FIFA 23 will not be releasing for another year, at least, but which could be the installment that the community has been awaiting for years.
Taking to Twitter last week, well-known insider Donk, who has had a fair record when it comes to the FIFA franchise, stated that FIFA 23 will be free to play and will also support cross-play across all platforms.
Free to play 🤝 Cross platform #FIFA23
— Donk | #FIFA22 (@DonkTrading) July 17, 2021
Take note that FIFA 22, which will be releasing in the coming months, will release without any cross-play support. Hence, for FIFA 23 to finally allow players to play with or against friends on other platforms would be notable.
For years now, players have been requesting publisher Electronic Arts (EA) to consider a free-to-play approach because of how little each annual installment differs from its predecessors. A free-to-play FIFA 23 game would not only allow EA to focus timely updates without having to draw up a new installment altogether, but also make it less cumbersome for players to keep buying new FIFA releases just to keep up with their friends.
If anything, it is bizarre that EA has still not considered a free-to-play approach. FIFA sells millions of copies every year but earns even more through microtransactions. The latter suggesting that a free-to-play model would help EA earn even more, at least that is the idea of a free-to-play game but with meaningful microtransactions.
It should be noted that Konami recently jumped onto the free-to-play bandwagon. Pro Evolution Soccer 22 was unveiled as eFootball, a free to play game with cross-play coming in post-launch. Perhaps seeing its competition taking a different approach has finally convinced EA to take the same pathing as well.
FIFA 22 will be releasing on all supported platforms on October 1, 2021. The new game, much like the recent ones, will be previous-generation on PC. The next-generation features will only be there for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions.
