Community ManagerCommunity Manager
Welcome to the EA SPORTS FC 25 Gameplay Deep Dive Pitch Notes my name is Keegan Sabatino, Gameplay Producer on EA FC, and helping me today I have my colleagues, Brae Thompson and Thomas Caleffi (with special thanks to everyone in the Gameplay Team). In this article, we'll break down each gameplay update coming to FC 25 in detail to get you set for launch on September 27.
We'll kick things off with a quick summary of the key features we're introducing, then dive into full feature breakdowns below.
Let's get started!
This overhaul of tactical foundations across the game delivers greater strategic control and more realistic team movement, while a new AI model powered by real-world data influences player tactics through all-new Player Roles.
An overhaul of Team Tactics upgrades positioning at both ends of the pitch and changes how every team plays based on their real-world style, making every match feel fresh and unique.
More than 50 new Player Roles will guide the way every player thinks and behaves on the pitch, resulting in more authentic tactical intelligence and movement off the ball.
New real-time suggestions and D-Pad functionalities make in-game tactical decision-making more accessible and intuitive than ever, and new broadcast features allow you to better experience the changes as they take effect.
FC IQ is the new core tactical and positional system for EA SPORTS FC™ 25.
FC IQ helps refresh our approach to tactics and positioning to create greater variety and authenticity in gameplay, while a new AI model, powered by real-world data, influences player tactics through all-new Player Roles
In EA SPORTS FC™ 25, FC IQ sits alongside HyperMotionV* and PlayStyles as a foundational pillar of our gameplay innovations. Thanks to real-world volumetric data from top teams and footballers, we built HyperMotionV, which helped us move forward with the visuals and authenticity of our players. Meanwhile, implementing PlayStyles allowed us to further showcase players' abilities and personalities on the ball. FC IQ is the latest fundamental pillar that brings greater variety and authenticity to our gameplay.
We’ve seen our community ask for new updates to Tactics, and our intent is for FC IQ to shake up how players choose to play across all modes.
FC IQ has three main components: Player Roles, Team Tactics, and Smart Tactics.
We will explore these components in even more detail with a later Deep Dive, but here’s what they’ll look like overall.
Player Roles are the main differentiation of FC IQ and guide how every player thinks, behaves, and moves off the ball. Each Role is distinct, with positive aspects and drawbacks.
A majority of Familiar Roles are assigned with help from a proprietary AI model that uses real-world Opta data. Each player will have a Role Familiarity that allows them to perform their duties at a higher capacity than other players.
Roles also determine how your players line up with and without the ball, and you can see that in the menus.
While a Role dictates the main responsibilities of the player, the Focus is a modifier upon the Role that enables players to slightly tweak one or two characteristics of it.
At launch, there are 31 Roles, each with 1-3 Focuses, totaling 52 unique combinations.
We will explore each of these Roles and Focuses in a future Deep Dive.
Position | Role - Focus
While the Roles are determined per position, Familiarity is connected to specific players and acts on the Role level.
Familiarity is position-based, meaning that if a player has that position as one of their preferred ones, they can play any role in that position. This applies to any position a player might have.
Our proprietary AI model helps determine the Role Familiarity of a majority of players in FC 25.
FC IQ Team Tactics introduces systems used by football’s top tacticians and upgrades the football IQ of every player on the pitch. As a result, your whole team will think and behave more like real-world pros.
These are the main components of team tactics:
Smart Tactics make in-game tactical decisions more accessible and intuitive, and allow players to better experience their changes as they take effect.
A new messaging system will suggest a range of tactical changes in-game based on the current flow of the match, and players will be able to easily perform changes using the directional buttons.
These are the main components of Smart Tactics:
We will explore more in-depth about FC IQ in a later Deep Dive.
HyperMotionV* technology uses volumetric data to create lifelike player movements. Meanwhile, GK Playstyles bring a new level of depth to the goalkeeper's role, affecting how they react to different situations on the pitch. This technology allows for our AI to better mimic real-life player behaviors, making each match feel fresh and unique.
HyperMotionV Technology continues to evolve towards achieving new levels of authenticity and helps us refresh what’s possible on the pitch, bringing to FC 25 new animations that are driven by real-world volumetric data with the goal of fuelling FC IQ while making players more unique.
