FIFA 21 Costs £45 On Switch, Despite Being Another 'Legacy' Reskin

EA, just give up.

Which part of this surprises you exactly? Because you knew this from day one.

Absolutely shameful. We should not forget though, that Gamefreak is doing the same thing with Pokemon and they are charging 60$ for that.

@AlexOlney I know right, it's one of the worst box arts I've seen in a while from a big publisher like EA.

"Ok hear me out... basically, we for FIFA 21 on Switch, it's FIFA 18, but with WAHMEN."

Forget everything else that boxart is truly awful.

I'm not happy to pay for FIFA at all if this is how they keep handling the Switch versions.

Bite me, EA.

@Onkel_Laser Pretty sure that’s not true.

@AlexOlney looks like one these knock of covers you find on a bootleg game on holliday

I'd never pay for a Fifa game, let alone a lazy reskin. Let's not forget that Switch has Captain Tsubasa, which is superior anyway

Anyone who buys this deserves to be ripped off and frankly I don't expect anything else from EA these days

They would take it more seriously if there was competition for them on the switch for soccer games

Let's not forget, new box art and new menu icon. It's not ALL just a reskin.

Being honest, this is a Mickey take. Even EA acknowledge it with the wording on the box and eshop description.

This must be a price for those that don't have Fifa on the platform yet so it will be 'new' for them.
I have the first Fifa (2018 I think) and would never buy this edition.
EA had plenty of time to adapt the game properly and didn't do it.
They should follow the example of 2K basketball games that are on pair with other platforms in terms of content and gameplay upgrades.

@Onkel_Laser
Again the D... need to compare Game Freak with EA? Seriously take a break, because that is ridiculous, seriously.

So was there ever Ultimate Team on the Switch versions?

EA make me laugh they are shameless and everyone says I’m not buying this but they go on to sell millions so who the hell buys this s**t

Fifa is one of the best sports games which is why it's sad to see it be this crummy. I had it on the wii u and enjoyed it a lot but I'm not buying the same game over and over again. I don't even know at this point ea is just finding every way to piss people off and using it. Sure there are a few gems but so many games that have hit potential are brought down by this crap. Battlefront 2 sucked at launch, which was fixed later and it is now great. The problem is the damage is done, and they don't learn. It pains me because star wars is my favorite and the only good star wars game to come out since the original battlefront 2 has been fallen order! That is a long time if you know what I mean. I mean force unleashed was good but it wasn't real star wars gameplay (Kyle kattan games, battlefront). It just makes me sad. Hopefully they see fallen order as a launch point for more games returning to the original style, which battlefront 2 got to eventually but didn't have enough steam at that point. Battlefront 3 only needs content and the same gameplay brought over to be great, and a fallen order sequel is imminent. If only they could turn it around with fifa like they are supposedly doing with star wars. Add a lot of new stuff to entice everyone not just diehards! That's just my thoughts on this though.

Oh and also forgot they are releasing a new ship game that looks like a new rogue squadron unless they really mess it up they are in the right direction!

Now with empty stadiums!

Reskinception

At least Konami had the decency to only charge a nominal fee for their legacy release this year.

EA Sports are the ringpiece of the game publishing world.

People keep buying it, EA gonna keep selling it. Credit to EA, they've got a guaranteed method of turning a significant profit for minimal effort. Sucks for the fans wanting the full-fat experience on the Switch, but as has already been mentioned EA have been doing this for years. The way to make them stop and redesign the game is turn the online complaining into actual votes with your wallets (see Battlefront 2 and Mass Effect 3 - it works), otherwise buy it and keep proving to EA that they're right.

I will just stick with Soccer on the NES for Nintendo Switch app. I'm pretty certain I'm getting the same "ball go back and forth" gameplay.

People don't buy them yearly for the squad or kit updates. When FIFA22 gets released, it will become difficult to find people to play online in FIFA21. Not saying it's right, but that's why.

"Despite Being Another 'Legacy' Reskin"
Implying that the rest isn't...

As many others already said, whoever still buys into this is part of the problem. It sucks that EA has no competition and that fans of sportsball games are more or less dependent on their releases, but there comes a point where you just have to say no.

Someone should datamine this, so we can teach EA a lesson for selling us an emulation of 3 classics!
Join the revolution againts these scummy corporations forcing us to buy their games! Am I doing it right?

And Nintendo could have released Mario 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy at discounted prices through a VC, but here we are.

Let me do my best defender impression.

YoU dOn'T hAvE tO bUy It.

