FIFA 23is one ofthe bestFIFAgamesin recent memory, with some of this year’s new features really helping to freshen up the annual experience. However, while the game is arguably a lot better than some of its more recent predecessors, there are still quite a few issues that EA needs to address.
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These range from annoying little oversites to poorly-implemented ideas that fail miserably to hit the mark. Thankfully, most of them wouldn’t take all that much effort to tackle, so players will be hoping that the team behindFIFA 23will be able to fix some of these issues in the coming weeks and months.
Updated June 29, 2025, by Tom Bowen:With the 22-23 now well past its halfway point, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that EA is going to address some of the bigger issues with FIFA 23. However, with this year’s edition set to be the last to sport the iconic FIFA branding following a fruitful partnership that has endured for more than a quarter of a century, many players will still be hoping that the developers choose to use what time remains to finish the series on a high. To that end, there’s still a slim chance that some of these issues will be looked at before the release of EA’s next football outing. If not, it would be nice to see them tackled by the time EA SPORTS FC rolls around.
1Ultimate Team Mix-Ups
One of the reasons that many people have come to detest theFIFAfranchise is its aggressive monetization, which is particularly evident inthe Ultimate Team game mode. Here, players can use real money to purchase loot boxes (known in-game as “packs”) containing digital cards that represent real-world footballers. These cards can then be used to assemble a team with which players can take on the teams of others.
To keep things interesting, EA regularly releases special limited-time cards boasting higher ratings than usual. Unfortunately, however, there have been numerous instances where players have been given the regular version of a card rather than the upgraded version despite packing it during the limited-time frame specified. Those who have reported this issue do seem to have been compensated eventually, but givenhow much money some people spend on the Ultimate Team game mode, this kind of thing really is unacceptable.
2Hero Pack Problems
Players not getting what they paid for is pretty bad, but some players being given much more than others can be equally problematic. Not long after the game’s release, EA offered players a special pack that had a chance of containing a high-value Hero card. Due to a mix-up, however, the chance of obtaining such a card was set to 100%, meaning that a lot ofplayers were able to bag themselves a Hero card for just 25,000 Coins.
This led to the transfer market collapsing, with those lucky enough to purchase one of these packs given a huge advantage over everybody else. EA was pretty quick to pull the offending packs from the digital store, but by then the damage had already been done. Those who had spent real money to packHero cardsprior to these glitched packs saw the value of their cards plummet in an instant, yet received no compensation for EA’s costly blunder.
3Unplayable Online Experience
A lot ofonline multiplayer gameshave issues with lag and stuttering, but this year’s edition ofFIFAis particularly bad. There are times when the experience can become downright unplayable, with the camera quite literally pulling away from the action while the game goes ahead and plays itself.
Some will point out that a lot of these issues are caused by the player’s connection and latency issues when it comes to the person that they’ve been paired with. However, this is really something that the game’s matchmaking system should be identifying before confirming a matchup, rather than midway through a game.
4Triggering Menu Options
While in many of the game’s main menus, pressing the R2 (PlayStation) or RT (Xbox) button will bring up the Social menu. This is incredibly convenient, as it grants players quick access to an important set of features that can often be very hard to reach in other online-focussed titles. However, there is one major flaw in the way that the Social menu works.
While inputting text using the on-screen keyboard, the R2 and RT buttons also trigger caps lock. Unfortunately, nobody at EA had the foresight to disable the Social menu popup while players are typing, causing the menu to pop up every time players enable or disable caps lock. Granted, it is possible to use the opposite trigger (which serves as a shift key) instead, but this too can be incredibly frustrating when trying to type in all caps.
5Live Form Clashes with Custom Sheets in Kick Off Matches
Live Form has been a staple of theFIFAfranchise for more than a decade now. For those wondering, it does exactly what it says on the tin; it adjusts players' ratings to match their real-world form. It’s a great feature that adds yet another layer of realism to an already realistic game, but those who enjoy playing offline may be a little disappointed with the way that Live Form is implemented inFIFA 23.
