‘FIFA 23’ Devs Explain Reasoning Behind Controversial New Feature

The so-called "console wars" are a nuisance for many reasons. Exclusives are a pain, and essentially a ridiculous concept. Missing a potentially beautiful piece of art because you spend half a grand on the wrong piece of hardware - is this the world we want to live in? At any rate, there are other problems too. Absence of cross-platform gaming, for example.

Cross-platform gaming, if you don't know, is when two players with the same game, but a different console, can play a game together. It was announced earlier this year that FIFA 23 would be the first entry in the series to let players with PlayStations and Xboxes play a match together. It got everyone's hopes up, until it was revealed there was a catch. We can play together, but not all online features will be available for cross-play.

Check out the release trailer for FIFA 23, scheduled for release on 23rd September this year.

That Pro Clubs will not feature cross-platform support caused a fair bit of rage across social media. EA did explain this decision, though.

They said: "We want to ensure our product innovation is delivered at quality, and because of the technical intricacies of implementing cross-play, modes that pair players together such as Pro Clubs will not feature cross-play at this time."

I'm not sure how these technical issues work, or what legal implications might be involved, but it sounds like EA haven't made this decision lightly. It's a blow to those looking forward to playing club teams against their pals on a different platform, however.

FIFA 23 will release on multiple platforms (of course) on September 23rd. You never know, there could be a patch in the future that amends this. Until then, at least we'll be able to play a game of football together. It's the first time we can, so things are moving in the right direction.