@Onkel_Laser um no offense but not even close to true. I had problems with sword too but it changed a lot and to be honest not all worked out. The dlc thing is a bit annoying it wasn't free because there wasn't a lot of pokemon's at launch. But is it making you pay for pokemon? No. You are paying for content. You can trade for all the pokemon. The games are not even close to re skins don't know why you think that lol. You don't see a 40 dollar pay wall for pikachu like ea did with battlefront 2 at launch. Saying pokemon like ea is like saying zelda is which again doesn't make sense. "Oh it is a re skin" lol. The dlc is for zelda too and although sword and shield don't include all the content that people wanted they still gave us a complete, fun game (albeit with bad writing lol). Zelda is a complete fun game but you can also add on to it with dlc! There is a ton of good games with something missing that was added in played dlc and nintendo is a company. They knew we would want more pokemon so instead of making more pokemon in the base game they added two entire new areas with unique pokemon, story characters, and a ton of other fun aspects that they knew would make it even better than just more pokemon. I am ok with that. They made this dlc worth it but also not necessary which is perfect. They took the heat for DeX cut because before the game launched they were working on the dlc. They made the game a good one, not the best, but good which is something I cannot say for ea. Battlefront 2 was not good without paid money in the beginning. Ss is good without spending a dime.

@BenAV exactly what I came here to say! Nobody is forcing anybody to buy it - vote with your money and the practice will stop. If enough people pay £45 it then it won’t. Simples.

Guess it's better than no game at all...maybe...

FIFA21 is not on Switch.

If you are a Sports fan, only buying a Switch is not a good idea. You need a different system.

EA: This is FIFA 2021 on the switch.
Joe Public: Isn't that just FIFA 2020?
EA gets magic marker out and crosses out 20 and writes 21 on the cover.
EA: No it's FIFA 2021.
Joe Public: Okay cool here's £45...

Gamers shake heads in despair!

I bought FIFA 20 Legacy Edition on sale for $15 and I felt dirty for doing so.

Yeah it's obvious they're not even trying anymore. This yearly project (including the box art as many have pointed out) is most likely handed down to the interns at EA to do.

Ea needs to lose their exclusive licenses so 2K and Konami can knock them down a peg and force them to try.

Sadly, someone must be purchasing this because they keep selling them.

@OorWullie And EA will still have made a profit at that price.

@AlexOlney Maybe it is supposed to represent years of thin layers being hastily papered over the same base product?

EA is only releasing it by contractual obligation anyway. :-/

Just say no kids. Honestly, if they want to pay the Switch version lip service, release it yearly as a 10 quid season pass or something. The player's faces and colour of shirt are pretty much the only differences.

The worst thing to happen to video games sports were exclusive licences. There’s no competition anymore so customers are left with phoned in efforts from EA and 2K. It’s been basically the same game for years and people still lap it up. The new madden is a joke and it’s still number one in the sales chart in the US. EA are a shell of the company they once were. They used to produce really great games. Such a shame

@Agramonte To be fair being a sports fan is in general a bad idea while EA is in charge The offerings on other platforms are just less atrocious.

Avoid this EA trash....it’s getting close to being shovelware

Another game I won't be buying from EA.

@Lord It is shovelware. With a AAA budget.

Like the other versions, this will be on sale for about 75% by Christmas.

@tech7 You can Play PES instead.

Should we be surprised?

In a few months they’ll again feign ignorance why EA games sell poorly on Nintendo systems.

This is so bad from EA yes , but fifa 21 will still be the best football game on switch . Konami have not bothered giving us any version of pes . So this is on them . EA can price this how they like with no competition from pes . Lazy from EA , they will sell enough copies to cover there investment with a bit of profit but that's it . They could do so much better it's a shame we could of had a improved fifa maybe not parity with other versions but switch specific improvements which wo ukd of made us happy . And the sales would reflect that I'm sure

I got FIFA 20 when it was heavily discounted and it's fine, but the legacy "approach" makes it worth about £20 max. Absolutely no way I'd buy a reskinned version of it at £45.

When will people stop buying this sh*te? Its a DLC pack at best. Everyone who gives their money to £A for this deserves to lose it.

Switch owners who are fans of sports games are in a lose-lose battle.

On one hand you're being ripped off if you continue to buy these re-skins. But on the other hand, if you don't buy these, EA will simply say that no one is buying it so they're not bringing the game to the system anymore.

I say "stop", even though I enjoy the game. If they wanted to go this route, I would be happier with DLC that updates season to season for $20.

@BenAV yeah I work with a few people who are like that and some have even said that they see EA as a sign of quality 😂 so they purchase games by them regardless of quality

I'll be picking up the ps5 version

Mario 3D allstars is just as expensive, despite being a rompack..

