Players who grab a next-gen console next month will be able to play an upgraded version sometime in 2021. and the same goes for anyone hoping to purchase the game on Google Stadia. This isn't the first time that FC 26 has made headlines for unintended consequences with Fut 26 Coins, although it's certainly the funniest. Before the game came out, those who were interested in sampling the game early via EA Play's 10-hour full game trials found that their sheer numbers were bringing down the entire service.
Beyond that, many now playing the full game have found the ranking system to be lacking, and skilled players are throwing matches in order to stay in lower tiers and reap what they feel are more valuable rewards. This doesn't even go into the aforementioned "Legacy Edition" of the game on Switch, which presents the same gameplay as last year's release (as well as the year's entry before) with nothing new beyond an updated UI and roster.
The latest issue with the game isn't stopping anyone from completing matches or crashing online servers, but it is causing a hilarious reaction. As reported by Eurogamer and others, players across the Internet are discovering unknown circumstances that make their soccer stars leap skyward for unknown reasons. The players will often jump straight up instead of at an angle, so there's no strategy to take advantage of, it just looks as if they were detached from the Earth's gravitational pull for a brief moment.
The glitch has been occurring since launch, so there's no doubt that the developers at EA Vancouver will want to fix this reality-warping occurrence sooner rather than later. Still, compared to some of the other issues the game has at the moment and some of the issues EA games sometimes have in general, the occasional bouncing soccer player is not the worst-case scenario. Perhaps it's not preferred during a clutch Ultimate Team matchup, but the games where it occurs generally continue after the brief dip into Wackyland.
Perhaps if EA were to embrace the change to FC 26. they could attract a whole new audience to the sports game. Sales are already down as many players await the next-gen release, so maybe patching in the voice of Tim Kritzrow to narrate the athlete's superhuman feats would make the game more fun. Developers could also lean into it by adding more superfluous features, like players being set on fire when they perform well or bonus targets to hit outside of the goal. Would that be a completely separate game, perhaps by the name of FIFA Jam? Yes. Would that be such a bad thing? Maybe for the fans they currently have, which is the reason that arcade sports games that would allow such sick jumping are few and far between.
The yearly announcement of FIFA ratings is one of the most scrutinized topics in the gaming industry. Inevitably some players will complain about their ratings because that's just the competitive nature that comes with being a top-class athlete. Fans also criticize the ratings, but those voices have much less merit. Even so, FC 26 has sold a few players short this season. There's even more focus on boosting the ratings of young players this season, so some seasoned vets have fallen through the cracks.
The four players on this list have been veterans of EA's soccer simulation series for some time. Some on this list have seen better days, but they still deserve more respect than the current OVR rating suggests to buy FC 26 Coins they get. There's a bonus player that is an all-time great who should see his ICONS card bumped up at the end too.
