In 1993, Electronic Arts debuted FIFA International Soccer, its vision of the most popular sport on Earth. Since then, the series has been extremely successful but also highly criticized. Numerous arguments against FIFA (now EA Sports FC) are on point, so it was a challenge to pick just the top ten. As we still play FIFA/EA FC, this article aims to point the things that need improvement. Thus, let's hope that the developers will listen.

10. Limited Graphics Appeal

Since FIFA 17, EA has used a Frostbite Engine, but it feels outdated in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X era. To be honest, FIFA never had awe-inspiring graphics, including player likeness. While the biggest stars look like they should, everyone else suffers to some extent. Even though we know it's challenging to sculpture thousands of players, we deserve better.

What we also need is more stadium detail and further improvements to the lighting engine. As the current console generation and PCs GPUs support ray tracing, now is the time to do it! Great graphics are essential for sports games, as it's all about creating a more realistic atmosphere. Unfortunately, the series has so far failed spectacularly.

9. Lack of Care For PC Gamers

Whenever a new console generation arrives, this negatively impacts FIFA/EA FC players on PC. For example, until FIFA 23, FIFA games on Windows were the same as on PS4 or Xbox One! This means that PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S owners get the premium experience for the same price. Usually, we are talking about superior graphics but also additional gameplay features.

Even more rage-inducing is when EA explains that PC players don't have hardware to run the next-gen version. In practice, this makes no sense since they could always let gamers customize the graphics and lower the detail if they experience issues. Unfortunately, this awful practice is common to other sports series, including Madden NFL and NBA 2K.

8. Controversial Licensing Deals

FIFA/EA FC owns exclusive licenses to some of the best leagues, including the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, or German Bundesliga. It's not hard to see that it's the main reason why the series is so popular and much more successful than eFootball. Even during its darkest days, FIFA was selling much better than its only rival, which won't change in the foreseeable future.

However, the problem is that EA Sports fails to license even some teams playing the UEFA Champions League. Furthermore, it ignores many notable leagues around the world while featuring those that are barely professional. For example, does anyone outside of Ireland plays as Derry City FC? Also, why can't we have legendary teams like in NBA 2K series? Yes, we get some incredible stars of the past like Maradona, Pele, Gullit, Rijkaard, and many others, but only to use them in FIFA Ultimate Team Mode.

7. Limited Customization

In the past couple of years, Konami and eFootball series are fighting back, as they got some exclusive licenses. For example, EA FC can't use names, logos, and kits for some teams including Napoli, Atalanta, Roma or Lazio. That's a huge problem because EA FC doesn't allow us to customize teams, as you can only create them in the career mode. 

Even worse, the series eliminated its Creation Center feature, where you could make the content on the web and put it in the game. Of course, you could also browse from thousands of teams and leagues, no matter how obscure. Now, the best you can do is find some excellent mods like FIFA Classic Patch for the old FIFA games. Unfortunately, every time FIFA/EAFC receives an update, all mods will stop working. Thus, you'll need new version, which may not come quickly.

6. Player and Team Individuality

Did you know it took the FIFA series five years to introduce players of different heights? Unfortunately, player individuality is still an issue in the FIFA/EA FC series. While in Pro Evolution Soccer, you could easily identify stars and superstars by their moves, that's much harder here. Of course, it's a monumental task to make tens of thousands of unique players, but having most of them so generic is a problem.

Unfortunately, the same goes for the teams. If you play a league, you'll see that all clubs employ similar tactics. While players can change that by customizing game plans via sliders, that's something that developers should have done. Unfortunately, EA football games don't reward creativity, so you'll stick to a few well-tested tactics.

5. Career Mode Is Just There

Even though Career Mode in FIFA is the most popular single player mode, the company barely improves it. Even worse, the mode is often broken beyond repair, which even sparked a Twitter trend. So, why is EA Sports so indifferent about it? The answer is simple, as they don't make money from it!

The company is putting all its resources in FIFA Ultimate Team, which generates millions, so if you don't like this mode, you're out of luck. Unfortunately, despite the name change from FIFA to EA Sports FC, career mode is still suffering. Positive changes are minimal and often followed by nasty bugs.

4. Lack of Improvements

The new version of EA FC comes every year, so developers don't have much time to make massive changes. However, that's not an excuse, as the company could create a DLC as Konami did with Pro Evolution Soccer in 2020. Even if you are a passionate EA FC player, you'll have a hard time noticing some of the listed changes, as they often feel like a placebo.

Even worse, changes are often degrading gameplay, sending EA Sports into panic mode, as they release tons of patches. Sometimes, the situation becomes rather embarrassing, like in EA FC 24, a high-scoring festival with pretty dumb defensive AI. Finally, FIFA/EA FC sometimes radically changes decent gameplay elements, like free-kicks. We guess that's easier than to do what players demand for a decade – fix the passing!

3. Gameplay Weirdness

Even the biggest FIFA/EA FC fans won't tell you that the series is pure simulation. That's very evident, judging by many gameplay elements which fail to be improved since the days of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. We've already mentioned the passing game, but there is so much else that's not OK. Even after so many years, the developers struggle with ball physics or how your AI teammates move on the field.

Defenders and their reactions are probably the strangest, ranging from idiotic to superhuman-like. For example, they may let you easily pass them, but at the same time, they'll produce tons of goal-line saves or block akmost every shot in the penalty box. It is no wonder EA Sports had to make a statement, denying rubber-banding in FIFA.

2. Scamming the Players

Imagine this scenario, which is among the worst practices in gaming industry. You were really hyped for Cyberpunk 2077, to the point you bought it on day one. However, soon after, you've realized it's a buggy mess that's barely playable on PS4 or Xbox One. Or, maybe you bought a crappy game beyond repair and thought it couldn't get any worse. Oh, but it could be – ask EA and their habit of selling you the same FIFA game for years!

What they do is sell so-called Legacy Editions, as they did with FIFA 14 and FIFA 15 for PS Vita. "Legacy Edition" means you get the same game as last year, only with updated rosters! As you can imagine, the packaging is not clearly saying that, so many people are buying it, not realizing they've been scammed. Unfortunately, this awful practice continued on Nintendo Switch until EA FC 24 port. Even worse, some FIFA/EA FC games are carbon copies of the previous versions, and they weren't even branded as Legacy Edition!

1. Microtransactions Are Killing the Game

For many years, Ultimate Team (UT) has been the main FIFA/EA FC mode simply because it contains microtransactions. Forming a decent team to compete online is a lesson in grinding, as it's tough to get some of the best players in the game. Consequently, desperate players are buying points to speed up the process, and we can't blame them for that. However, that turns this mode into Pay-to-win, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for EA Sports.

We can hear you saying that you don't care about the Ultimate Team, but it's not so simple. Because this mode is so profitable, the company is spending most of its resources on it. This awful practice generates many other problems we've mentioned, including gameplay, career mode, player individuality, or the general lack of improvements. While some countries are ending this legalized gambling for minors, we're not sure that result will benefit the players.

What's clear is that the freshly renamed EA FC series will continue to ignore many of its issues without pressure from players, governments, and competition. That's why everyone needs to start sending the right message with their wallets. Also, let's hope that the competition gets back in shape, include Konami. 

What was your first FIFA game? What are some of the top issues you have with the series?

Cover photo: TopTens archive