FIFA 23 slammed by PC players as EA's own anti-cheat makes it unplayable for many

pcgamer.com:

The last entry in one of gaming's great historical partnerships(opens in new tab) has been released and, let me tell you, the manager won't be happy with how EA has set their stall out early doors. FIFA 23 is unplayable for a considerable amount of the playerbase thanks to a malfunction with EA's own anti-cheat software, which is failing to properly verify itself and thus refusing to launch the game.

Some players are reporting conflicts with other anti-cheat or DRM software on their PCs, while plenty of others have expressed their frustration through the game's now 'mostly negative' Steam reviews. It is impossible to say how widespread this is, though a minority of players seem able to access the title, and it has also affected PC Gamer's reviewer (our review of FIFA 23 is thus delayed until the writer can, y'know, play a bit of it).

«FIFA 23 is not a sports game, it's a simulator,» writes Colonel Clam in their Steam review. «A simulator for troubleshooting why the game won't launch.» Rmgerro drily observes that «I guess the anticheat is working, because if you can't play the game you can't cheat.»

Developer and publisher EA has issued a holding statement acknowledging the issues and promising a fix:

«We are aware of the issues some PC players have experienced when launching FIFA 23, which are largely related to EA anticheat software. We are actively working on a fix. We see and understand our PC community’s frustration, and we apologize.»

EA goes on to reference the expansion of cross-play support in FIFA 23: PC players are supposed to be able to play with console owners (PS5 and Xbox S/X) as well as those on Stadia (well, until January at least). The company also says that «many players who have encountered errors have