As a reminder, AI Mimic takes footballers’ real-world volumetric data and uses advanced artificial intelligence to recreate unique body movements.
AI Mimic technology uses numerous frames of volumetric animation, providing an additional level of detail and fluidity for over 1800 players, including more than 200 new women, ensuring a more diverse and inclusive representation of the global football community. Compared to FC 24, where we had 1,373 players with upper body movement, we've expanded our library to include 1,847 athletes with full body movement, encompassing both upper and lower body actions. This expansion is intended to improve the overall gameplay visuals and bring a new level of realism to the virtual pitch.
A goalkeeper who is known for using their feet to make difficult saves.
Performs foot saves faster and with extended reach.
Performs foot saves more quickly with even greater reach.
A goalkeeper who is known to often challenge attackers head-on in 1v1 situations.
Rush speed is increased and has an improved reaction speed to shots in rushing situations.
Rush speed is greatly increased and has a faster reaction speed to shots in rushing situations.
A goalkeeper who is known for having great deflection control to safer spaces.
Performs deflection saves into safer areas with increased ball speed control.
Performs deflection saves into safer areas or towards free teammates with greater ball speed control.
A goalkeeper who is known to often come off the line to claim high balls from dangerous areas.
Comes out to claim crosses with increased pace, increased awareness of the ball trajectory, and further punch reach with increased power.
Comes out to claim crosses with greater pace, greater awareness of the ball trajectory, increased punch reach with greater power.
A goalkeeper who is known for the ability to cover the net and extend their reach to save challenging shots.
Performs diving saves with improved reach and has access to extended reach animations.
Performs diving saves with greater reach and has access to extended reach animations.
A goalkeeper who is known for starting counter attacks with long throws.
Able to perform throws with increased speed and distance.
Able to perform throws with greater speed and distance.
The attacking phase of the game has received a comprehensive overhaul with an Accuracy Revamp. This includes new Skill Moves, the ability to let the ball run to create space, and improvements to passing, shooting, and dribbling. Our changes here aim to give players more control and precision, making attacking plays more rewarding and exciting.
We're excited to share some significant updates to passing mechanics, which aim to make every pass more authentic and rewarding.
In FC 25 we have implemented a redesigned Accuracy system in order to bring more personality and authenticity to the virtual pitch. This new system is designed to reflect the real-world challenges of making accurate passes under pressure, different angles, and various difficult situations. Players will notice that passes now feel more personality-based, meaning the skills and Attributes of the player you're controlling will have a greater impact on the outcome of each pass. This change also ensures that good situations, where you make smart, tactical decisions, will yield better results, truly rewarding your football acumen.
In our continuous effort to refine the gameplay experience, we've implemented several key updates to passing mechanics;
Note: These animations only trigger in matches with Rain or Snow weather conditions non-competitive modes. These animations, when triggered, are only visual and do not affect end results of passes or shots.
There is no better feeling than putting the ball in the back of the net, and we hope to provide players with even more ways to do this in EA SPORTS FC™ 25.
Our goal with these changes is to create a more immersive and realistic football experience that rewards players for their knowledge, strategy, and skill. By making passing more nuanced and reflective of real-life football, we believe we can bring a new level of excitement and challenge to the game.
One of the significant updates we're introducing is to shooting accuracy, which now aligns with the changes we've made to passing accuracy. This means that the accuracy of shots will now more closely mirror the real-life abilities of players, their playstyles, and the specific situations they find themselves in during a match. Players can expect that taking shots in difficult situations will feel more challenging, with new animations added to showcase off-balance and tough-angle shots.
In addition to the accuracy changes, we’ve made several other improvements to shooting in EA SPORTS FC™ 25:
This year we've focused on refining the dribbling experience in EA SPORTS FC™ 25, allowing players to feel more grounded and in control when maneuvering on the ball. Additionally, we've cleaned up animations to eliminate some potentially awkward movements, ensuring that every dribble and turn looks and feels more lifelike.
In FC 25,our dribbling improvements include:
Note: The following abbreviations will be used for controls: LS = Left Stick, RS = Right Stick
The following command has been removed: Orbit Dribble L1 + L2 + LS Direction || LB + LT + LS Direction
New Skill Moves have been added along with some changes to existing ones.
