Today, in celebration of Women's History Month, EA SPORTS FC announced a new sponsorship deal with long-standing partners UEFA, to become title partners of their Women In Football Leadership Program (WFLP). Now in its tenth year, the WFLP is an annual week-long program, supported by the IMD Business School, aimed at advancing the careers of women capable of influencing the football industry, both today and in the future. The program has been running since 2014, benefitting over 240 women so far.

This year's program, in partnership with EA SPORTS FC, will take place in August at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, supporting over 30 women from across the football industry, with candidates selected based on their future potential in the world of football. Involving key-note speeches from existing leaders in the industry, a variety of group training sessions, as well as one-on-one-coaching, the WFLP is designed to improve leadership skills, encourage networking and build self-confidence in order for the participants to achieve their full potential.

Following up from the first EA SPORTS WRC deep dive that shared details on gameplay features, we're excited to share more information on what players can experience when the game releases on November 3 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via EA App, Epic Store, and Steam. Our second deep dive goes into detail on Career, Moments, Multiplayer, and more in EA SPORTS WRC. Breaking it down is Molly Pettit, broadcaster and journalist for WRC.

Career
Career is a core WRC experience, where players will aim to lead their team to victory against the world's best rally drivers, cars, and teams. The first choice will be in deciding where on the WRC ladder to start their first season from. Want to build up a legacy across multiple classes? Then begin a journey with Junior WRC, as the Rally3 cars are a great entry point for new players. Alternatively, players can start in WRC 2, or even jump straight in at the deep-end with the Rally1 cars in the top class of competition. Following the initial class selection, players will then begin the process of creating their very own rally team. This starts with the team branding, including name and colours, before meeting the Chief Engineer and Benefactor.

As we're about to enter the last week of September, we have another somewhat slow week of new releases, that is unless you're a football fan, the kind with a round ball, not the oblong pig bladder kind. That said, if you're into trains, house building, hunting relics or ever wanted to know what it's like to jump between worlds, there might be something for you this week as well.

EA Sports FC 24 / This week's AAA title / Thursday 28 September
EA Sports FC 24 welcomes you to The World's Game: the most true-to-football experience ever with HyperMotionV, PlayStyles optimised by Opta, and an enhanced Frostbite. Join us in building the future of football on a foundation of innovation and authenticity with more than 19,000 fully licensed players, 700 teams, and 30 leagues.

Following on from the official reveal of EA Sports WRC, here are some more details on what players can expect when the game releases on November 3 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via EA App, Epic Store, and Steam. Watch the first EA Sports WRC deep dive (below). This first of two deep dives focuses on three key areas: gameplay, handling, and authenticity. Molly Petit, broadcaster and journalist for WRC, breaks it all down.

Heritage and Experience
EA Sports WRC is built on the foundations of over 25 years of off-road videogame heritage from development studio Codemasters. The team's previous rally game, DIRT Rally 2.0, paved the way for a new generation of rally game running on the Unreal Engine. Moving to the Unreal Engine has afforded the team greater freedom to create the biggest rally stages in Codemasters' history, with the longest routes spanning over 30 km - roughly twice as long as those seen in previous titles. In total, EA Sports WRC features over 600 km of unique roads, almost double what was available in DiRT Rally 2.0.

Electronic Arts is excited to introduce EA SPORTS WRC, the official game of the FIA World Rally Championship coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via EA App, Epic Store, and Steam on November 3, 2023. Developed by the team behind the critically acclaimed DiRT Rally series, with over 25 years of off-road videogame heritage, EA SPORTS WRC is a truly next-generation rally game and the quintessential title for sim-racing enthusiasts.

Ross Gowing, Senior Creative Director at Codemasters: "EA SPORTS WRC is the purest form of motorsport where every stage is a fight against the clock, the terrain, and yourself. This is the rally game we've always wanted to make, combining our studio's deep knowledge and expertise with the power of the official WRC license representing the pinnacle of rally motorsport."

Welcome to a new era for The World's Game. Feel closer to the game with three cutting-edge technologies powering unparalleled realism in every match—HyperMotionV, PlayStyles optimised by Opta, and a revolutionised Frostbite Engine. HyperMotionV captures the game as it's truly played, using volumetric data from more than 180 professional men's and women's football matches to ensure player movements in-game accurately reflect real-world action on the pitch. PlayStyles dimensionalise athletes, making them more authentic by interpreting real-world player data from Opta and other sources into signature abilities which heighten the realism and individuality of each player. The revolutionised Frostbite Engine delivers The World's Game in lifelike detail, bringing a new level of immersion to each match.

