FIFA 23 | Pitch Notes - FUT Launch Update

Hello everyone,

My name is Gordon Farquhar and I’m a Lead Game Product Manager on EA SPORTS™ FIFA 23. With launch right around the corner, I wanted to share a sneak peek at what we as a team have planned for FIFA Ultimate Team™ (FUT) 23 including:  

Early Access

Ones to Watch

Team of the Week

Player of the Month

Heroes

ICONS

FUT Pre-Season Rewards

EA Play Member Benefits

Early Access

Let’s start with the most important thing, when can you get into FUT 23? For fans who have joined us for FIFA launch before we wanted to call out a couple of changes planned for FIFA 23: 

1. Companion and Web App Launch: We know getting active in the Transfer Market is a big part of your launch plans. Starting from September 21st you’ll be able to log into the Web App and from September 22nd you'll be able download a refreshed version of the Companion App.  
2. Early Access launch: If you’ve pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition, or if you’re an EA Play or EA Play Pro member you’ll be able to jump into FIFA 23 from September 27th*. EA Play members will be able to play up to 10 hours via the early trial**. Ultimate Edition owners & EA Play Pro (on PC) members will get unlimited access to FIFA 23. 
3. Worldwide launch: And if you’ve purchased the Standard Edition you’ll be able to jump in from September 30th.

During Early Access, we’ll be kicking off the FUT 23 season with: 

• Team of the Week 1, available September 21st - 28th & Team of the Week 2, available September 28th - October 5th. Team of the Week features a selection of the best-performing players from the world of football from the previous week’s games. 

• Silver Stars Live FUT Friendly will return alongside Team of the Week 2, where you can compete with Silver teams to work towards rewards in FUT. 

In addition we’ll be kicking off the start of the Ones to Watch campaign with the first Squad Building Challenge (SBC) player, available only through the early access window.

Ones to Watch 

The Ones to Watch (OTW) campaign celebrates the biggest transfers of the summer with special live Items that upgrade each time the player receives a Team of the Week or Man of the Match Item in FUT 23. 

The FIFA World Cup™ this November will have a big impact on this year’s football calendar. We won’t be sharing too many details on our FIFA World Cup™ plans today, but we’ll be sharing the impact the new calendar has on Ones to Watch.

Much like the football schedule, we’ll be condensing our campaign plans to ensure we deliver the campaigns you know and love, as well as introducing a few new ones. As a result, we’re reducing the length of Ones to Watch from two weeks down to one, starting on September 30th.

With so many summer transfers already influencing results at their new clubs, we’ll look to include all of the blockbuster summer transfers into the following player releases:

• September 30th - October 7th OTW Main Team 
• October 2nd - October 7th OTW Mini Release

For those who pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition, you will receive a OTW Item (untradeable) when OTW kicks off on September 30th. The OTW Item you receive will be based on when you open your pack, per the below dates:

• September 30th - October 2nd OTW Main Team Only
• October 2nd onwards OTW Main Team & Mini Release

NOTE: On days with pack content changes, the pack content will update at 17:00 UTC.

In addition to changing the length of the Ones to Watch campaign, the FIFA World Cup™ will impact additional upgrade opportunities, including the returning “Wins to Watch” and introducing a brand new upgrade mechanic called “Nations to Watch”. 

In FUT 23, Ones to Watch Items will be eligible for a Wins to Watch upgrade, where players will receive a one-time upgrade to their stats if their team wins three matches out of their next eight domestic league games starting from Friday 30th September. 

As a new addition in FUT 23, OTW Items will also have an extra upgrade tied to the FIFA World Cup 2022™: 'Nations to Watch'. During the tournament, as Team of the Week is paused, we’ll introduce ‘Nations to Watch’ which will see Ones to Watch Items become eligible for a one-off In-Form upgrade if their national team wins a game at the FIFA World Cup 2022™, regardless of whether the player is on the pitch, on the bench or watching from home. 

Please refer to this article for details on when pre-order content will be delivered. 

Stay tuned for further updates on who made the final selection for FUT 23 Ones To Watch.

Team of the Week

Team of the Week (TOTW) has been a mainstay in FUT for many years, providing Special Items for players with outstanding performances week to week, as well as powering certain live Items like Ones to Watch. In recent years we’ve heard your feedback that the deeper we get into the season, the less special TOTW Items start to feel. 

For FIFA 23, we have a range of changes planned which we’ll share in the future. Today we wanted to talk about some updates we are making to Featured Team of the Week.

In FIFA 23, we’ll be increasing the size of the potential Overall Rating (OVR) increase a Featured TOTW is able to receive, our aim is to help lower-rated base Items have a better chance of making it into your Ultimate Team if they earn multiple performance based upgrades across the season, increasing the squad variety you see in game. 

In addition, select Featured TOTW Items may receive Skill Moves and Weak Foot Attribute upgrades to better reflect the moments that earned them their place in the Team of the Week and make Featured TOTW feel more meaningful. As a result these updates will not carry through to their next Performance-Based Item if they were to receive one. 

Player of the Month  

This year we’re excited to be bringing you Player of the Month (POTM) Items from the Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A & Eredivisie. Similar to Team of the Week, we’re also looking to make tweaks to our Player of the Month Items with the focus being on how we make these monthly Items feel more special in FUT whilst also better reflecting the real world performances they represent.

