FIFA 20 arrived on 27 September 2019 for PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One. It is the 27th game in EA’s long-running series, and the first main entry since FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup to skip Xbox 360, and the first since FIFA 08 to skip PlayStation 3. EA Romania and EA Vancouver developed it; EA Sports published it. Wikipedia also lists a Nintendo Switch version.
Trailer, via EA SPORTS FC.
Eden Hazard Takes the Standard Edition
Real Madrid winger Eden Hazard fronts the Standard Edition. Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk covers the Champions Edition, and Zinedine Zidane, the former Juventus and Real Madrid midfielder, was later named cover star of the Ultimate Edition. Three covers, three positions, three eras. It is the most interesting thing EA did with the packaging.
VOLTA Football Arrives
The headline addition is VOLTA Football, the first time the mode has appeared in the series. It trades the traditional 11v11 match for small-sided street and futsal games, and it shares similarities with the former FIFA Street series. EA’s own summary calls it “an all-new, authentic street football experience in EA SPORTS VOLTA.”
an all-new, authentic street football experience in EA SPORTS VOLTA
That is the pitch, and it is the right one. The main series had grown rigid. VOLTA gives the game a second gear.
Frostbite and Football Intelligence
The game runs on Frostbite. EA says Football Intelligence unlocks an unprecedented platform for gameplay realism, and FIFA Ultimate Team returns with more ways to build a squad. The modes span single player, multiplayer and co-operative play, with third-person and isometric camera perspectives. None of that is a revolution. It is a suite of improvements layered onto a formula that already worked.
The Switch Version
The source material lists PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One as the platforms. Wikipedia adds a Nintendo Switch release. The skipped consoles are the sourced fact: EA left the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 behind, and the main series had not done that since FIFA 06 and FIFA 08 respectively.
7.9 Out of 10
FIFA 20 holds a published critical score of 7.9/10 from an IGDB critic aggregate of seven outlets. VOLTA is the part that will be remembered, and everything else is maintenance. Frostbite and Football Intelligence are incremental. The street mode is where EA actually took a risk, and it is the only section of this package that feels like it was built by people who wanted to be there.
The Servers Went Dark
The cover stars will date quickly. Hazard and Van Dijk are 2019 names on a 2019 box. VOLTA is the piece with a future.
One fact sits over all of it now: EA shut the online servers down on 6 November 2023. Whatever you think of the modes, the connected half of FIFA 20 is gone.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
