Netflix football game receives harsh criticism and is equated with graphics from old consoles By Bruna
2 min read
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The new official FIFA game, “FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition”, launched by Netflix to capitalize on the enthusiasm surrounding the 2026 World Cup, generated great curiosity in the market. There was considerable expectation about how this title would position itself against the consolidated EA Sports FC, especially after the separation of the license between FIFA and Electronic Arts.
Currently, the football gaming scene lacks strong competition, creating a vacuum in the market. Although “eFootball” was well received for its gameplay, it failed to capture a significant player base. Other ambitious projects, such as UFL and GOALS, are still in early stages of development, which made the Netflix launch an opportunity for the FIFA brand to explore new directions and possibly fill this gap from robust competitors, making its poor performance all the more notable.
First analyzes point to seriously outdated visuals
Initial reviews for “FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition” were pretty unforgiving. The VGC portal, for example, gave the game an extremely low score of 1 out of 5, making derogatory comparisons between the title’s graphics and football games from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era. The same vehicle’s analysis was even more rigorous in relation to the match comments, describing them as if they had been taken directly from the original PlayStation, highlighting a lack of modernity.
Community reacts negatively to the official launch trailer
The game’s acceptance by the gaming community was also extremely unfavorable. Discontent manifested itself before many users even had a chance to try the title. The game’s official trailer, a key element in generating expectations, ended up having the opposite effect to that desired.
With around 200 comments on the platform, the overwhelming majority of reactions were negative, and finding a single positive opinion became a difficult task. Players expressed their sarcasm over the game’s visuals, derisively dubbing it “PES 2006” or questioning whether the release would, in fact, be aimed at retro consoles like the Nintendo 64, PlayStation 2, and GameCube.