Defending has also been enhanced with the introduction of professional fouls, with the aim of adding new strategic elements to gameplay. With improvements to goalkeeper movement and rushes, along with an increase in Player Switching speed, we want players to be able to defend more responsively.
We want you to be able to take more control over the pitch to shut down your opposition with revamped core mechanics, and a new mechanic, the Professional Foul.
This action can be a strategic choice to halt a counterattack or stop an opponent’s promising advance. However, while initially always resulting in a yellow card, excessive use of Professional Fouls in a match can lead to red cards.
To request a professional foul, you can press:
R1+X || RB+A
The goalkeeper position has received several improvements in EA SPORTS FC™ 25, from Goalkeeper Movement to the new Rush to Contain mechanic.
Goalkeepers can only be manually moved 1-2 steps in any direction, with a short cooldown period after use to prevent this move from being overused.
In summary:
During set pieces like corner kicks and free kicks, the Goalkeeper's manual movement will function as it has previously.
In EA SPORTS FC™ 25, we are adding a new type of Goalkeeper Rush to the player's toolkit. This new mechanic will have the goalkeeper rush out and close the distance to the attacking player but remain a distance away from them to close down the shooting angle.
To perform Goalkeeper Rush to Contain:
Visual enhancements across the pitch aim to bring a new level of authenticity to the game, from the lushness of the grass to the more lifelike player models. New set pieces roles add variety to the game, while the introduction of bench players' G5 rules and the Eval Engine's Pass Map offer deeper tactical analysis and strategic options.
Might not be available in all modes*
Players can now select players to fill 3 important locations during corner kicks;
Free Kicks
Penalty Kicks
Our updates in this part of FC 25 are designed to improve the overall gameplay experience, bringing it closer to real-world football. From the introduction of the Offside Advantage Overlay to adjustments in foul logic, we’re aiming to enhance the game for both serious and more casual EA SPORTS FC™ players.
Offside Advantage Overlay
User Color Advantage Overlay
Note: When playing local with multiple controllers, the Advantage overlay will appear in the corresponding color of the player that has committed foul.
Extra Substitutes* [NG]
Might not be available in all modes*
Players will now have (9) available bench slots depending on the competition, enabling more flexibility when it comes to mid-match tactical changes.
Aggressive Team and Player Foul Animations
Improvements to Foul Logic on GK Dives
Red Card Advantage
A newly introduced system adds an advantage call for potential second yellow or straight red card scenarios, allowing play to continue. Second yellows and red cards can be given later, during the next stoppage in play.
Note: The Red Card Advantage is only intended to occur during clear goal-scoring opportunities.
Added a new Pass Map in the stats screen to provide more in depth information for players.
We’ve made the following improvements to player movement:
Simulation Mode
For those who enjoy a more strategic and simulated approach, the Simulation Mode introduces enhanced CPU AI, wind effects, and player-controlled sliders for fine-tuning gameplay.
Simulation Mode will be available in the following modes:
The following are the preset slider settings that come into effect during Simulation Mode:
With Simulation Mode, customized preset sliders tune the CPU AI to better mimic the speed of authentic matches, giving offline players a slower, more authentic version of the world’s game.
Located in Game Settings > CPU Sliders, we are introducing two new presets for CPU sliders in EA SPORTS FC™ 25. These presets are:
New CPU Sliders added to FC25:
Wind is new to EA SPORTS FC™ 25, and will be available for all offline modes, toggleable via Settings > Match.
Wind effects impact various aspects of the match,such as ball trajectory, player hair, and jersey physics. Wind effects will be available in the following modes, toggleable via Settings:
Note: Players can choose between three different Wind Effects - Low, Medium or High. Wind will not change speed or direction during the course of a match.
We hope this Gameplay Deep Dive gives you a good sense of the exciting features and mechanics coming to EA SPORTS FC™ 25. Our team is dedicated to providing an immersive and realistic football experience, and we can’t wait to see you get your hands on our new features and changes. Thanks for taking the time to read our Pitch Notes!
Community Manager
Welcome to the EA SPORTS FC™ 25 Football Ultimate Team™ Pitch Notes, I’m Azlan Mustapha, Lead Producer, joined by Celina Chang, Producer on Football Ultimate Team™ Rush. We're excited to share details on the new features coming to EA SPORTS FC 25 Football Ultimate Team™.
