Key Takeaways
1. EA Sports is actively addressing input delay concerns in EA Sports FC 26 by visiting players’ homes to assess their internet connections.
2. Senior Producer Sam Rivera emphasized the team’s commitment to understanding input lag by gathering feedback and data from professional players and testing setups in Europe.
3. More than 50% of players use Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet, leading to issues like packet loss and higher latency, which contribute to input delays.
4. New animations have been introduced in FC 26 to improve gameplay responsiveness and address the complexity of in-game actions.
5. EA Sports FC 26 is set to launch globally on September 26, 2025, across multiple gaming platforms.
In a surprising turn of events, EA Sports has taken steps to tackle the widespread worries about input delay in their upcoming game, EA Sports FC 26. They even visited players’ homes to check their internet connections in real life.
Deep Dive into Input Lag
During an interview with IGN, Senior Producer Sam Rivera shared details about the team’s commitment to solving the ongoing input lag problem. This issue has been a source of frustration for Ultimate Team players who have experienced delays when executing in-game actions, such as passing or shooting. Rivera mentioned, “We really needed to understand the root of the problem. We worked with pro players, we gathered data from players all around the world to try to understand the issue, but we didn’t want to only listen to the feedback. We wanted to experience the input delay ourselves. So we traveled to Europe to meet with pro players at the eSports studios. We actually met with content creators at their homes, and we learned a lot.”
Testing in Multiple Locations
Teams of engineers from EA conducted tests on player setups in the UK and Spain. They discovered that more than 50% of EA FC players were using Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet, which led to issues like packet loss, jitter, and higher latency. Rivera elaborated, “If you play on Wi-Fi, you can have jitter and packet loss, which can create a very delayed experience.” The best way to play is by using an Ethernet cable and turning on your TV’s Game Mode, as not doing so can add between 20 to 100 ms of input lag. However, the issues were not limited to connectivity; some in-game actions also played a role in the delays, as Rivera noted: “Sometimes, we request actions in the game that are very difficult to perform. So if there’s a very fast incoming ball and I want to go for a long pass backwards, that is very difficult, and sometimes there are no animations for that. So it is like in real life, very difficult to perform. It’s difficult for us to capture those animations.”
New Animations for a Better Experience
To address these issues more effectively, EA Sports has introduced several new animations in FC 26. The company claims that the animation system for FC 26 is one of the most complex, needing to address every request, shot, and pass based on player and opponent positions. Although it’s impossible to completely eliminate input delay from a video game, Rivera believes they have made significant progress in FC 26 to offer a more responsive gaming experience.
EA Sports FC 26 was officially announced in July 2025 and is set to launch globally on September 26, 2025, for platforms including PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, and Amazon Luna.
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