Back in the day, if you had the wrong pair of kicks or made an off-brand fashion choice you’d been ridiculed. Today’s kids are the same, but in the virtual space. I’ve heard stories of kids getting teased for playing Fortnite with outdated skins. My nephew told me recently that he was saving his ROBLOX bucks to get the right skin so his friend would stop teasing him.

Another place we had to stay current was with the games themselves. If your buddy was coming over to play some Madden, you’d better boot up the latest version of Madden. No one wants to play last year’s game with last year’s rosters — that has always been the main difference from year-to-year. Maybe a couple of new features.

I’ve reiterated this point so many times in the past that I will make it quick this time. What if these games weren’t released annually? What if there were yearly (paid or free) DLC of the latest rosters and some quality of life improvements? Hell, you can make these into live service games that last a couple of years. Have one team working on updates and another “ghost team” cooking up the next release for some years later. Anytime the next version of a sports game (Madden, NBA 2K or Live, F1) comes along, I’m not quite done with my season/career in the last game.*

*I’ve interviewed a fair share of game developers in the past, but I am in no way a video game development expert. I don’t even know if that’s a viable plan. I’m sure these games continue to be released annually (Madden, NBA 2K, EA Sports FC) because they are making big money for the suits at the top of EA and 2K.

FIFA to EA Sports FC

I’m currently “out of style” with a specific game franchise — EA Sports FC. I’ve also heard from gaming news sources that EA is not happy with the sales of a few of their recent releases — including EA Sports FC 25 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I may be part of the problem — along with them setting their expectations too high.

In 2023, EA had to rebrand the biggest name in soccer (or football) games from FIFA to EA Sports FC (Football Club) after they lost the FIFA license. I knew the game itself wouldn’t change and I was actually quite fine with the decision. The might have put all of that licensing money into marketing the new name, and it felt fresh. Also, FIFA has always sounded like a terrible corporation run by evil tyrants, but you can Google the stories.

I had taken a break from the FIFA series since the late 2010s. It wasn’t until EA Sports FC 24 showed up as a FREE Monthly PlayStation Plus game, that I downloaded it and started playing. I started the Manager Career mode with my former favorites — Chelsea FC — but I ultimately moved onto other games.

At the end of 2024, I visited London for the first time — and got engaged! I was searching for things to do in London with my partner and learned that Stamford Bridge (home to Chelsea FC) offers daily stadium tours. I purchased tickets and we went on the morning of New Year’s Eve. Visiting the home of my former favorite football club reignited my love for “the Blues.” My original obsession with Chelsea FC all started from choosing them as my team in FIFA many years ago — mainly because “Chelsea” is fun to say in a British accent.

Since the start of 2025, I’ve started to pay more attention to the Chelsea football schedule. I watched a few games when they were available to stream. I even jumped back into my manager career in EA Sports FC 24.

This is the part where I went “out of style.” Instead of picking up the latest EA Sports FC 25, which has been available since September 2024, I went back to my season in the previous title. I’m currently playing last year’s EA Sports FC, and I’m totally fine with it. I’m now at the top of the BPL (British Premier League) with a couple of games remaining.

I picked up a few new players and parted ways with others, so the current roster doesn’t really matter to me. I still have our top star, Cole Palmer, whom we heard all about from the best tour guide ever, Ash at Stamford Bridge.

The Bright Side

Never touching EA Sports FC 25 is nice, because if I do eventually get sucked back into the soccer vortex, I may notice a true difference when I pick up EA Sports FC 26 later this year. Let’s see if that two-year gap leads to big leaps in gameplay?

Until then, I will continue playing EA Sports FC 24. One of my favorite things to do now is to download videos of my favorite scoring plays, I’ve even created two highlight reels of some of my recent goals.

Highlight Reel #1 • Gameplay & Replays

Highlight Reel #2 • Replays Only

Can you even tell by watching these videos that the footage is from last year’s EA Sports FC?
Probably not. Let me know in the comments below if you think I should be playing
the most current EA Sports FC 25 instead, and why or why not?