"Will FIFA 23 feature this year's upcoming and untimely FIFA World Cup: Qatar 2022?" must be one of the most Googled questions of the year for football fans (perhaps sans the "untimely" part), and now we've got an official answer. The short version? Yes, it will.
The long version says that FIFA 23 will not only include "the whole World Cup", as we learned the other day at EA Vancouver in Canada, but also next year's FIFA Women's World Cup. This means that both the complete Men's National Teams event that will be held in Qatar at the tail end of this year, together with the Women's National Teams event that will be held in Australia and New Zealand in August 2023, will be fully recreated in-game. And this will happen on current-gen versions (PS5, Xbox Series, PC, Stadia) and last-gen versions (PS4, Xbox One), but excluding Nintendo Switch's FIFA 23 Legacy Edition. As to when exactly the World Cups will arrive in FIFA 23, they will be "coming during the season", so it sounds like a post-launch update as the tournaments approach.
With this in mind, it's all the more significant that Sam Kerr is one of the stars of this year's historic cover, seeing as how she's an Australian legend. But it doesn't end there for Women's Football, as for the first time in the FIFA series, FIFA 23 will also feature regional League Clubs, and not only National Teams. EA will further detail the specific Women clubs present in the game before launch, but among them there'll be Barclays FA Women's Super League (WSL) and France D1 Arkema (D1F) at launch, together with stadiums such as Manchester City Academy. Contrary to the World Cups, these affect all platforms, this time including Nintendo Switch.
Finally, all the Women Football content comes backed and enhanced by tons of new animations, HyperMotion 2 dedicated capture and more.