EA Sports Suggest FIFA 21 Will Not Be Delayed or Cancelled Despite Coronavirus Outbreak

Inside our homes, one thing that has been taking a battering during lockdown have been the games controllers. Thumb sticks are likely to have worn out by this point, televisions overheating, and video games played to death.

All those football craving isolators have likely been smashing FIFA 20 endlessly since lockdown started, probably to the point where you can't even stand the sight of the game anymore.

Which is why it's a darn good thing that the rumours of FIFA 21 being delayed or (god forbid) cancelled entirely due to the isolation measures being taken, were apparently all nonsense. Yes, that's right, it looks like the latest instalment of everyone's favourite sports video game is to be released as planned in Autumn - likely to be 25 September, 2020.

"We have a long history of creating spectacular sports content that's not directly dependent or reliant on the real world of sports," EA Sports' CEO Andrew Wilson said during during EA's fourth quarter fiscal 2020 earnings call.

"We know today people are engaging with sports because that's what they love to do." CFO Blake Jorgensen added.

"If you are a sports fan, it doesn't stop. And so the only way they're getting their sports engagement is through our games, and that's a huge benefit for us."

As those who play FIFA will know, it's a virtual version of almost the entire football world (or at least that which is worth playing), which means statistics for players are - generally - based on their real life capabilities.

With football being at a standstill now, barring the imminent return of the Bundesliga, fears were this could prevent FIFA 21 from meeting its release date target. However, those fears seem to have been allayed due to everyone putting in so many hours of the game during lockdown.

"With more people staying at home in the fourth quarter, we did see rising usage and engagement levels in many of our games," their fourth quarter fiscal report said. "We're humbled to see people wanting to connect through our games during this time."