EA Play members can jump right into an Ultimate Team™ Draft and try out new players and formations, then compete for rewards in EA SPORTS FC™ 26. Enter Ultimate Team from December 25 - January 29, and a Football Ultimate Team™ Draft Token will be auto-granted.

Happy New Year FC Community!

Title Update v1.4.0 for EA SPORTS FC™ 26 will be released in the coming days, including a change to AI Defending.

We are making a change that will reduce the reaction times of AI defenders when marking the ball carrier, increasing the chance of them leaving more open space while transitioning between actions. This change can help your attacks feel more free-flowing. We will continue to monitor your feedback on AI Defending and look to make more adjustments if needed.

We are making changes to improve responsiveness and address frustration across several areas of play.

• CPU AI behavior in Squad Battles has been adjusted.
  We heard your feedback that the recent tuning made the sequences feel overly passive  and there were long periods of low-pressure possession from the CPU AI. The CPU will now take a more proactive and attacking approach to create a smoother Squad Battles experience. The CPU AI will not focus on maintaining possession as much as before.

• Updated Acceleration Types height values.
  This change refines the minimum and maximum height thresholds used to determine run types for players. You can expect more players to have the Lengthy run type with this change.
  
  As part of this, the minimum Lengthy height requirement for men’s players will be 185 cm, and 165 for women's players. Other Lengthy requirements will not be changing and will remain at:
  
  - Strength minimum 65

  - (Strength - Agility) >= 4
  - Acceleration minimum 40

• Defenders positioned on the goal line can now make automatic clearances in appropriate situations to improve defensive reliability. This is only for last-ditch situations where a defender is already in position to block a certain goal, at a speed that the user might not be able to react to.

• Shoulder challenges between players with a large Strength Attribute difference will more often result in the player with the lower Strength Attribute stumbling. Also, players with higher Strength and Aggression Attributes can generally be better at shielding the ball.

• We have further reduced the accuracy of Acrobatic shots, such as bicycle kicks, taken right after a flick.

You can also check out additional gameplay updates in the full Patch Notes.[trello.com]Football Ultimate Team

We’ve addressed several issues as well as made improvements to the navigation within Ultimate Team.

• We are adding a New Release hub, a new destination in Ultimate Team which will act as your go-to place to learn about the latest campaigns. You can access this via a new menu tab or through the News tile to see highlighted content and navigate to the latest SBCs, Objectives and more. This menu tab is intended to go live in a server release a few weeks after Title Update 1.4.0.

  Addressed the following issues:

  • Sometimes a trophy would be displayed in the corner of a pitch.

  • Sometimes after previewing an Evolution consumable item in an Item Pick and returning to the selection screen, the highlighted item would default to the last item previously selected.

  • Addressed cases of a specific UI flow that resulted in the radial menu appearing unintentionally.

Career Mode

We’ve made changes to Career Mode including the following:

• Expanded Player Status Information by providing separate Contract and General fields, containing info on a player’s willingness to negotiate and their potential.

• Certain Archetype options are now ineligible based on the selected Origin Story in Player Career.

• Replaced Starting Skill Level with Starting AP in Player Career, displaying the amount of AP the player is eligible for based on their chosen Origin Story.

• Adjusted Manager Career Job Security logic for situations when managers reach an Insecure job security status.

• Contract durations have been extended up to 3 years for ICONs and Heroes.
  You can check out the full Career Mode changes and all the issues addressed in the full Patch Notes[trello.com].

• Addressed cases where incorrect Acceleration Types could have been set by the user.

• In some cases, the Team Management screen did not display correct Acceleration Types, this was a visual issue only.

We’ve addressed the following issues on the PC version of FC 26:

• Refresh rate could've unintentionally changed to 60Hz at times.

• Addressed some specific cases of framerate issues occurring in the second half of matches.

Thanks for checking out the Title Update v1.4.0 Pitch Notes, remember you can leave your feedback over at the Player Feedback Portal[survey.alchemer.com], or jump into the EA SPORTS FC Discord server[discord.gg].

- The EA SPORTS FC Team

The Club is Yours in EA SPORTS FC™ 26, available now on PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch™, Nintendo Switch™ 2, PC, Amazon Luna as well as through EA Play.

