A few years ago, EA Sports broke with the long-standing demo tradition and did not release a demo for the current FIFA 23. We were able to speak at a press event in London with David Jackson, Vice President Brand Marketing EA Sports, and learned why EA has stopped making demos.
Here’s how it was with the demos: Until the release of FIFA 20, there were reliably demo versions in the FIFA series, allowing players to get a taste of the upcoming game before the final product was released. One could admire the new graphics, feel the gameplay changes firsthand, and usually play short offline matches with a handful of teams.
And it was available to everyone and even for free. In short: For many FIFA fans, the annual demo release was a sacred day that they eagerly looked forward to. But then the shock just before the release of FIFA 21.
EA announced that it would not be releasing a demo in order to dedicate all resources to the development of the final product. At the time, this was a plausible explanation, especially since development was taking place in the midst of the then-nascent corona pandemic.
However, even in the subsequent installments FIFA 21 and FIFA 22, there were no demo versions anymore. But why?
Why are there actually no more demos for FIFA?
We wanted to know and asked EA boss David Jackson at a press event in London whether there could be the possibility of a demo for the FIFA successor EA Sports FC. His answer to that, you can read here:
I cannot comment on future products, but I can talk about what we have done with past products. We stopped developing demos a few years ago based on player feedback. It turned out that it was a rather restrictive and somewhat thin experience that we could provide. And while the gameplay evolves over development time, what we delivered in the demo was actually quite different.
We did not only use the demos to show players what was to come, but we used the information from them to adapt the future game.
We are now doing this through things like open betas, where we encourage people to get in early and play with the new code. And I think that is a practice that is really robust in the world of video games and actually gives us the best chance to meet player expectations where they are.
David Jackson on the question of a possible demo for EA Sports FC.
How do you participate in an open beta? However, the last beta versions of FIFA were unfortunately not that “open”. Last year, there was only a closed beta, where one had to go through a lengthy process to secure a beta key. However, this was not guaranteed, and one could end up empty-handed.
The only way to play FIFA 23 earlier was to get the more expensive version of the game with early access. Then you could at least play the full version a few days earlier.
What do you think about it? Would you like a demo for EA Sports FC? Feel free to let us know in the comments!
If you want to know more about the FIFA successor, take a look here:
FIFA 24 is called EA Sports FC – Everything we know about release, leagues, logo, content
