EA isn’t pretending FC 26‘s Ultimate Team went smoothly, according to their recent interview with Dexerto ahead of FC 27’s launch with Senior Lead Game Product Manager Jamey Cane.
Ultimate Team is the mode that keeps EA Sports FC afloat every year, given it is what earns EA the big bucks and at the same time attracts the biggest player base for the game. Being the highlight of the game, millions of players buy it every year just to play this, and when their voices were unanswered, the developers were subjected to backlash for ignoring the community.
Cane has admitted that the launch had real momentum behind it only for it to come crashing down as the year progressed. The core player base expressed disappointment, especially due to the lack of content, which made the game feel flat. Players expect new content or areas to explore after EA charges a fortune for the game every year.
Many have even accused EA of shipping the same game with a new number every year, given how marginal the improvements are, which makes players feel that the game is not worth all the money. Given how EA FC is one of EA’s most profitable games, going dark on the community in the middle of the year is bound to leave some resentment.
“We’d drawn a line in the sand and said we were going to communicate better with players at the start of the year. We just didn’t deliver on those promises,” said Cane.
“That’s something we’re looking to address as we get into FC 27. [We want to] action some of that feedback that those core players were telling us was leading to them being more frustrated and not engaging with the title as much,” he added.
For their plan to remedy the situation, EA plans to take two major steps with the latest iteration of the game, in which they will hunt down the reasons that are driving the players away and, at the same time, they will be open to working on the grievances expressed by the community.
Admission of their negligence is something we rarely get to see from these giants, but to see that EA has accepted their oversight and plans to remedy it gives hope to fans who love the game and football with all their hearts. Only time can tell how their plan to improve EA FC pans out with FC 27, but everything in the interview points to a bright year for our favourite football simulation game.
