EA Sports FC 27 launched worldwide today, 25 September, on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Anyone who bought the Ultimate Edition has had up to a week of early access since 18 September, so plenty of players are already a few days into the new season.
The Standard Edition costs €79.99 on PS5, Xbox and PC in Ireland, with the Ultimate Edition at €109.99. The Nintendo versions are cheaper, at €59.99 on the original Switch and €69.99 on Switch 2. The Ultimate Plus Edition was only on sale until the end of August, so that’s no longer an option. There’s also a new free-to-download FC 27 Lite for anyone who wants to try before buying.
The Grounds is the headline addition
EA’s big new mode this year is The Grounds, a social hub where you play Kickabouts, 1v1s and Clubs matches with other players, pick up skills from what EA calls football mentors, and kit out your player off the pitch. It’s the latest take on the street-to-stadium idea EA has been chasing for years through Volta and Rush.
The catch is platform support. The Grounds, including Clubs, is only available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Switch 2. If you’re still on a PS4, Xbox One or original Switch, you won’t get it.
Career Mode and Ultimate Team changes
Career Mode gets a rebuilt transfer market, with clubs bidding against each other and player values informed by data from the scouting platform TransferRoom. You can now negotiate performance and buy-back clauses, and player ratings rise and fall with form, morale and fitness through what EA calls Dynamic OVRs. Custom Career scenarios can be built and shared through a separate web portal.
Ultimate Team adds the FUT Gallery, where you collect sets of current and past player items to level up and earn rewards, alongside Holographic variants, Hall of FUT items, simpler squad building challenges and new single-player live events. On the pitch, EA points to dynamic corners, smarter attacking runs and reworked defending for competitive play, all of which it credits to community feedback. How much of that holds up will become clear once the online modes have had a few weeks to settle.
FUT’s long-running question hasn’t gone away either. The game still includes optional paid purchases that can be spent on random selections of items, and we’ve previously asked why EA’s football games carry a PEGI 3 rating while that’s the case in our piece on the Balatro PEGI rating debate. Nothing in this year’s launch changes that.
What you get with FC 27 Lite
FC 27 Lite is a free download limited to four modes, Kick-Off, Learn to Play, Online Friendlies and Online Seasons. It needs a permanent internet connection and an EA account, and EA says the modes and content on offer can change and won’t be available in every region. You can upgrade to the full game at any point on PlayStation, Xbox, the EA app, Steam and the Epic Games Store. EA hasn’t listed Nintendo platforms for the Lite upgrade.
According to EA, FC 27 includes more than 21,000 players from over 800 clubs and national teams, 140 stadiums and more than 35 leagues. The soundtrack runs to 120 tracks from 36 countries and is available on Spotify, while FC Mobile gets a season update and anniversary event to coincide with the launch.
Price and availability in Ireland
EA Sports FC 27 is available now from €79.99 for the Standard Edition on PS5, Xbox and PC, €109.99 for the Ultimate Edition, and from €59.99 on Nintendo Switch. EA Play members get a 10-hour trial with progress carrying over to the full game, plus 10% off EA digital purchases. For a sense of where the series has come from, our EA Sports FC 26 review and EA Sports FC 25 long-term review cover the last two years.