Develop your own club legends in Ultimate Team by improving your players with the brand new Ultimate Team Evolutions, and welcome women's footballers to the pitch alongside men as you craft your dream XI. Get closer to the touchline with new modern management features in Manager Career or pave your own path to glory in Player Career. Plus, connect and compete with more friends than ever through cross-play in both Clubs and VOLTA FOOTBALL. Pre-purchase EA SPORTS FC 24 Ultimate Edition by 22 August to get an untradeable UEFA Champions League or UEFA Women's Champions League Ultimate Team Hero Item on 27 November.

This announcement was shared with Electronic Arts employees by CEO Andrew Wilson: "Team, the amazing experiences we create and deliver—across platforms, geographies, and business models—captivate hundreds of millions of players and counting. As more and more people around the world choose games as their first and most important way to come together, express themselves, and share their fandom, what we do together as leaders of interactive entertainment matters more than ever.

Engaging these growing audiences represents incredible opportunities for our teams to entertain massive online communities, create blockbuster interactive storytelling, and amplify the power of community in and around our games with social and creator tools. Creativity and innovation have always been the foundation of everything we do. Now, we must further empower our creative teams so that we might realize our strategic vision. Today, we are announcing the next step of our strategy by aligning our studios into two organizations that report to me—EA Entertainment and EA SPORTS. This evolution of our company continues to empower our studio leaders with more creative ownership and financial accountability to make faster and more insightful decisions around development and go to market strategies. These steps will accelerate our business, drive growth, and deliver long-term value for our people, our players and our communities.

F1 ️ World, a new feature for F1 ️23, with a lot to offer as an exciting new way to enjoy the game, serving as a central hub for multiple game modes. You can also watch a video from Maxime MXM to know more about F1 ️ World (below). Here's what the new hub features:

Series
Designed to offer a range of competitive events that take you on a single player global tour of F1 ️, spanning a variety of game modes and tracks, with primary and secondary objectives to complete.

See the features bringing F1 23 to life on PC - ray tracing, custom graphics, control support, exclusive VR, and more bring the sport to life on PC. Be the last to brake in EA SPORTS F1 23, the official videogame of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship and discover the features bringing the pinnacle of motorsport to life on PC.

RAY TRACING
Ray tracing accurately simulates the behavior of light to closely resemble real-world physics, creating lifelike reflections, refractions, and shadows in real time. In F1 2023, further advancements have been made where certain scenes now include more complex ray tracing in the form of Dynamic Diffuse Global Illumination, which simulates the way light bounces off objects in the environment, creating more complex indirect lighting effects in real time.

Today Electronic Arts Inc. and EA SPORTS announced that F1 23, the official game of the FIA Formula One World Championship, will be released on June 16 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, via EA App, Epic Games Store, and Steam. Headlined with the return of the epic story mode Braking Point, F1 23 is home to every team, driver and circuit for the 2023 season, including the highly anticipated Las Vegas Grand Prix and Lusail International Circuit, Qatar. Building on the exciting new partnership with Max Verstappen, who now boasts EA SPORTS branding on the chin of his helmet, the back-to-back World Champion is confirmed as the cover star for the digital-exclusive F1 23 Champions Edition.

"The return of Braking Point allows players to immerse themselves in a racing story, which provides a unique look at F1 alongside the authentic race features our players know and love," said Lee Mather, Senior Creative Director at Codemasters. "Our close relationship with the teams has allowed us to refine our handling model, adding greater realism to pad-play, and implementing a new color encoding system used in film and TV creates a more true-to-life experience."

Last May, Electronic Arts confirmed that its licensing deal with FIFA would be coming to an end by the summer of 2023. This week it has revealed the new branding for the EA Sport FC franchise, which is set to succeed the soon-to-be discontinued EA + FIFA series. Last year EA announced that it would be bringing its 30-year partnership with FIFA to a close. The computer game publishing giant could not agree on a new licensing deal with the association football/soccer governing body. EA Sports has unveiled the new logo and visual language that will feature atop their new flagship football game. It is widely rumored that FIFA are in the process of creating a new and distinct football games franchise with a yet to be revealed development partner.

The sports division has provided a breakdown of the design process: "The new brand takes its design inspiration from triangles, an ever-present shape in the sport and football culture that represents the game in multiple dimensions. From passing techniques to set-plays to formation design, triangles are a constant in the beautiful game. The shape is also woven into the DNA of EA Sports football experiences - from the isometric viewing angles of EA Sports' first football games and triangular polygons that make up every frame, to the chemistry triangles that exist in Ultimate Team or the iconic player indicator symbol that appears above athletes in every match."