Will FIFA become Free-to-Play? According to a new report this will be the case, but not in time for FIFA 22 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S and Nintendo Switch. This week, Konami announced that PES, FIFA’s only space rival, will no longer be called PES, but eFootball and will be free-to-play. Following this announcement, many wondered when and if FIFA would follow suit and pl ay for free. Well, it’s not a free game with FIFA 22, but according to a new report, FIFA 23 will be a free game.
The report, which comes from FIFA’s insider mode Donk, not only claims that FIFA 23 will be free, but will add cross-play to the series. While the latter is easy enough to imagine, it’s hard to imagine FIFA being a free game, even after its only competition was a free game. Why? Because it is not necessary. FIFA sells large numbers every year. That said, most of your revenue isn’t actually game sales, but microtransactions, and to that end, a free model makes sense.
Free to play š¤ Cross platform #FIFA23
ā Donk | #FIFA22 (@DonkTrading) July 17, 2021
For now, take all of this with a grain of salt. Everything here is not only unofficial, but is subject to change. At press time, EA has not commented on any of this. We don’t expect this to change, but if it does, we’ll make sure to update the story accordingly.
If FIFA is going to be played for free with FIFA 23, we won’t know until next summer when the installment is revealed. And while it may seem like a move fans will be universally receptive to, this is not the case. There was considerable backlash, for a variety of reasons, from PES fans when Konami announced the name change and the new free model, and this will also happen when FIFA follows suit.
FIFA 22 will be released on October 1, 2021 across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, and Nintendo Switch.