More details about FC 24 are certain to drop during E3 2023 next week, and perhaps some of these issues will be addressed. EA Sports has done a great job with incorporating some great changes over the EA FC 24 Coins past few years, though only time will tell if FC 24 introduces some real magic into the mix. With Cristiano Ronaldo gracing the cover, it could be a massive year for Electronic Arts.
It’s been a busy week for international superstar Cristiano Ronaldo: the 32-year-old Portuguese player has led Real Madrid to trophies in both La Liga and the UEFA Champions League, smashed in an incredible 54 goals in his last 59 appearances for club and country, and reached his 600th career goal in the process. Suffice to say, Ronaldo is a rather hot ticket player, and the brand built around his career helps move product. As such, it’s a no-brainer that EA Sports would pick him as the cover athlete for FC 24. a move which market research firm SuperData says could increase sales of the game by 10%.
Historically, the EA Sports FC franchise has secured the services of Ronaldo’s biggest competition, Lionel Messi, as its cover athlete. Last year, that contract expired and red-hot German international and World Cup winner Marco Reus was selected as the target man, but it’s fair to say he didn’t have a comparable following to either Messi or Ronaldo. Now, however, the ball is firmly in Ronaldo’s court, and as an athlete with a combined social media following 262 million people and a sponsorship with Nike worth 1 billion dollars, one feels like this is a logical move for EA Sports to take.
The CEO of SuperData, Joost van Dreunen, evidently agrees with this sentiment. The veteran analyst reports that sponsorships from professional athlete’s can have a significant impact in the game’s reach, and this equates to big money when it comes a franchise like EA Sports FC. The series brought EA Sports just over a billion dollars in revenue last year, and the company will be hoping that putting such a celebrated and popular athlete on the cover will help boost these sales even further. Here’s how Joost van Dreunen weighed in on the subject:
“Depending on the popularity of a player, a famous athlete can help improve sales by about 10 percent. Suffice to say that signing an athlete is critical, especially because the audience for sports games tends to be more-or-less stable.” As is the usual practice, members of EA Origin or EA Access will be able to test out FC 24 a week before other gamers, as their subscriptions will allow for up to 10 hours of playtime as of September 21. 2022. The full game will then release a week later, and that’s when Joost’s words will be put to the ultimate test.
EA Sports announced FC 24 yesterday, with Cristiano Ronaldo as its cover star. The game will be released on PC and consoles, however, the Nintendo Switch version of FC 24 will be missing two crucial features. The Nintendo Switch versions of FC 24 will be missing two major selling points, according to the small print in the game’s announcement trailer. Easy-to-miss text on screen reads “Frostbite game engine technology and The Journey: Hunter Returns mode are available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC platform versions only. Not all features available on all platforms.”
The Journey is EA Sports FC ‘s version of buy FC 24 Coins a story mode and was introduced in last year’s series release, taking players through the highs and lows of Alex Hunter, a budding superstar who was embarking on his career. In some cases, it will now be a major selling point for the series moving forward, unfortunately Switch users will miss out.