EA Sports visited content creators and players to test real world input delay for FC 26

In a rather surprising move, EA Sports has addressed the widespread concerns about input delay in their upcoming EA Sports FC 26  game by going so far as to visit players’ homes to test their real-world internet connections. 

Senior Producer Sam Rivera detailed, in an IGN interview, the extent of the team’s dedication to address the ongoing issue of input lag,  which has frustrated Ultimate Team players who noticed split-second lag when performing in-game actions like passes or shots. Rivera stated:

”We really needed to understand the root of the problem. We worked with pro players, we gathered data from players all around the world to try to understand the issue, but we didn’t want to only listen to the feedback.

We wanted to experience the input delay ourselves. So we traveled to Europe to meet with pro players at the eSports studios. We actually met with content creators at their homes, and we learned a lot.”

Teams of engineers from EA tested player setups in the UK and Spain, and found out that over 50% of EA FC players used Wi-Fi over Ethernet, which resulted in packet loss, jitter, and increased latency. Rivera further explained, “If you play on Wi-Fi, you can have jitter and packet loss, which can create a very delayed experience.” 

The ideal approach is to use an Ethernet cable and enable your TV’s Game Mode to reduce delay, which can potentially contribute between 20 to 100 ms of input lag if not configured correctly. However, the problem wasn't just isolated to network issues. Some in-game maneuvers also contributed to the problem, as further explained by Rivera:

“Sometimes, we request actions in the game that are very difficult to perform. So if there’s a very fast incoming ball and I want to go for a long pass backwards, that is very difficult, and sometimes there are no animations for that. So it is like in real life, very difficult to perform. It’s difficult for us to capture those animations.”

To better address the problem, EA Sports went on to add numerous new animations to FC 26. According to the company, FC 26’s animation system is one of the most complicated systems, needing to solve every request, shot, and pass depending upon player and opponent positioning.

While input delay can never be entirely eliminated from a video game but Rivera is confident that they’ve “done a very good step in FC 26 to create a more responsive game.”

EA Sports FC 26 was announced in July 2025 and will release worldwide on September 26, 2025, for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, and Amazon Luna.