At the time of writing, FIFA 18 hasn’t even been around for six months yet. I had to check a few times on my calendar as that seemed ridiculous but it’s true. Still, I know that plenty of people (myself included) are already wondering what the next instalment of FIFA will bring and most importantly, when can we get our hands on it? This will only intensify over the coming months as more and more of the FIFA community start looking ahead.
I thought I’d start digging now to see what information could be uncovered. This article will be regularly updated as and when new information becomes available on the FIFA 19 release date.
If you’re still trying to get your money’s worth out of FIFA 18 and want to spice things up a bit, check out our challenges section.
Previous Releases
Off the top of my head, I knew FIFA is always released somewhere between two significant events; the start of the European football season and Christmas. Why? It’s released after the start of the season so that you’re already in the mood for more football. It’s released before Christmas to maximise sales, because capitalism.
Can we narrow down a potential release date though? Perhaps looking at release dates from years gone by can help us work out the FIFA 19 release date? The last ten releases of FIFA look like this:
- FIFA 18 – 29th September 2017
- FIFA 17 – 27th September 2016
- FIFA 16 – 22nd September 2015
- FIFA 15 – 23rd September 2014
- FIFA 14 – 9th September 2013
- FIFA 13 – 25th September 2012
- FIFA 12 – 27th September 2011
- FIFA 11 – 28th September 2010
- FIFA 10 – 28th September 2009
- FIFA 09 – 2nd October 2008
Even a quick glance at that list will tell you there’s a very clear pattern here. Nine out of the last ten FIFA games have been released in the month of September. The only exception was FIFA 09 which was release in early October, but that was a decade ago. We’ve had nine consecutive September releases. Of the nine September releases, eight fell in the second half of September.
Having a late September release gives EA more time to add summer transfers to the game. However, the amount of time taken to produce the physical games and distribute them globally explains why late transfers often don’t make it into the game until the first update.
The End of Annual Releases?
Just when we think we’ve been able to predict the FIFA 19 release date, someone throws a spanner in the works. Back in November of last year, the EA Sports CEO had a very interesting interview with Bloomberg. In it, he talks about the future of certain EA titles being subscription based. So instead of buying an annual release as you do currently, you’d have a rolling subscription and regular updates.
Discussing the greater industry trends he says “The greatest disruptor to the consumption of entertainment media in the last five years has been the combination of streaming plus subscription, It’s changed the way we watch television. It’s changed the way we listen to music. It’s changed the way I read books.”
The interview also discusses how they have already moved to this model for the mobile version of their Madden NFL game. While it does seem very likely that this is the future of FIFA, I don’t think it’s going to come into play just yet.
Expected FIFA 19 Release Date
Given the obvious pattern we’ve already discussed, I’m expecting the FIFA 19 release date to be late September 2018.
Features
News is very thin at the moment. My expectation is that The Journey will return for a third instalment. FUT continues to make lots of money for EA so it’s effectively the most important part of the game for them at this stage. Career mode has been light on big features or improvements in recent years. While we can hope that all the bugs are fixed and new features are added, it doesn’t seem to be a priority as it doesn’t make additional revenue for EA.