In FIFA 22 we saw a few occasions where players who had lower rated Items earned POTM awards, but due to our upgrade path, their Items often felt underwhelming compared to other content available in game at the same time. In FIFA 23, we’ll look to increase the size of the potential OVR increase select Player of the Month Items are able to receive. Our goal is to help lower-rated Items have a better chance of making it into your Ultimate Team if they receive multiple performance-based items across the season, increasing the squad variety you see in-game. 

In addition to a larger OVR increase that the player will receive, we may decide to raise select Attributes–like Stamina–more than you’d expect when one of their six face Attributes increases. The same is true of their in-game Weak Foot and Skill Moves ratings, as we look to find the balance between how players performed on the pitch, and making their items feel special in FUT. If a player goes on to secure a further POTM award, these updates will carry  through to their next POTM Item. 

Heroes 

We’re excited to welcome back FUT Heroes in FUT 23. In addition to the 19 Heroes first introduced in FUT 22, we’ll also be adding 21 new & familiar faces to the mix.

Starting at launch of FUT 23 on September 30th, base versions of Heroes will be available in packs for the entirety of the FUT product cycle. We’re excited to bring back special campaign versions of Hero Items throughout the year. The first Campaign Heroes we’ll introduce will be at this November’s FIFA World Cup™.   

For those who pre-ordered the FIFA 23 Ultimate Edition before August 22nd, you’ll receive your World Cup™ Hero Pack from November 11th, containing a World Cup™ version of one of the 21 heroes added in FUT 23.

ICONS

We’re making three FIFA World Cup™ winning additions to ICONS with the class of 23: 

Gerd Müller: The original record breaker, Müller set records at club and international level for fun. His goals pushed West Germany to a World Cup™ win in 1974, and in the process he became the highest FIFA World Cup™ scorer of all time, a title he held for 32 years before being surpassed by Ronaldo Nazário in 2006.

Xabi Alonso: At home in any elite European club, Alonso has amassed an impressive trophy collection including UEFA Champions League, LaLiga and Bundesliga trophies. The highlight of his career achievements was helping Spain to their first ever FIFA World Cup™ win in 2010.

Jairzinho: Hailing from Brazil, a country known for their world class wingers, Jairzinho is fondly remembered as one of the best. On the way to winning the 1970 FIFA World Cup™, Jairzinho did something no player had ever done before and has never done since - scoring in every FIFA World Cup™ finals match from group stage to the final.

Base and Mid versions of all ICONs, including Müller, Alonso & Jairzinho will be available from the moment you jump into FUT 23 with additional versions being released throughout FUT 23. We’ll also be bringing back ICON Swaps and ICON SBCs as part of FUT 23. 

In addition to three new ICONs, we’ll also be debuting a brand new type of ICON called Campaign ICONs, which will replace ICON Moments in FUT 23. 

Our aim with ICONs has always been to authentically represent the greatest players of all time, allowing you to build your Ultimate Team with your favourite players, both past and present. To date we’ve managed this through the creation of four different eras that represent a period or certain match in a player's career. 

It’s always been somewhat of a challenge to authentically represent these historic moments with ratings that appropriately stack up against the campaign content we release in FUT. We’ve seen for some time that the deeper into the FUT cycle we go, the harder this becomes. 

In FUT 22 we tried to bridge this gap by making changes to the way we represented ICON Moments in-game through increased OVRs and Player Attributes, but ultimately this didn’t address the root of the issue, that over the course of the year the greatest players of all time don't feel like the greatest players in FUT. As we’ve been making changes to ICONs, we’ve also seen the positive response to the way that Heroes have featured as part of campaigns. It felt like a natural evolution to introduce Campaign ICONs. 

Through smaller, more frequent Campaign ICON releases as part of our campaigns, our hope is that ICONs will feel in-line with campaign content as we go deeper into the FUT 23 cycle, helping maintain their legendary status. 

We look forward to introducing FIFA World Cup™ ICONs, our very first Campaign ICONs as part of our FIFA World Cup™ plans. Stay tuned for details on how we are looking to include Campaign ICONs in fan-favourites like ICON Swaps and SBCs.

FUT Store Update

In FIFA 23 we’re also making changes to our FIFA Points Bundles in the store to help simplify the experience when purchasing FIFA Points and to better align to choices we see players make. We removed some of the least popular bundles and added value to two commonly used bundles. When making these changes we’ve ensured that the updated bundles now have a more favourable price-per-FIFA Point and offer consistency with how we scale all of our bundle options.

FIFA Points options in FUT 22†:

FIFA Points options in FUT 23†:

†All prices are in USD

Pre-Season rewards 

A quick reminder for those players eligible for FUT 23 rewards from our FUT 23 Pre-Season Campaign, Pre-Season Rewards will be granted by October 13th. Don’t forget that FUT 23 rewards must be redeemed by logging in to FUT 23 by November 14th.

EA Play Benefits

For FIFA 23, EA Play Members will receive**: 

• 10 hour EA Play Early Access trial
• 10% member discount on FIFA Points
• FUT XP Boosts every season
• Monthly FUT Stadium customisation Items
• VOLTA Coins and Apparel Items every season in VOLTA FOOTBALL and Pro Clubs

This football season is going truly unique, and we’ve got some amazing plans lined up to celebrate. What we’ve shared today is just the start and we look forward to sharing more of our plans in the future. See you in Ultimate Team!

Gordon Farquhar & the FIFA Live Team

FIFA 23 is available to pre-order for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Stadia.

* Conditions and restrictions apply. See https://www.ea.com/games/fifa/fifa-23/game-offer-and-disclaimers for details.

**Conditions, limitations and exclusions apply. See tos.ea.com/legalapp/eaplay/US/en/PC/ for details.

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