Football Ultimate Team™ in EA SPORTS FC 25 will let you team up with friends in 5v5 Rush, unlock new levels of strategy in 11v11 with Player Roles and FC IQ, and introduces some long awaited community requested features.
We’ll see you on the pitch on September 27th for Worldwide Launch, but until then, let’s dive deep into what Football Ultimate Team is all about in EA SPORTS FC 25.
Bring your favourite player item from your Ultimate Team club, team up with friends, and hit the pitch in intense, locked-to-player 5v5 matches. Rewards earned in Ultimate Team Rush can be used to improve your own Ultimate Team roster in the 11v11 experience.
FC IQ informs the Ultimate Team experience in a variety of key ways. Manager Items will feature the manager’s real-world tactical preferences, authentically influencing how your team plays on the pitch. Player Roles are also part of each player item and available from the very beginning of the Ultimate Team season.
The Ultimate Team match experience is fully refreshed thanks to newly designed stadiums and more engaging live broadcasting sequences. New presentation elements highlight lineup decisions and both teams’ unique players. Larger away sections allow you to bring more of the home stadium experience on the road.
The Player Item shell has always held the spotlight in Football Ultimate Team™, but now you can make it your own in unique ways. Upgrade Player Item shells with all-new cosmetic Evolutions: add more breakouts and modify embellishment components such as backgrounds, borders and SFX.
We're excited to introduce Rush to Football Ultimate Team™, a new way to play and win with friends. Select your favourite player to control and build your dream 5-a-side squad with up to three friends, then compete for rewards in 5v5 matches.
Rush is a 5v5 experience, including AI-controlled goalkeepers, allowing you to either team up with up to three other friends or drop in as a solo player and get matched up with other players. Bring your favourite player to control and your teams’ choices will contribute towards earning Rush Points.
When playing Rush, you’ll need to first select an event. Rush events in Football Ultimate Team™ are designed to offer players another layer of challenge in squad building by limiting the Player Items you can bring into the event. Each event can come with specific entry requirements and these requirements may restrict the eligible pool of players based on Rarity, Attributes, or countries/regions, leagues, and clubs. Different Rush events may provide faster progression towards completing your weekly Rush Objectives, but all events will contribute to the same set of weekly Rush Objectives.
Rush introduces a collaborative squad building experience in Football Ultimate Team™. You will need to work together with your team to pick players that perform on the pitch, and also complete block requirements to maximise Rush Points earned.
After finding teammates, you will enter the squad building phase. Players from your Club will be pre-filtered based on the event entry requirements for you to quickly choose from. If you’re not satisfied with the recommendations, you can still search for specific players from your Club during this phase.
You and your teammates will have 90 seconds to select the players you want to use in the match - remember, each of you will only be able to control the player you select. Duplicate players are not allowed on the same team, including other versions of players as well. Once each player has locked in their selection, or the timer expires, your team will begin matchmaking with opponents.
Rush Points are the primary way you will complete Weekly Objectives and earn rewards in Rush. They can be earned both on the pitch, and in squad building by completing block requirements with your team.
The fastest way to earn Rush Points is to win matches with friends in your group - but there are many ways to earn Rush Points:
Blocks are optional challenges that your team can solve collectively, and within each Rush squad building phase your team can have up to 5 blocks to complete. Blocks offer ways to earn more Rush Points, and they may change from event to event.
Block requirements can target player Attributes, team composition, and more.
By successfully completing these blocks, your entire team will be rewarded with bonus Rush Points. Some blocks will provide flat points, multipliers, or conditional bonuses. As mentioned before, our goal here is for players to collaborate closely with their team, strategizing on team composition to meet these requirements.
Blocks can award your team with:
A Rush Objective Group will be available each week, allowing you to earn rewards based on Rush Points earned that week. By participating in Rush events and completing block requirements, you can increase the amount of Rush Points earned from that match for you and your team. While these Rush Objectives will be available each week, there may also be additional Objectives related to Rush allowing you to earn more rewards.
