EA FC 24 reveal: Five things we learned about Fifa successor

Erling Haaland was one of the stars of EA Sports FC 24's reveal event

Football fans finally got their first look at EA Sports FC 24 - the successor to the Fifa games.

The game was unveiled at a big-budget event in Amsterdam in front of an invited audience with some special guest appearances.

If you were hoping to get a good look at the gameplay, you might've been disappointed - although more details are expected soon.

But here's a few things we did learn - and what two Fifa streamers thought.

Deals, deals and more deals

EA was keen to let people know about all the deals it'd made with various leagues since dropping the Fifa name. And it made the point by flying in stars including Erling Haaland, Alex Scott and Ronaldinho, also borrowing various major trophies to emphasise the tie-ups.

We found out it's signed exclusive agreements with the Premier League, UEFA, and Spain's LaLiga to include their contests.

Twitch streamer Erbz told BBC Newsbeat seeing big stars come out on stage wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but a "regular consumer of the game" would be "more focused on the game itself".

Women are going to play a bigger role

Bosses also announced a host of women's competitions will be included in the game, some for the first time, and others that appeared in Fifa 23:

• Spain's Liga F

• Germany's Frauen-Bundesliga

• Barclays Women's Super League

• Division 1 Arkema

• National Women's Soccer League

We also learned that women's football will feature in Ultimate Team for the first time.

Streamer Kim told Newsbeat it was "fantastic" to see the number of female leagues in the game expand as EA "plays catch-up" with the women's game.

"I think they made it clear that they are trying to have a lot more inclusivity in the game," says Kim.

"That's something that we've seen the last couple of games as well. Now they've slowly been adding new bits in.

"Women being in Ultimate Team will be a really interesting one to see how they integrate that and what they do with that."

Cross-play's opening up

EA revealed that cross-play will finally be coming to its popular Pro Clubs mode. Now Xbox and Playstation owners can pit their custom teams against each other, as long as they're the same generation of console. So a PS4 player won't be able to challenge a Series X owner, for example.

Erbz says: "I'm mostly a PlayStation player. So I would like to get some of my PlayStation boys together and play against my Xbox friends and just kind of see who gets the bragging rights.

"It opens up the pool to way more players. It will be a chaotic in a good way and in a bad way. So I do look forward to that and yes, it's going to be really really fun."

But if you're a Nintendo Switch player it's bad news - cross-play won't be heading your way.

Haaland's on the cover

The cover shot for the standard edition of EA Sports FC 24 was revealed at the event

After the mixed reaction to the Ultimate Edition Cover, we learned that Erling Haaland will grace the front of EA FC 24's standard edition.

And he showed that he's not just good with his feet. A video doing the rounds on social media shows Haaland taking on Brazilian influencer Luva de Pedreiro in a PS5 match. We can't see the screen, but according to online reports Haaland smashed his rival 7-2 and, in signature fashion, netted a hat-trick with himself.

Fans want to see more of the game

The biggest complaint from fans was that they didn't get to see much EA FC 24 in action. We're expecting to see more footage soon, but the much-hyped event showed a trailer big on cinematics with only a snippet of on-pitch action.

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One of the biggest criticisms of the Fifa series was that it didn't change much from game to game. And, based on what they saw, Erbz and Kim agreed that the title seems like the most significant change so far.

"We're actually bothered about the game itself, the gameplay," says Kim. "What we want to see is good quality gameplay and improvements in places where they've lacked in the past."

Erbz agrees: "EA definitely have a big audience and a big player pool so now it's just key how they just keep that player pool engaged and keep them away from future competitors.

"Because they will be watching that presentation and thinking, you know, we probably do have a chance to swoop in and take some of the base from them."

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