@TheFatPlumber
But i play The Sims 4 PS4. 😕
I really love the game.
I know EA was a vampire with pricey Expansion Packs and Add Ons for The Sims 4 but the Star Wars Expansion Pack was really made me very upset as i never like any Western franchises like that.

Meanwhile, Nintendo porting most popular Wii U games that are 3+ years old to the Switch, charging 49.99+GBP, and receiving universal acclaim.

This aside, EA keeps giving its FIFA series the trash treatment you'd kinda expect. They do not seem to learn, but it also seems like fans keep giving money for these reskins. A vicious circle.

The PS4 is the FIFA console in our house. Haven't bought a Nintendo FIFA game since the earlier Wii days.

I honestly don't have a problem with EA releasing a re-skin and charging for it, the price they're asking for is too much though, as an only option.

By all means, sell FIFA 21 at £45, for those people that don't have FIFA 20, for example.

For all the people that have the previous season's version, sell an update as optional DLC to upgrade to the 21 version, at around, say, £20.

Sorry EA, I won’t be buying this anymore. You’re not getting my money until you actually work.

People need to vote with their feet and not purchase this on Switch. If no one purchased it then they wouldn’t keep reskining it. But they won’t as their will be plenty of FIFA football mad players that will shell out another £45 to EA so next year they will release FIFA 22 legacy edition.

Love me some FIFA but on ps4 with friends.

Fifa 07 is my ***** I play it on GameCube all the time. C'mon Ronaldinho and Landon Donovan are on the cover!

I’m opting for the PS4 version this year as it allows the free upgrade to PS5. EA really treat Nintendo gamers with pure contempt

Also, People moaning it’s a reskin ... I suggest you play the Vita version as the Switch plays identically, just with prettier graphics ... just

@Beermonkey : It's actually FIFA 19. "FIFA 20" was a "legacy edition" too.

@Silly_G
EA grabs magic marker and scribbles out the mess of correcting 19, 20 and 21.
Joe Public: So what year am I in?
EA: We tell you what year you are in!
Joe Public: okay... Do you still want my £45?

This isn't news it is to be expected. EA isn't one to invest time in implementing anything new on it's old engine that is now effectively about 7 years old they did the same when keep releasing the same game for years on the PS2. The thing is people will buy it regardless because it is the only option on Switch. Legacy Edition means no effort edition.

$2 is too much for EA's crap

@Beermonkey more like FIFA 18...

There are 3 things to consider here:

• Switch FIFA sales contribute to less than 5% towards total FIFA sales. Why should EA put more effort in it? It's not worth it for them. We are lucky they didn't abandon FIFA altogether after one or two iterations, so people at least have the choice to buy it for the Switch.
• FIFA on the Switch compares to ~FIFA 15 on other consoles. It doesn't look pretty. And it's barebones, compared to current iterations.
  But it has more fun gameplay than on any other console.
  I've been playing FIFA online for 7 years now. I started on PS3, then on the Xbox One, then I abandoned it after FIFA 17. Unfortunately, the online part of Ultimate Team (the most popular game mode) has a built-in handicap system, and it became stronger and stronger every year.
  In the end, I felt like I didn't play anymore but the cheating handicap system decided the results of every second-third game. It was way too much.
  (Before anyone says that I simply sucked at it, I didn't. I won the highest tier Online Cup/Championship every year.)
  In my opinion, the Switch version isn't plagued that much by that system (it's present, I can tell when I score/concede a goal that was assisted by it, but it doesn't happen that often than on the other consoles).
• FIFA is a live game. So it wouldn't probably work as a DLC.
  It changes players attributes weekly (in certain game modes), to represent the performance of the real players.
  In Ultimate Team, there are new tasks/cards every week, too.
  So it's not like we don't get a completely new experience every year. We get all that.
  We just don't get new graphics, gameplay or game modes.

In my opinion, FIFA offers a lot.
Which other game lets you choose from 15.000 characters? It has that many real players!
It has hundreds of real teams!
It has many real competitions, it lets you be players, goalkeepers or even managers throughout whole careers!

I put 1500+ hours in it every year.

So we can badmouth it and support Pokemon instead (which looks like an ugly game from the PS2 era) - or buy FIFA, so maybe, in the future we can get NHL or Madden, too, on the Switch - which would be a dream come true (to me, at least).

@Ghostchip Dude, it's the same gameplay with an irrelevant and boring story part nobody cares about.
New Pokemon and moves are nice, but could be seen as a reskin or roster update where you have new players with different stats on different teams. Also what about the Let's Go-Titles which are the 2nd remake of the original red and blue? Or Ultra Sun and Moon, which were literally the same games?

