When I was a six-year-old playing Fifa 2000 in my bedroom, I believed in human progress. 3D-sculpted faces; a Robbie Williams intro song; motion capture performed by… Robbie Williams. This was the best it had ever been and my 90s optimism told me that things could only get better. But I was wrong. It is 2026, the planet is fried and we have a game that the times deserve. Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition.
Four years ago, Electronic Arts (EA) said it was going to stop making Fifa-branded titles. This was driven by its unhappiness over the licence fee, which had reportedly reached more than $1bn per World Cup cycle. The split was a gamble for EA, which had built one of the most profitable video-game brands over a three-decade partnership with Fifa, but presented a risk for football’s governing body too. Gianni Infantino, however, was bullish. “The only authentic, real game that has the Fifa name will be the best one available for gamers and football fans,” he said.
It’s safe to say that he was incorrect. Fifa’s first licensed game since its separation from EA is now available on Netflix. It allows football fans and Infantino stans to turn their mobile phones into game controllers to live out their World Cup dreams. Unfortunately these dreams have very narrow parameters. If you want the goalkeepers to be as good as invisible and the commentators to pronounce player names as if they are forcing their words out through a straw, then Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition is your game. If you want anything else, then go anywhere else.
The main issue is the commentary, which is consistently ludicrous. A free kick is in a “promising position” when it is being taken by a keeper in his own box. A midfielder is “not even protesting” a foul as he is in the middle of protesting. England “at last have a bit of a cushion” when they go 8-1 up in the World Cup final. There would be some charm to the jankiness if it didn’t pervade every aspect of the game. Why is Jude Bellingham doing Cole Palmer’s celebration? Why is it easier to score a goal from 30 yards than 12? Why is the best rendered human in the game not a player, but Infantino, handing over the World Cup in a red Maga tie?
It might seem unfair to compare Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition with its EA-partnered predecessors. This new game was developed from scratch in six months, an impressive if unwise feat, and is marketed to a younger mobile-first audience. But it invites the comparison by using Clive Tyldesley (Fifa 06 to Fifa 17) as its main commentator and recycling theme songs from Fifa 98 and Fifa 99 for its menu music. Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition does not hold a candle to either of these games, which were released before high-speed internet existed.
Infantino’s bloodless view of football looms large over a video game in which a 0-0 between Spain and Cape Verde would be a near-impossibility. My World Cup triumph saw me beat Uruguay 8-5, France 9-4 and Croatia 8-1 in the knockout rounds. As a single-minded England fan, I should be delighted, but these victories felt hollow. Candied thrills are on brand for an organisation that sees games less as a creative product than a “multidimensional value driver”.
EA has done well since splitting from Fifa and rebranding its franchise as EA Sports FC. Despite retention struggles, FC 26 was the bestselling video game in Europe last year. The Ultimate Team feature essentially operates as a virtual economy and makes up about 20% of the company’s revenue, which hovers around $7.5bn a year. EA has used money that would have previously gone towards Fifa to sponsor La Ligaand build closer relationships with brands such as Nike. The company directly partners with more than 19,000 athletes and hundreds of clubs, which means it continues to feature real leagues and players. In September, EA announced that it would be acquired by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia for $55bn.
Fifa, which gets the vast majority of its income from the World Cup, appears to be in a good place too. It has the largest branded game on Roblox with Fifa Super Soccer, which boasts nearly 10m monthly active players, and its multipartnership model suggests that it has plans to piggy back on other IP. More than 325m Netflix subscribers have access to Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition.
Finances aside, the gaming credibility of both organisations has greatly diminished since they separated. Fifa 23 remains the best football title in recent years. But while I am playing Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition, I find myself drawn back even further. Not to Fifa 2000, but to Roby Baggio’s Magical Kicks, an iconic, infuriating and unfussy flash game from a simpler time. After 20 minutes, I haven’t scored a single goal. And it is glorious, Gianni. Glorious.
Xavier Greenwood’s undisputed list of the best football games of all time
1.
Fifa 2004 (2003)
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Fifa 2004 will always hold a special place as it marked the start of peak Barclays. As well as introducing career mode to the game, it had a killer soundtrack. Jerk It Out by the Caesars, Já Sei Namorar by the Tribalistas, and That Great Love Sound by the Raveonettes are franchise classics.
1.
Championship Manager 01/02 (2001)
The game’s secret sauce was that you could play it offline, which, in a house of dial up internet, was a godsend. It also unlocked a football nerdery in me that has persisted to this day.
1.
Fifa 14 (2013)
The best of the modern era, Fifa 14 revolutionised the biomechanics of players and had great music. It helped that it came out in my first year of uni.
1.
Fifa Street (2005)
Even if the game was more style over substance, there was something exhilarating about fudging rainbow flicks in concrete jungles around the world.
1.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2 (2002)
Although this was an objectively good game because of its ball physics, player movement and Master League mode, I could never get past Konami’s made-up names, which included Roberto Larcos (Roberto Carlos) and Oranges117 (Robin van Persie). Maybe I was just a weird kid.