EA gives reasons for the lack of next-gen features on the PC

FIFA 21 comes to PC without features that are exclusively reserved for the new XBX and PS5 consoles.

FIFA fans should be familiar with it from the last releases of the consoles: The latest FIFA 21 is also foregoing on the PC this year graphical improvements and individual featuresincluded on the new consoles. That was already known before the release on September 9th. Before the upcoming release of the next-gen versions on December 4th, developer EA Sports revealed in a presentation which features we are missing out on in detail (via Eurogamer

The following improvements appear only on Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X:

Improved rendering and lighting
New animations for multiple short touches of the ball
New animations for non-ball players
Muscle definition: More detailed representation of muscle strands in the players
Visually improved strand-based hair on some top players
Ball deformation: The pill deforms as it does in reality when it is shot.
New camera perspective that should allow a better overview
Improved video scenes before a game
More intense celebrations for important goals

Of course, the graphics in particular benefit from these changes. You can use the first next-gen screenshots to see for yourself how good FIFA 21 looks on PS5 and Xbox Series X compared to PC:

Why doesn’t this appear on PC?

FIFA 21 for Next-Gen will be released on December 4, 2020, for owners of the PS4 or Xbox One version even as a free upgrade. However, PC gamers will not receive the upgrade. As a reason for this decision, EA stated that they wanted to keep the system requirements low in order to “open the doors to everyone who wants to play FIFA and to include everyone.”

Accordingly, data had shown which PC configurations many PC players were equipped with, whereupon it was decided to suspend the improvements in FIFA 21 on PC. Executive Producer Aaron McHardy continued:

“To run the Gen Five game, our minimum specification would have been in a place that would have excluded a lot of people. So we decided to keep the PC version of the game on the Gen Four version for FIFA, so that we can open the doors and involve everyone who wants to play FIFA. “

So players on PC will probably have to wait until FIFA 2022 to enjoy the latest improvements. Our editor-in-chief Heiko Klinge has his own opinion about this downgrade on the PC and explains in his column why he thinks EA’s above reason is a bad joke: