“There are a few differences, just because of the hardware, but the game’s running great,” says John Shepherd, VP and executive producer at EA.

EA has consistently put out “Legacy Editions” of its FIFA titles on the Nintendo Switch for years now, with each new entry being making the most minimal and cursory changes, to the extent that FIFA 19 is virtually indistinguishable from FIFA 23 on the platform. This year, however, with the series switching its name to EA Sports FC, it’s also looking to make marked improvements on the Nintendo Switch.

Not only will EA Sports FC 24 finally run on the Frostbite engine on the Nintendo Switch the way the series has on all other platforms for years at this point, it will also feature a much more expanded and full-featured version of the flagship game mode, Ultimate Team, which has ben heavily limited in past FIFA titles on the Switch.

Speaking recently to IGN, John Shepherd, VP and executive producer at EA, touched on the game’s platform-specific version, saying that by and large, EA Sports FC 24 on the Switch will have parity with the game’s PS4 and Xbox One versions. While that does mean that many of the biggest gameplay and technical improvements in this year’s game won’t be included in the Switch version, it still promises to be a big step up over recent years.

“It’s going to have all the modes,” Shepherd said. “It’s more representative of the Xbox One, PS4 gameplay, than it would be the PlayStation 5, latest-gen gameplay. There are a few differences, just because of the hardware, but the game’s running great.”

Shepherd went on to call the game’s Switch version a “big project” that has been worked on for years. Describing it as “a huge achievement”, he explained that it was a collaborative effort across all of EA to be able to get Frostbite to run properly on the platform.

“That’s been multiple years, just trying to get that working really nicely on Switch,” Shepherd said. “We were reviewing it with Nintendo not too long ago. Everyone’s really excited about it.

“It was a collaboration not just with FC, but across EA. We had to get a lot of Frostbite support to get everything working on Switch. It’s a huge achievement, honestly.”

EA Sports FC 24 launches on September 29 for Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.