The final Fifa: after 30 years, the football sim plans to go out with a bang

It started with blocky players and electronic crowd noise, now it boasts intelligent animation and specific movement capture for the women's game

Earlier this year, at the famed La Romareda stadium in Zaragoza, Spain, EA Sports organised two football matches, one each for male and female pro players. During these competitive 90-minute fixtures, all participants, including subs and officials, wore advanced Xsens motion capture suits that recorded their every movement, shot, tackle and celebration. Involving more than 70 people it was, according to gameplay producer Sam Rivera, the largest number of players ever motion-captured in a single session.

Every year, the developers of Fifa tell us that their key aim is authenticity. This year, Fifa 23 - the final product of EA Sports and Fifa's 30-year partnership - is about making key moments more intelligible, detailed and dramatic, zooming in ever closer to the action at pitch level. That grand Zaragoza mo-cap session provided 10m frames of animation - twice as much match capture as Fifa 22 - allowing for more than 6,000 authentic player animations, a wealth of which are female-specific.