EA Sports FC 26 settles the score with Competitive and Authentic Gameplay presets so you can pick whatever works for you

We’re about midway through the summer, which means it’s time for EA’s next football game to be revealed. EA Sports FC 26 has been officially announced, complete with the reveal of its dual-talent cover.

Jude Bellingham, and Jamal Musiala are the two cover starts for FC 26, while the legendary Zlatan Ibrahimović will adorn the Ultimate Edition cover instead. This actually isn’t Bellingham’s first time on the cover, having debuted last year.

Musiala, however, is making history as the first FC Bayern Munich player to feature on the cover of an EA Sports FC game.

EA is betting big on community with this year’s game. Many of the new gameplay updates are driven by player feedback, but there’s an even bigger opportunity for the community to shape the future of the game.

EA is calling it FC Feedback, and it encompasses the Player Feedback Portal, Design Councils led by the game’s community, the FC Discord server, as well as standard forums, and social media channels.

There are a couple of gameplay updates arriving with this year’s game that affect pretty much the entirety of it. EA claims improved dribbling responsiveness, more explosive player movement when running, smarter goalkeepers, and close-body volumetric animations.

Ultimate Team gets a lot of updates, too, mainly the new Live Events, and various tournament modes. There’s also what EA calls the Competitive Gameplay Preset, which is designed for Ultimate Team, and Clubs. That preset should be more responsive, and consistent, whereas the Authentic Gameplay Preset is designed to be as true-to-life as possible.

FC 26 also introduces Archetypes, essentially adding new classes to Clubs, and Player Career to accentuate player individuality. It lets you upgrade player attributes, and unlock unique perks that give each player a distinct feel.

EA Sports FC 26 is set for release September 26 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Switch 2, and Amazon Luna. As always, the Ultimate Edition will unlock the full game early, this time on September 19. This is also when the EA Play 10-hour trial will be available, with pre-orders for all editions now live.