When EA Sports FC players first learned that FC 27 would ship with a full open-world mode, the collective anxiety was immediate and understandable – anyone who has spent time in NBA 2K’s The City, recording albums and hanging around with insurance mascots between basketball games, knows exactly how badly this kind of thing can go. Fortunately, according to a hands-on preview by Jordan Middler at VGC, the reality of The Grounds is considerably less grim than that worst-case scenario.
What Is The Grounds, Exactly?
The Grounds is built as an evolution of Clubs, FC’s long-running co-op mode where players create custom avatars and compete in full 11v11 matches. The open-world portion begins at The Terrace, a central hub connecting The Clubhouse – where the traditional Clubs experience sits, untouched, for those who want nothing to do with the wider world – to the rest of The Grounds.
Beyond The Terrace, the open world splits into three districts inspired by footballing culture in the UK, France, and Argentina, each with architecture and pitches reflecting those nations’ heritage. Each instance of The Grounds fits 100 players, with a fast travel system making it easy to jump between activities, matches, and objectives without plodding around on foot.
On the football side, the range is deliberately wide. At one end sits the full 11v11 Clubs experience, updated with FUT-inspired live events and objectives. At the other, a set of minigames and small-sided kickabouts that Middler describes as genuinely fun. One dodgeball-style game puts four players against each other, smashing the ball as hard as possible to deplete opponents’ lives, with powerups that speed up the ball or send obstacles flying. The small-sided games, apparently inspired by Clubs players who previously rigged their own 3v3 matches within the old framework, sound like an authentic recreation of five-a-side chaos – lovely passing sequences, someone holding onto the ball too long, everyone shouting, an empty net conceded.
The Mentors, the Brands, and the Monetisation Question
Player progression in The Grounds runs through a Mentor system. Kylian Mbappe, Paulo Dybala, Chloe Kelly, and Alex Hunter – yes, the protagonist from The Journey in older FIFA titles – all hand out quests, with Mbappe, Dybala, and Kelly providing their own voice acting. How much screen time each Mentor actually gets remains unclear from the preview build shown.
Players choose an Archetype that shapes how their created pro plays and which PlayStyles they can unlock, and crucially, this can be swapped out at any time. Everything done in The Grounds feeds into overall player XP, and the mode will evolve across the year with themed events tied to the Champions League, Halloween, and other seasonal moments – shown in a brief, work-in-progress state during the hands-on.
On the brand side, Nike, Adidas, Puma, and New Balance are all confirmed, with other streetwear partners teased. Middler notes, though, that player fashion and customisation are present without being shoved in your face – at least in the version seen. The streets of corporate sponsorship he expected to find were, so far, absent. That said, the monetisation picture is not fully resolved. The central question Middler plans to put directly to the developers is whether a player can build a fully capable pro without spending real money, and what the time investment looks like for those who don’t. It’s the same concern that’s followed EA Sports titles for years, and one worth watching closely – the community pushback EA faced over microtransactions in College Football 27 shows just how quickly that kind of friction can escalate.
Who Is This Actually For?
Middler’s read on The Grounds is honest and a little nostalgic: it feels tailor-made for players who finish school, load up a party with mates, and spend an entire evening in the same online space without it needing to be about anything in particular. The football is there when you want it, and it slides comfortably into the background when you don’t.
That framing will resonate strongly with younger players who already treat live-service games as social spaces first and games second. For veteran Clubs players hoping The Grounds doesn’t dilute what they already love, the fact that The Clubhouse keeps the traditional experience intact should be reassuring – even if the wider open world ends up not being for them.
EA Sports FC 27 is due out later this year, and the developers behind The Grounds are set to speak with VGC in the coming days on the progression and monetisation questions that remain open – answers that will go a long way toward determining whether this mode lives up to its early promise or follows a more familiar playbook.