FIFA 22 will arrive later this year and with so many EA titles such as Apex Legends granting cross-play or aiming to do so in the near future, is FIFA joining the group?
It seems like FIFA has long been destined for cross-play support, but for some reason, EA has been very reluctant to do it.
It seems almost every game is supporting it, with Call of Duty now supporting cross-generational support.
So why are FIFA yet to join the action? Players that owned an Xbox or PlayStation console could play between the old and new generation consoles, providing they played the same version of the game.
Is this year different? Could we finally get cross-play support?
Read More: FIFA 22: All We Know
Will FIFA 22 Have Cross-Play?
The simple answer is that we do not know. There's a lot of evidence that suggests it could happen and a lot that suggests it couldn't.
Need For Speed Heat implemented cross-platform play - the first EA game to do so.
Even Apex Legends is allowing cross-play, EA's flagship battle royale title.
It's clear the logistics aren't impossible. While the in-game infrastructure may be tricky to establish, there is likely one overarching reason - money.
It's no doubt going to cost EA plenty of money to set up cross-play to ensure it's safe, secure and reliable. While the details are out of my area of expertise, I can imagine it can't be cheap.
There's also the fact that both Microsoft and Sony pay a lot to license the game on their respective consoles. EA will also heavily benefit from the PC crowd using Origin to play and buy their game.
While it no doubt makes up a small factor, EA can also capitalise on those who own both consoles and will buy the game twice to play with different sets of friends.
You would also need to consider game modes such as FUT will experience stability issues with a market place that sees over 1 million live items listed at any one time on a single platform.
Will FIFA 22 Be Cross-Generation?
Progress will likely still transfer over from the Xbox One to Xbox Series X (and vice versa) as it did last year - the same can be said for the PS4 and PS5.
Gameplay will likely, again, be limited to the same console. The same marketplace in FUT 22 will be used for both Xbox consoles and PlayStation consoles, but gameplay will be console specific.
Where FIFA 21 allowed players to play two versions of the game (standard and next-generation), it's likely this year will not be the same.