"It's About Authenticity:" EA FC 27 The Grounds Directors On The Joy That Comes With An Open-World

Published Sep 2, 2026, 1:02 PM EDT Brandon Zachary is a Lead Writer for Screen Rant's New Movie Team. He also writes or has written for Comicbook.com, CBR, That Hashtag Show, Just Watch, and TVBrittanyF. Brandon is an Emerging Screenwriters Semi-Finalist, co-writer of a Screencraft Quarter-Finalist, a seasoned on-screen interviewer, and a MASSIVE nerd. You can reach him at bs.zachary@gmail.com EA Sports FC 27 is the latest entry in the long-running sports series, and it's getting bigger than ever. On top of the refined gameplay fans of the series are used to, the team is introducing a new element to the latest edition that emphasizes the natural friendship and community that come with the sport. "The Grounds" has the refined gameplay of the base game, but with a new emphasis on casual play. During an interview with Screen Rant at Gamescom 2026, EA Sports FC 27 Line Producer Karthik Venkateshan and Design Director Jean-Francois Guastalla broke down the inspiration behind "The Grounds," bringing pickup ball to the EA FC space, and why the series won't ever go too "wacky" in gameplay. EA FC 27 Welcomes Players To The Grounds Line Producer Karthik Venkateshan and Design Director Jean-Francois Guastalla lead EA FC 27, which is set to be a massive social hub for players to congregate. With upwards of 100-player spaces available and pick-up games around every corner, "The Grounds" an ambitious addition to the FC franchise. An open-world space where players can explore districts inspired by England, France, and Argentina, encountering other players and dropping into matches from across the world. It's an ambitious but fun approach to the game, taking on a more casual feel. That was always the intent, according to the two directors. "The thing that started this whole project," Venkateshan explained, "was driven by years of feedback we've gotten from the passionate clubs community. So the club is where FC fans engage socially. It's the social hub already in the product. For many years now, they've been giving us lots of things that they want added to make their social experiences even better. "That ranged from ways to competitively play against other clubs, all the way to my clubmates aren't online, but I want to do something to keep improving my character... A common thread from the community was the passion around those old street experiences. So people let us know throughout all the social media channels about the local events they've organized. "The common thread is that they are social. It didn't just involve playing football but eating, drinking, dancing. It's the whole experience, and it was something we didn't have in FC. We've been so focused on the stadium experience. It all came together when we realized "social" meant community. It means backyards, local pitches, cages, everything." That sense of community flowed naturally into the open-world qualities of The Grounds, which offers a more casual approach to the FC experience and is willing to skew away from the slick stadium presentation that often defines the series. "The open world has become such a standard in the industry," Guastalla noted. "It felt very natural for us to try and get in that space. "It generates so much freedom and agency from a player standpoint, which was one of the things that our players were saying: we want more ways to play together. We want more freedom to change the way we want to play every day or every hour if we decide to. The open world was a perfect canvas to make that happen." The Joys Of Pick-Up Ball Is At The Core Of "The Grounds" The key balancing act during development was finding the right chord between EA FC's refined gameplay and lighter modes that could play a bit looser than the firm rules ofstandard gameplay. Finding that balance required plenty of testing with the development team and the players, figuring out how far to take the swerves and when to pull back, as Venkateshan explained. "The common thread that has come back from the community, pretty unanimously almost. Fans want EA Sports and FC to be the authority on authentic football. Authenticity means no matter what, it's still rooted in football. If I'm the backyard, even though this is a made-up game, it is still real to me. That's authentic. "Authentic is not just how Kylian Mbappe plays on the pitch. The fun thing for us was the mentors, the real athletes. When we talked to the athletes themselves, we even assumed that mostly they were going to be talking about the academy, the pro training circuits, and trainers like that." Guastalla agreed, noting that the athletes were more animated by their younger memories and experiences versus what they had done at the professional level. "When they started talking to the professional players, they get to give a different lens on who they are. You tend to forget when you just see them on the pitch, but they have histories and passions. They have human stories that people can relate to." "Most of our conversations with them were focused on the fun times," Venkateshan recalled. "Talking about the early days playing in cages with their friends, their siblings, their cousins. Having their mom and dad be a part of that experience. All of the athletes said the exact same thing, and there was such joy when they talked about it." There is authenticity in that side of the football experience. Fans want us to bring that into the game rather than lean into ridiculousness. "I think over time the community will kind of give us the license to do some exciting things, but at the beginning [we want to] start grounded, start real, and then we'll see where it goes. Even the kickabouts, which are supposed to be casual and wacky, we're still learning as people play it. "People talk about how they played Wembley singles or 6s, or we played this other style. Can you bring? They want more of the things that they do in their real life into the game rather than us just making random things up. We're trying to stay true to that feedback, but we'll see where it takes us." Despite these tweaks, "The Grounds" is still very much EA FC 26. Guastalla explained that "from a gameplay standpoint, it was very important for us to keep the cohesion at the product level. We don't want to change gameplay just because there is a kickback we want to make. "It wouldn't make sense for players to play that unique experience just in that little bubble, but then go back to the main game and be like, "Wow, 60% of that plays the same." Authentic means gameplay authenticity at the core of any experience.... We can go way further than we did, but we're pretty proud of the new stories we are telling this year for sure. In the end, it worked out for EA Sports FC 27: "We never built an experience like that with the engine, with FC gameplay. There were a lot of doubts. There were a lot of struggles. There were a lot of moments wondering if it is gonna work. I'm most proud of is that the team always believed that we would make it, and we learned together. Now we are at a place where we know how to make that even better. I'm super excited for what comes next." EA Sports FC 27 Systems Released September 25, 2026 ESRB Everyone / Users Interact, In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items) Developer(s) EA Canada, EA Romania Publisher(s) EA Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op, Local Multiplayer, Local Co-Op Cross-Platform Play PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC // PS4 & Xbox One Franchise EA Sports FC Number of Players 1-4 players / 1-8 players Genre(s) Sports, Simulation