In Rush, you can play with any group size up to 4 players, and whether you’re playing as a solo, duo or trio, players will be found to fill the remainder of your team. Matchmaking will take into account your skill level within Rush specifically and use this to match you with teammates, and your overall team skill when finding opponents. Matchmaking pools will be separated based on events to ensure that players will be playing with the same event entry requirements and eligible pool of Player Items.
If a player leaves a match in-progress, their chosen player will be controlled by the AI. The match will end if all players on a team are not present.
In summary, build your dream 5v5 squad with up to 3 other friends while maximising your Rush Points. Then, compete to win and complete Objectives for exciting rewards.
FC IQ overhauls tactics to deliver greater control over your team's strategy, both on and off the ball in 11v11 Football Ultimate Team matches. A new AI model, powered by real-world data, influences player tactics through all-new Player Roles
Manager Items also now come with Tactical Presets, which you can use to emulate some of your favourite real-world tactical setups.
Manager Items will feature their real-world tactical preferences and allow you to influence how your team plays. They also have Tactical Presets which are a great way to try out new and different team setups for those who want to experience new tactical approaches without customising from scratch.
You will be able to use the Tactical Preset of your currently active Manager and save it to a Tactics slot, enabling you to assign it as your starting Tactic or one that you reactively switch to during a match.
Player Roles are a new part of each Player Item and are replacing Work Rates. Player Roles will guide the way players think and behave on the pitch, resulting in more authentic tactical intelligence and movement off the ball.
At launch; the following player roles will be available:
Position | Role - Focus
Alternate Player Roles will be introduced throughout the year, allowing you to choose from a variety of Player Items as strategies continue to evolve over time.
Each player will have a Role Familiarity that allows them to perform their duties at a higher capacity than others. With all of the combinations of Player Roles and Role Familiarity, our aim is to have much more variety and specialisation when it comes to picking Player Items for your Football Ultimate Team™.
If a player is assigned a position that is one of their preferred positions, they will have access to all of the Roles of those positions in at least a Base level.
Every player will have at least one Role+, indicating that they are accomplished in that Role.
Reserved for the best-of-the-best, the few players with Role++ are world class in that Role.
The yellow exclamation mark indicates a simplified version of the Role when the player is out of position.
Keep on the lookout for Special items with Role Familiarity upgrades released in select Campaigns & Programs throughout the year.
FC IQ introduces a number of other improvements to how you set up and manage your tactics.
Tactics will now be shareable via a short code that you can show your friends or followers. Adding a tactic from a code can be done easily in-game and in the FC Companion.
You will also be able to give your tactics custom names so you can quickly switch to the desired tactic mid-match with ease.
We’ve also made a number of adjustments to formations and positions.
The CF and LWB/RWB positions have been removed.
The following formations have been removed or adjusted:
These are only some of the changes brought by FC IQ. For a full breakdown of the changes, check out the FC IQ Pitch Notes in the near future.
We’ve built a brand new Football Ultimate Team™ Stadium and upgraded the matchday experience with the goal of making every moment feel more alive and immersive.
This state-of-the-art Stadium is not only intended to look spectacular, but also to enhance the atmosphere of every match. With larger away sections, you can even bring a bigger crowd of fans to support your team on the road.
We're also taking you beyond the pitch with new locker room, tunnel, and exterior sequences leading up to the match. These areas will also reflect your customisations, making your Football Ultimate Team™ journey feel more unique than before.
New broadcast sequences have been introduced to highlight the most dangerous players on the pitch as well as the squad building and tactical decisions made by you and your opponent. The match introduction will now highlight your opponents’ players with the most goals and assists, as well as any notable player debuts.
During matches, new broadcast elements have been added which reflect your team Chemistry, squad building choices, player debuts and spotlight in-form players on the pitch, featuring their goals or assists in the last 3 matches within that mode.
The new sequences featuring the stadium exterior, locker room and tunnel, along with the new on-pitch broadcast elements are available only on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
We want you to have more ways to personalise your items and flex your achievements, so in EA SPORTS FC 25, Evolutions are being expanded to allow you to change the visuals of your players in all new ways, with Cosmetic Evolutions.
You can add new visual elements, change the colour of your Player Items, and add animations, or even sound effects to your favourite Player Items. We’ll also have customisations that you can adorn your Player Items with to reflect your accomplishments in the game.