Thanks to those who’ve provided and continue to provide feedback. Throughout the course of the EA SPORTS FC 26 season, we'll provide you with more information and updates if and when they become available. Be sure to follow @‌EASFCDIRECT[x.com] on X and to check out the EA SPORTS FC Tracker [trello.com]for the latest news and updates. Stay in the conversation on all things EA SPORTS FC™ by joining our official Discord[discord.gg], following us on our official X[x.com], Instagram[www.instagram.com], and YouTube, and participating in the official EA SPORTS FC Forums.

Welcome to the FC 26 December Feedback Update.

Today we’re sharing several changes coming in an early January update, based on your feedback.

Let’s kick things off with Game Designer Rory, who will walk through an upcoming change to AI Defending in the following video.[x.com]

As we mentioned at the end of November, we’re continuing to run our own investigations and tests while reviewing all of your feedback.

In the next update, AI defenders will have slower reaction times when marking the ball carrier, which can result in them leaving more space open while transitioning between actions.

Before and after[x.com]

We’ll be adding a New Releases hub in Ultimate Team that highlights new SBCs, Objectives, and more.

We’ll share more details closer to release.
See below for a sneak peak!

We’ve heard your feedback about the Squad Battles CPU AI becoming too difficult and frustrating to play against, especially on higher difficulties, due to its focus on maintaining possession.

With the next update, the Squad Battles CPU AI will now focus more on moving the ball up the pitch while creating chances quicker.

In the last update, the UI added a new status indicator for a player’s willingness to renegotiate a contract, but it replaced the player potential indicator.

We’ll be bringing back the player potential indicator in an early January update based on your feedback, and the UI will display both indicators.

Thanks for checking out our December Feedback Update and for continuing to share your thoughts with us. Want to share your thoughts on these updates? Head to https://go.ea.com/fc26pfp

We hope you have a great end to 2025, and please keep your feedback coming here and over in our Official Discord Server: https://discord.gg/easportsfc

Spreading joy and cheer with a collection of festive favourites, Winter Wildcards brings ice cold upgrades inspired by beloved Football Ultimate Team™ campaigns past and present, and welcomes new Heroes and ICONs to the pitch this holiday season.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3405690/EA_SPORTS_FC_26/

Recreate your favorite league rivalries & iconic matches from this season in EA SPORTS FC 26. EA Play members can pick up Holiday Header Blue Boots — now through December 25 — then show them off in Clubs. Find out more about upcoming EA Play benefits at

https://store.steampowered.com/subscriptions/ea

or follow us on X (Twitter) and Instagram @eaplay.

Conditions, limitations, and exclusions apply. See

https://tos.ea.com/legalapp/eaplay/us/en/pc/

for details.

Introducing Classic XI Heroes; unforgettable Club & League Heroes who have won the hearts of fan bases around the world. Starting this December until January 12, add one of these Hero Items to your Football Ultimate Team™ with the Classic XI Hero pack.

Welcome a Classic XI Hero to your dream squad in EA SPORTS FC™ 26 with the Classic XI Hero Pack, with each Hero celebrating the era in which they cemented their legendary status.

To secure your Classic XI Hero pack, all you need to do is log into Football Ultimate Team™ in EA SPORTS FC™ 26 with your EA Account by 12 January at 9:59 am PT. Eligible players will be able to find their Classic XI Hero Pack in the my packs section of the store.

Celebrating the special Classic XI Hero Item, at the start of Team of the Year these new items will also receive a special one-time upgrade, transforming into Team of the Year Honourable Mention Heroes, to capture the Heroic Moments that defined their Career.

See the full Classic XI Heroes coming to FC 26 below

• Blaise Matuidi

• Claudio Marchisio

• Guti

• Ze Roberto

• Jean-Pierre Papin

• Mario Gomez

• Gianluca Vialli

• Diego Forlán

• Tim Howard

• Harry Kewell

• Vincent Kompany

*Conditions & restrictions apply. See https://ea.com/games/ea-sports-fc/fc-26/disclaimers for details.

Celebrate samba style with a wave of free-flowing 5v5 Rush matches and new 5-Star skill upgrades for current players and Heroes to unleash their true flair in Football Ultimate Team™.