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Even if players have created a custom team sheet for their favorite team, enabling Live Form in Kick Off matches will revert the team back to its default formation and starting eleven. Some will argue that this is again done in the interest of realism, but if players have gone to the effort ofcreating a custom setup, it should be clear that they do not want to use the default one in matches. Online Seasons mode allows players to use custom sheets together with Live Form, so there’s no real reason why Kick Off matches couldn’t do the same.
6No Women’s Teams in Career Mode
Considering the great lengths that EA went to in order to highlightthe increased presence of female teams and players inFIFA 23, the fact that players still can’t use female players or teams in Career mode is a little baffling. Granted, EA doesn’t have the licenses for anywhere near as many female teams as it does male ones, but whose fault is that, exactly?
Even with the lack of licenses, there’s no reason why players couldn’t be given the option of controlling a WSL team and competing only in the domestic league (or, better still, the domestic league and a fixed-roster version of the Women’s Champions League). Admittedly, this wouldn’t be nearly as well fleshed-out asthe male career mode, but it would at least provide women’s football fans with a much-needed option.
7General Bugs and Glitches
TheFIFAseries is renowned for its day-one bugs and glitches, andFIFA 23is no different in this regard. Thankfully, there’s nothing too game-breaking in this year’s edition, with most of the glitches tending to be quite funny providing they don’t trigger during a ranked online match. Some of the glitches can even be quite useful depending on who exactly one asks.
An example of the latter can be found in career mode, in which, after a few seasons,FIFA 23players will be able to sign female players to male teams. The idea of mixed-gender football teams may be incredibly unrealistic (at least for the moment, anyway), but, given EA’s aforementioned decision to make female teams unplayable in career mode, it at least provides players with an alternative of sorts.
8Poorly-Implemented Crossplay
Like women’s football, EA made a real song and dance aboutFIFA 23supporting crossplay, only for its implementation to be incredibly poor.FIFA 23features no cross-generation supportwhatsoever when it comes to playing against friends or general online matchmaking, and, although crossplay is supported across consoles from the same generation, many game modes do not utilize the feature.
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Consideringhow long it’s taken for theFIFAseries to support crossplayand how much it had been hyped up prior to this year’s installment, EA’s half-hearted attempt at implementing crossplay feels like a bit of a slap in the face to players. That it doesn’t work in any co-op game modes or across generations is a little laughable and addressing these issues should be very high up on EA’s lengthy to-do list.
9High-Scoring Commentary
It wouldn’t be practical or cost-effective for EA to completely re-record all of the commentary for each and everyFIFAgame, but it would be nice to see it refreshed from time to time. One of the biggest areas in which it could be improved relates to high-scoring matches, as the current commentary is quite a bit behind the times and arguably detracts from the game’s overall sense of realism as a result.
Once a team has scored five or six goals, the commentators will stop referencing the scoreline altogether. Likewise, they’ll only comment up to a player’s hat trick goal. Already this season fans have seen Liverpool hit Bournemouth for nine and it seems somewhat inevitable thatHaaland will smash in four or more goals in a single gameat some point before the final matchday. Granted,FIFAcommentary can’t cover every possible scoreline and permutation, but it should at least be able to cover the ones that happen in real life.
10Legacy Defending Limitations
EA has been trying to ween players off of Legacy Defending since the introduction of Tactical Defending way back inFIFA 12. Despite their best efforts, though, the former is still an attractive option for stubborn players who refuse to learn the latter, even if the way that they’re able to use Legacy Defending is now incredibly limited inFIFA 23.
Players can use Legacy Defending in offline modes, but they won’t be able to do so when playing online. This effectively prevents fans of Legacy Defending from engaging with the vast majority of game modes using their preferred control options, leading many to question why EA bothers to include the option of using Legacy Defending at all. If it’s going to be in the game, it should be fully supported, even if that means having a special Legacy Defending pool forranked online matches.
FIFA 23is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
