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EA Sports FC 24 Ultimate Team | What’s new, what’s changed?

by Adam Cook on July 18, 2023

As one of the biggest games of 2023, all eyes are on EA Sports to find out how FC 24 Ultimate Team shakes things up for the most talked-about mode in the title. Starting out as a paid addon many years back, FC 24 Ultimate Team is a chance for the developer to make big changes, as you don’t get the chance to make a brand new game in a sports series very often.

We recently had a chance to attend a 90-minute-long producer session, where each of EA Sports FC 24’s producers had a chance to come out and speak about their mode, and of course, Ultimate Team was front and centre, with Garreth Reeder (Senior Producer) and Jean Teather (Producer) kicking things off talking about the brand new feature: Evolutions.

FC 24 Ultimate Team: Evolutions

The idea behind Evolutions is that you can create an ultimate team player card that nobody else has. Reeder explained it’s “a new feature that lets you upgrade player ratings, skills, positions, and the items themselves”, and that yes, these would be permanent upgrades.

EA isn’t ready to show us any ratings for FC 24 Ultimate Team just yet, so used last year’s FIFA 23 ratings for examples.

Using Youssoufa Moukoko from Dortmund as an example, completing challenges they were able to get him from a 69-rated silver card, to an 85-rated gold. Once you start the process, a player is marked as an “in progress player” and the game will track his actions and progress, as you complete challenges. You might hit tier one first, which takes him from 69 overall, up to 77. Even after you hit 85 as a max, that might not be the end. A new evolution might fit the player and can keep growing him, which allows you to have a player you take through your whole season.

FC 24 La Liga walkout

Play Style and Play Style+

As per the main game, Play Style and Play Style+ are present in Ultimate Team. Tying into the evolutions mechanic, Teather explained that “Special and campaign items can be upgraded, too”. As an example, FIFA 23 Jude Bellingham Team of the Week got a Play Style+ upgrade and better stats. You can even upgrade the cosmetics of your Ultimate Team cards, and EA Sports has signed a deal with Nike to make custom animations for FC 24.

PlayStyles+ are visible on the cards to the left side of the card. There are going to be some seriously impressive cards fully upgraded. TOTW cards might have added PS+ attributes because of real-world stuff. The producers explained that if someone like Erling Haaland scored an amazing-headed goal in the Premier League, he could end up with a TOTW card that had the Power Header Play Style Plus attribute.

Position Changes

You can finally change players with ease, adding better stats and Play Style additions along the way. Instead of relying on cards from packs or the market to change someone from, let’s say, a CDM to a CM, you can change them wholesale. We’re talking players like Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk moving from centre-back into midfield. We even saw goalkeepers as strikers.

FC 24 Ultimate Team: Women’s football

This new game has given EA Sports the chance to add female players into Ultimate Team, meaning you can mix and match squads, or even have an all-female Ultimate Team squad. This brings in new chemistry options, so Chelsea players like Sam Kerr will have good chemistry with players from the Chelsea men’s team.

There are six new women’s football competitions represented: Women’s Super League, champions cup, Liga F, D1 Arkema, Frauen-Bundesliga, and the NWSL. The player stats are linked to the competition they play in the real world, not against the numbers for the male players.

Icon chemistry, finally fixed

Lastly of major note, EA Sports FC 24 Ultimate Team will have fixes that make the icons easier to use. Now they will give chemistry for every league represented in the squad. So this means that you don’t have to worry about the position modifier step, you can just move players around and they’l;l gain chemistry for their alternate and primary positions.

EA Sports FC 24 launches on all formats on September 29th, 2023.