FIFA 23’s career mode leans into your created pro’s star power

FIFA 23 designers will update the game’s long-running Be a Pro career mode by leaning harder into the jet-set lifestyle of world football. Instead of the point-to-point career path that takes players from practice minigames to matches and back, they’ll pursue off-the-pitch opportunities and other role-playing scenarios to build a fuller picture of their superstar.

Created players will now develop along three personality types, the Maverick, Virtuoso, and Heartbeat, form a spectrum spanning mercenary, individual superstars to team players and franchise anchors. These paths are a kind of perk tree in FIFA 23, with Mavericks gaining faster development in their sprint speed and goal-finishing attributes, for example. More team-spirited players will see boosts to their defense and shot-creation attributes.

“Keeping a balance or focusing on a single personality is entirely up to you and how you decide to shape up your player,” FIFA 23 designer Alex Constantinescu said in a media presentation last week.

Off the pitch, players will be presented with regular outside-the-lines events that also develop their created stars’ personalities and playing styles. There’s a salary component, too, where earning bigger contracts lets players spend more on their development, or bling out their lifestyle.

Finally, FIFA 23’s career modes will introduce a play-the-moments option where players (and managers) can skip to the critical moments of a full match, rather than playing one in real time.

“It’s similar to the highlight montage that you’re able to view after a match,” Constantinescu explained. “The number of highlights available will be dynamic, driven by the attack quality of both sides. If your opponent has a strong attacking lineup, you’ll have to play through more defensive highlights. Should you play against the weaker team, the number of scoring opportunities will be in your favor.”

FIFA 23’s career will deliver additional cinematics to burnish the overall narrative for manager and superstar, Constantinescu said. On the whole, EA Vancouver is giving the career suite the kind of polish and detail that the franchise last saw with its three-chapter narrative mode, “The Journey,” which spanned FIFA 17 to FIFA 19.

FIFA 23, which will be the last video game EA Sports publishes under the license of soccer’s global sanctioning authority, launches Sept. 30 on Google Stadia, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.