In the gameplay deep dive for EA Sports FC 25, Electronic Arts introduced the AI-based new feature FC IQ, which is set to fundamentally change the tactics in the game like never before in 10 years.
As promised, Electronic Arts released the Gameplay Deep Dive for EA Sports FC 25 yesterday evening. The four-minute-long video, which you can also watch in the German version after this news report, looks at the new features in this year’s offshoot of the football series – and the focus is primarily on the FC IQ feature.
FC IQ makes its debut in EA Sports FC 25 and is an AI-based model that evaluates data from the real world of football and is intended to make the game much more realistic in tactical terms in the future. EA itself emphasizes that it has not revised the tactical fundamentals as much as it has now with FC IQ for many years.
The system affects the basic formations, which can now be optimized even more finely and adapted to your playing style. The result should be greater strategic control in the game and a much more realistic movement of the team as a whole.
However, the tactical formation is not the most important point of the system. Rather, you will have to find and use suitable players for your preferred system. It will no longer be enough to simply put the player with the best rating somewhere. Rather, a player must also be able to take on the intended role model in the system.
There are a total of 31 such player roles, with several for each player position. To give an example: In central midfield there is now the holding six, which is so omnipresent in modern football and is more geared towards defense. The box-to-box player in midfield is balanced and can generally play well between the penalty areas, while the playmaker has a greater focus on offense.
The 31 roles and their properties are distributed as follows:
- GK
- Goalkeeper – Defend | Balanced
- Sweeper Keeper – Balanced
- RB/LB
- Fullback – Defend | Balanced
- Wingback – Balanced
- Falseback – Defend | Balanced
- Attacking Winback – Balanced | Attack
- CB
- Defender – Defend | Balanced
- Stopper – Balanced
- Ball-Playing Defender – Defend | Build-Up
- CDM
- Holding – Defend | Roaming
- Centre-Half – Defend
- Deep-Lying Playmaker – Defend | Roaming
- CM
- Box-to-Box – Balanced
- Holding – Defend
- Deep-Lying Playmaker – Defend
- Playmaker – Attack | Roaming
- Half-Winger – Balanced | Attack
- RM | LM
- Winger – Balanced | Attack
- Wide Midfielder – Defend | Balanced
- Wide Playmaker – Attack
- Inside Forward – Balanced | Attack
- CAM
- Playmaker – Balanced | Roaming
- Shadow Striker – Attack
- Half-Winger – Balanced | Attack
- RW | LW
- Winger – Balanced | Attack
- Inside Forward – Balanced | Attack | Roaming
- Wide Playmaker – Attack
- ST
- Advance Forward – Attack | Complete
- Poacher – Attack
- False 9 – Build-Up
- Target Forward – Balanced | Attack | Wide
The system is also intended to have a concrete impact on the career mode in EA Sports FC 25, because the required and sought-after player profile has consequences for the areas of transfers, scouting and youth academy in individual cases. The team structure as a whole is intended to go far beyond the pure overall rating of a player.
In the Gameplay Deep Dive for EA Sports FC 25, the developers focus on the new, AI-based FC IQ system and its effects.
