first time we’ll be introducing Tokens, and we’ll be taking your feedback on board. As with all of our newest features we are excited to see how this one evolves in the future.
PlayStyles
As we continue to monitor and respond to community feedback, we’re making the following PlayStyles changes to improve gameplay balance.
Bruiser
Following feedback surrounding shoulder challenge outcomes feeling too impactful, especially when using the Bruiser PlayStyle, we have updated both Bruiser and Bruiser+ to better balance between PlayStyles and Attributes.
See the changes below:
Attributes and Playstyles Balance
- Slightly reduced the boost to shoulder challenges from Bruiser and Bruiser+
- Added a slight boost to the receiver of the shoulder challenge if they have Enforcer or Enforcer+
- This boost matches the one made to Bruiser/Bruiser+
Improved Shoulder Challenge Outcomes
- Improved shoulder challenge outcomes so stumble direction and force now better reflect the difference in Strength and PlayStyles between players.
- Note that players with a clear Strength and PlayStyle advantage while defending are able to push the dribbler off the ball like before
- If the advantage lies more with the dribbler they are not pushed away as easily and have a chance to recover the ball
- This effect scales with the difference in Strength and PS boost between the players resulting in more authentic outcomes overall
Improved Detection of Challenges from Behind
- Added logic to predict when a shoulder challenge may hit the back of the opponent, and cancel the challenge if so
Other Changes
- Addressed a visual bug where the Bruiser+ icon displays when the PlayStyle wasn’t in effect
Intercept
We’ve also made the following change to the Intercept PlayStyle to make Attributes more impactful while preserving the PlayStyle benefit:
- Added the ability for players without the Intercept PlayStyle but with a 90+ Interceptions attribute rating to have access to the same animations as those with the PlayStyle.
Penalty Shootouts Event
To mark the beginning of knockout football, we’re introducing Penalty Shootouts, a new limited-time event available from June 28 in Football Ultimate Team and Kick-Off.
Clubs
The following updates have been made in Clubs to further expand the ways you can customise and improve your Archetypes:
- Increased Archetypes level cap
- Increased level from 90 to 95
- Increased Archetype customisable PlayStyle slots
- Increased from 8 to 9, unlocked at level 95
- Increased Signature PlayStyles from 3 to 4
- Fourth Signature Playstyles:
- Shot Stopper
- Deflector
- Sweeper Keeper
- Far Throw
- Progressor
- Intercept
- Boss
- Anticipate
- Engine
- Rapid
- Marauder
- Trickster
- Recycler
- Tiki Taka
- Maestro
- Incisive
- Creator
- Quick Step
- Spark
- Technical
- Magician
- Inventive
- Finisher
- Acrobatic
- Target
- Press Proven
- Shot Stopper
- Fourth Signature playstyle can be upgraded to PS+ at Level 95
- Increased the maximum range of Archetype-specific Attributes
- Shot Stopper
- Vision MAX: 99
- Sweeper Keeper
- Short Passing MAX: 99
- Progressor
- Ball Control MAX: 99
- Boss
- Standing Tackle MAX: 99
- Engine
- Defensive Awareness MAX: 99
- Marauder
- Dribbling MAX: 99
- Recycler
- Aggression MAX: 99
- Maestro
- Short Pass MAX: 99
- Creator
- Cross MAX: 99
- Spark
- Curve MAX: 99
- Magician
- Ball Control MAX: 99
- Finisher
- Balance MAX: 99
- Target
- Balance MAX: 99
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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