The development team behind EA FC 27 has acknowledged that a core section of the Ultimate Team audience turned against last year's game, Dexerto reported from a preview event for this year's release.
Jamey Cane, senior lead game product manager, told the site that EA FC 26 began with a lot of positive momentum, but that among a core group of players — the ones most vocal on social media — there was a clear shift in sentiment as the season went on.
Cane said the team had drawn a line in the sand at the start of the year, committing to communicate better with players, and then failed to follow through on it.
We just didn't deliver on those promises.
The criticism came from two directions, according to Dexerto's account. Content creators and prominent community figures objected to how the gameplay evolved over the course of the season, and to the content EA dropped every Friday. Cane said the team also heard complaints about the lack of communication between the developers and the community.
Ultimate Team is the commercial engine of the EA FC series. Millions of players return to it each year to build squads from current and retired professionals, and while Career Mode and Clubs hold their own dedicated audiences, Ultimate Team is the mode the annual release is built around.
For FC 27, Cane described what he called a two-pronged approach: acting on the feedback from the core players who disengaged, and being more open with the community than the team managed last year. He said the aim is for this year's version of the mode to meet player expectations.
One of the largest additions to Ultimate Team this year is the FUT Gallery, which introduces a grading system covering the cards a player has owned, along with special signed collectible items.
Join the conversation — sign in to comment.
Sign in