EA has revealed that FIFA 23 will be available on September 30 and will feature women's clubs for the first time, as well as same-generation cross-play, World Cup DLC, and more.
Revealed on its official website and in a new trailer (below), EA's final FIFA game will include both the UK's Barclays FA Women's Super League and France's Division 1 Arkema, letting fans play as cover star Sam Kerr.
FIFA 23 will also be cross-play at launch, though like the testing in last year's edition, there are caveats. Players can only play together between the same generation of consoles, meaning those on PlayStation 4 can only play against those on the same platform or on Xbox One. PC players (and those on Google Stadia) will be in the same pool as players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series (X and S).
Friends can also only play against each other in online friendlies and FIFA Ultimate Team's Play a Friend mode. All other modes – FUT Online Friendlies, Online Seasons, FUT Rivals, FUT Champions, and FUT Online Draft – can only be played cross-play through online matchmaking. Players can also choose to opt-out of cross-play altogether, meaning they'll only ever come across players on the same platform.
EA has also announced that free DLC will be released down the line, bringing both the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women's World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 to the game. No release window was given for the DLC but the world cups start in November 2022 and July 2023 respectively.
FIFA 23 also promises to bring more realism and control than ever before through its new HyperMotion 2 technology that includes 6,000 unique animations to make players move more authentically than ever before.
This technology will not arrive in the Nintendo Switch version, however, nor will cross-play in any capacity, as EA is once again re-releasing FIFA 19 with updated players, kits, and squads, the new women's clubs, and a handful of new stadiums, but no "new development or significant enhancements".
Further reveals will be made in the lead-up to the game's September release date, with EA promising new information on gameplay features on July 27, Career Mode on August 1, Matchday Experience on August 5, Pro Clubs and Volta on August 8, and FIFA Ultimate Team on August 11.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.