Gamefreak is on a dangerous track to make the same mistakes as Fifa. If they continue to go that way, they should not be treated differently.

@Onkel_Laser well the gameplay is the same because that is the point (if it wasn't it isnt pokemon and that is not anti consumer they just found there gameplay for pokemon battles and are rolling with it albeit some slight changes here and there), the story has always been bad but the writing and charm was just all off this gen, and a ton of people like this formula where they they make new areas to explore. The wild area made me feel like a little kid I loved it. The island hoping of alola felt magical to me. And I totally thought the same thing about the ultra games and guess what? I thought why the hell are they selling me this and did not buy it and it worked out for me. They may not change a ton, but the wild area is proof they are nothing like fifa. They are changing things, improving. If they were like fifa we would be getting silver with updates to the roster (more pokemon) but instead they make new places to explore and pokemon to capture in these areas that feel like there own making it feel fresh and exciting with changes that can be risky. And these same games are either ways to experience old games on new platforms without antiquated design, with let's go obviously being Timmy's first pokemon game kind of thing. They were there to be a charming way to play instead of buying a non backlit early 2000s game. "Theres been two remakes" you know why? Because they want you to play there catalogue on new hardware which is great. Why do you see this as a bad thing? Literally every other company has done it and they put more work into it than nintendo with mario! Why complain about a great way to enjoy a classic? Ultra moon and ultra sun exist because they needed something to help fans until sword and shield and you know what? It worked. They enhanced the game enough to make them definitive versions not meant to replace your old game but for people who passed on the originals. And people who only got the originals will be playing those and trading with friends with the new games to get the pokemon thus keeping people interested in pokemon until the switches release. And I'm fine with that totally because it wasn't taking the place of a new installment whatsoever and was a pretty consumer friendly tactic with the option to just trade with the old ones and get everything. Saying they are on fifa's track just does not even close to makes sense. All they are doing is having a main team make more mainline ones while stuff like ultra moon and sun (which is mainline but sword and shield were in development so) and let's go is great as a side project and they are not Re skins because the whole point is exploring the new region when a new gen roles around. Sure they messed up a couple things but they learned from ultra sun and ultra moon. You know this dlc? They were going to have you buy a brand new game but they didn't they released it as optional dlc making it a lot easier to buy and use or even not buy and still get new pokemon and experiences. Fifa has literally been the same game with new "pokemon" a while and pokemon offers usually charming characters in a cheesy bad storyline, with a huge and magical new region to explore, cool side projects like let's go and ultra, new innovations each game, and overall a lot of enjoyable times for usually completely different reasons for the last game. I'm starting to wonder if you even play pokemon honestly.

@Onkel_Laser
Comparing Game Freak to EA is absurd, too much for this:
To begin with, Game Freak is a "small" developer, they develop few games and their only big success is Pokemon, which incidentally is also part of Nintendo.
In addition, GameFreak only takes care of the main game, develops the characters, settings, stories and "polishes" the gameplay, which although it has been the same for years with certain improvements and with "gimmicks" in each new generation, but has still been well received by its public; All Pokemon Spin offs, the price of their games and the distribution run by Nintendo and the company that was created by these two to facilitate the distribution and control of the products of the franchise: The Pokemon Company.

On the other hand, Electronic Arts, is a gigantic company, for many years (since 1983), it has developed several games and franchises, it has bought and controls many developers for all the games it has developed, it develops, and will develop; In addition, they control its distribution, price control because it is a publisher too. In short, it is a huge company, nothing to do with Game Freak.

Now if we are going to disasters: Game Freak has only developed the main Pokemon games, and they are the only ones who have shaped the games in each generation, therefore, the gameplay and history problems, yes, they are their mere responsibility, in the case of prices, DLC's, etc. Game Freak is not the only one to make those decisions, here is where Nintendo and the Pokemon company come in, and they 2 are most directly responsible for what happened with Shield and Sword and the current generation.

Now, with EA, where can we start? They have ruined several franchises, and has blamed the developers for those failures that even those developers have disappeared out of pure "hatred", introduces mocrotransactions in a very shameless way and even has a game that makes see the third version of Pokemon agmes in every generation a joke, I mean the Sims and its thousands of DLC sold as a new game, and that's just a little summary, could put more and more of the disasters of EA.

So, tell me, is Game Freak like EA? Has it abused other developers? Unfairly fired people? Destroyed several franchises? Did they implement exaggerated DLC and microtransations by themselves in all their recent games?

It is true, IT IS TRUE that Game Freak had many errors in this last generation, but to say that it is like EA, seriously, that is being exaggerated and I better not say the other.