EA Sports has offered some scant clarification as to whether or not its EA Sports FC and Madden NFL games, announced today as coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, will be fully-fledged annual entries such as FC 26, or more limited ‘Legacy’-style versions. The Switch 2 versions, EA says, will aim for parity “as much as the hardware allows.”
“We’re excited to bring two of our most beloved franchises – EA SPORTS FC and Madden NFL – to Nintendo’s Switch 2, giving fans even more ways to play the sports they love, anytime and anywhere,” opened EA’s statement, provided to Eurogamer. “Both experiences are being built specifically for the new handheld platform, grounded in what fans enjoy from our franchises across platforms. We look forward to sharing more soon.”
The developer-publisher also added a few other points of slight clarification, in response to hypothetical questions. For the question of whether or not there would be feature and/or visual parity with current-generation consoles such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, the response was:
“We’ll share more details on the Madden NFL and FC experiences for Switch 2 at a later date, but our goal is always to deliver a consistent player experience across platforms as much as the hardware allows.”
It was also non-committal on questions about crossplay – more to share “at a later date” – as well as whether entries named FC 26 and Madden NFL 26 will feature on the consoles at all, whether other EA Sports games will come to the platforms, and really any other details, too. To the hypothetical question of whether these Switch 2 versions are different SKUs to current and upcoming EA Sports games, the response was that the Madden NFL and FC “experiences” are “designed for the Switch 2.”
“We’re excited to bring two of our most beloved franchises, EA SPORTS FC and Madden NFL, to Nintendo’s new handheld platform, Switch 2. It’s a great opportunity to reach even more fans – especially younger players – with the sports they love,” EA also added.
In previous years, EA Sports has released “Legacy Edition” games for handheld consoles like the original Switch, with heavily stripped-back features and simply updated team rosters and stats for each new, full-priced entry. Last year, for FC 25 on the Switch, there was a more significant version however, which has led to hopes EA Sports will continue to provide versions closer to those on the other current-gen consoles.
As for how to interpret those responses, well, in brief: it looks like we probably won’t get full feature parity, and the games may even launch under different names to the PS5, Xbox, and PC versions, but at least a more substantial entry than the Legacy years gone by isn’t off the table (yet).
For much more on the Switch 2’s big reveal, meanwhile, we’ve details on the Switch 2’s price and release date, the fine-print of the Switch 2 pre-orders granting access based on your playtime, plus, a breakdown of the games such as Fortnite with Switch 2 compatibility issues.