Why Fans Criticized FC 24's Player Faces

EA's FC 24 Ultimate Edition cover drew criticism over face scans of players like Ronaldinho, Marta and Bukayo Saka not matching their real likenesses.

Gamer Papers

July 11, 2023, 04:20 PM2 min read

In brief

AI summary

EA Sports FC 24's Ultimate Edition cover, revealed with an announcement trailer, drew criticism over several player face scans.
Fans singled out Ronaldinho, Marta and Bukayo Saka as not resembling their real-life likenesses, with some users suspecting AI generation.
Erling Haaland, Sam Kerr, Vinicius Jr. and David Beckham's face scans were called accurate, with no eFootball-level controversy expected.

Contents2 sections

FC 24 Player Faces! EA Sports FC Face Scans!

EA recently released an announcement trailer and an Ultimate Edition cover featuring all the players, even as we get this close to EA Sports FC (FC 24). Given that we'll also see a detailed gameplay video on July 13, it looks like there's a lot more information about the game still to come. However, some of the player faces in the cover image EA released have come under criticism. Some users took to social media to say they didn't like the FC 24 player faces.

The stars of The World’s Game are in the club.
Presenting the #FC24 Ultimate Edition Cover #EASPORTSFC pic.twitter.com/zEzGWdbHwa
— EA SPORTS FC (@EASPORTSFC) July 10, 2023

Why Weren't FC 24 Player Faces Liked?

EA recently released the Ultimate Edition cover as a group image featuring all the players. Fans think that while some player faces on the released Ultimate Edition cover look identical to the real players, others don't reflect their real appearance.

Players are saying that Ronaldinho, Marta and Bukayo Saka in particular don't reflect their real likenesses. FIFA content creator NYKchazza also posted an image of Saka's face scan and asked his fans whether they could recognize the player.

Comments from other FIFA users weren't long in coming either. While some users rated certain face scans as among the worst in FIFA history, others argued that the FC 24 player faces might have been AI-generated.

What Do We Think of EA Sports FC 24 Player Faces?

As for our take on the matter, we generally liked the player faces EA designed for the Ultimate Edition cover. In particular, players like Erling Haaland, Sam Kerr, Vinicius Jr. and David Beckham look almost identical to their real-life counterparts. We already know these players are the ones taking the lead role on the FC 24 covers. While the names in the other parts of the cover are rendered a bit more in the background and muted, we recognize how hard it is to fit every player into a single image. So we don't think it would be fair to be too harsh about this. Of course, as more details about the game and its graphics keep coming, we'll get a better chance to experience it and form a clearer opinion on the matter. Still, we don't think we're headed for another eFootball situation — that possibility seems fairly remote to us :)