Cosmetic upgrades cannot be stacked, so applying a cosmetic upgrade will replace the previous one. Additionally, Evolutions which upgrade Attributes may also feature Cosmetic upgrades.
Cosmetic Evolutions will be accessible through the main Evolutions page, where we’ve introduced tabs to better categorise the selection. They can be activated in the same way that other Evolutions are, and can be obtained with UT Coins, FC Points, Objectives, or rewards.
Evolutions can be a great way to customise and level up your favourite players, but in EA SPORTS FC 24 it wasn’t always possible to evolve the Player Items you wanted to due to entry requirements. In EA SPORTS FC 25, we will allow more flexibility in which players you upgrade. Allowing you to select the players you want, more often.
In EA SPORTS FC 25, Evolutions can have maximum limits on certain Attributes. Players who will meet or exceed the limit can still be selected for that Evolution and receive upgrades to their other Attributes, as long as they satisfy the requirements.
In EA SPORTS FC 25, we’ve made a number of improvements to the Football Ultimate Team™ experience based on your feedback, and we’re excited to show them to you, so let’s get right to the chase.
Untradeable Duplicate Players will now have their own storage system as part of SBCs. This means that if you acquire an Untradeable Player Item that you already own, you can now store it directly in SBC Storage instead of quick selling the duplicate.
SBC Storage can hold up to 100 Untradeable Items, accessible from the new SBC Storage tab within each SBC. You will also be able to access and send Items to SBC Storage from the FC Companion.
Division Rivals is intended to be your everyday destination for competitive play, and we’ve made a number of changes in EA SPORTS FC 25 to improve the experience and reduce friction points for players.
We want your hard fought draws and 90th minute equalisers to be worth something. So we’ve adjusted the reward system to be based on points instead of wins. You will now earn 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw, ensuring that your efforts in close matches are not in vain and will contribute to your weekly rewards progress.
We’ve streamlined weekly Rivals rewards into a single selection, where we were previously seeing many players unsure about which choice to pick even though many picked the same one. In addition, we’ve removed Seasonal Milestone rewards from Rivals. By simplifying the design, our team can better focus on maintaining reward tuning that is more relevant to you throughout your FC 25 Ultimate Team journey.
We are reducing the number of checkpoints in Rivals and introducing relegation when competing in the highest divisions.
Division 1 and Division 2 will have no Checkpoints and losing a match at the beginning of a Division will result in being relegated to the end of the previous Division. As before, once you reach the Elite Division you cannot be relegated until the end of the season.
We are also reducing the total number of Checkpoints. While Checkpoints are an important and useful mechanic to give you a place to feel at ease on your journey through the Divisions, we’ve heard your feedback that sometimes after a run of matches or win streak you could get stuck at too high of a skill floor.
In EA SPORTS FC 25, your starting Division in Rivals will take into account your highest Division achieved from EA SPORTS FC 24. This adjustment will help you get to a well-suited Division faster, earn higher tier rewards quicker and help ensure our new players aren’t playing against our highly skilled veterans at the start of the game.
Here is an example of how your placement in EA SPORTS FC 24 will translate to EA SPORTS FC 25. Tuning is not final and subject to change:
Here is how your progress will transfer:
We want Live Friendlies to be a place where you can experiment with new squads, Evo players, and complete Objectives against players of a similar skill level.
We are decoupling Live Friendlies and Rivals matchmaking. Instead, Live Friendlies matchmaking is now based on form. This is a similar system to Champions, but will take into account your wins and losses across all Live Friendlies, not including House Rules. As a result, you will be matched against opponents who have won or lost a similar amount of games as you have.
To streamline gameplay and reduce the amount of general management, players and managers will no longer need Contracts. As a result, Contract Items have been removed from the game.
We’ve added game settings to the Football Ultimate Team™ Menu, meaning you can change your settings without having to pause in-game or leave Football Ultimate Team™.
Additionally, changing between Metric and Imperial measurements will now adjust the measurement used for players' height in the Player Bio.
Thanks for checking out our Football Ultimate Team™ Pitch Notes! As always, we can’t wait to see you on the pitch on September 27.
The EA SPORTS FC™ Team
Community ManagerCommunity Manager
