Playing FIFA or FC online has taken many forms over the last two decades. The novelty of online gaming, when it first emerged in the late 2000s, was a revelation; it was something that we had all been waiting for for years.
There was a titanic tussle between XBOX and PlayStation at the time. Although these worlds have now combined to enable crossover gaming across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, there was significant tribalism within gaming communities when it first emerged.
As FC has solidified a major presence in the industry since the mid-2010s, they’ve essentially had to compete against themselves to create the premium football game. Given that they churn out these releases every 12 months, some of these changes can be negligible. However, with the recent release of FC 26, we have now played enough online games to highlight the changes to the online seasons and weigh up the pros and cons.
Capturing The Online Market
The success of EA Sports in this market over the last few years has driven success in several other sectors of the gaming industry. Although home video console gamers had been discussing the potential of online gaming since the 1990s, the success of specific areas led to the development and investment in online console gaming spiralling at the advent of the 21st century.
Online casinos were among the first within the sector to experience sustained international growth. While they are well established in the market now and have integrated some of the latest technological and fintech advancements, there was a time when they were the ones exploring this vast, uncharted gaming territory.
In the modern market, casino games at Ignition are an example of how much the casino gaming industry has moved on over the last decade and a half. Using tokenized assets, cultivating online communities, and integrating the highest levels of security to ensure gamers can use their services safely are commonalities that casinos and home video consoles share.
An Emphasis On The Socials
As FC has dominated the football gaming market for the last decade, its marketing approach has been one of the strongest factors in helping it set the bar much further ahead of the competition. They’re constantly using marketing across a range of socials and on the PS and XBOX stores to showcase their latest ideas.
Again, this is something we have seen in a number of other gaming sectors, whether it is Halloween, as you can see in the link below, or in the case of FC, whenever there is a big game in the calendar, such as the World Cup, which is a huge money spinner, or the Champions League final, where tickets can cost thousands of dollars.
EA Sports consistently uses its social media to promote online tournaments for gamers who want to face off against each other. While this is no different from FC 25, modern digital marketing is just as much about staying consistent and in the public eye as it is about putting together a solid marketing campaign.
While a spearhead TV ad and music were the best way to promote in the early part of this century, social media is now the main battleground, and EA Sports is one of the best in the business in this area of the market.
Examining The Changes
There isn’t too much that has changed between the two games, in all honesty. Often, the best measuring stick for FIFA games is over a half-decade rather than every 12 months. The game itself feels smoother online, with less lag, and it feels more difficult to defend —or maybe that’s just because I’m not very good at it. Division 1 still evades me; I usually get to Division 2 before I run out of steam.
The inclusion of recent form is an interesting twist, and rather than Real Madrid being head and shoulders above every other team online, as they were in FC 25, the inclusion of form and players who are firing on all cylinders has made it a better range of teams to choose from online.
As somebody who hated playing against the same team, if you chose to go Real Madrid on FC 25, you’d have to mutually quit three or four games in a row before you came up against a team that wasn’t Madrid.
Now, I realize I have contributed to this problem too. Still, it is a positive step in the right direction for FC 26; it has led more people to select a broader range of teams. Ultimately, this creates a better, more rounded, and more unpredictable online gaming experience, ensuring that FC 26 can retain its market dominance. So, while there isn’t a significant difference between FC 25 and FC 26, if you are a fan of online seasons, then it is business as usual.
