FIFA 26 released their February feedback update, announcing fixes for several issues. A significant update, v1.5.0, is coming in March, but players are not excited, and instead, they are angry.

Leaked information suggests the development team will be making changes to Career Mode and nerfing several key playstyles, contradicting what players expected.

February Feedback Update

Finesse Shot

The official announcement first addressed Finesse Shot issue, stating that they fixed it by rolling back to version 1.4.2, and that Finesse Shot should now function correctly.

This itself isn't the problem, but the official explanation is completely lacking: why did the issue occur, how did it occur, and what happened when it occurred? This leaves players completely confused about what changes have been made to the game.

Playstyles

The official statement claims they received player feedback, and they hope player attributes should have a greater impact, and Playstyles are more of an enhancement than a standard for determining a player's value. Therefore, the official team plans to adjust Playstyles in the upcoming update. Although not explicitly stated, we know they will be nerfing which overly powerful playstyles.

When FC 26 was first released, the official team claimed they wanted to reduce the influence of playstyles, and their reiteration of this indicates they haven't achieved that.

The so-called player feedback may not be official, as players' teams are currently largely built around playstyles. Nerfing the mainstream playstyles would significantly reduce the value of many mainstream players. This is definitely not good for players, and the biggest beneficiary is the official team, allowing them to sell more cards.

Version 1.5.0

The upcoming adjustments are the most crucial. The official announcement states that the following playstyles will be adjusted:

• Tiki Taka
• Incisive Pass
• Inventive
• Power Shots (possibly buffed)
• Chip Shots

These playstyles are overpowered in most situations. They only become very strong in specific contexts, such as high-level matches, and they are highly situation-dependent.

Furthermore, in the current game, players rely on these playstyles for quick and simple passing. Without Incisive Pass, players might even miss the most basic short passes. Without Inventive, players can't even execute the simplest through balls.

If the developers simply weaken these three styles without significantly improving players' basic passing attributes, the result will be that all players will be unable to pass smoothly.

On the other hand, the developers have stated they will strengthen Power Shots, a very strong playstyle in the previous game, but which has been significantly weakened in FC 26, leading to its neglect. If Power Shots becomes strong again in Version 1.5.0, players will have to consider investing their FC 26 coins in new players, which almost means every player will have to rebuild their team from scratch.

Defensive AI

Although the developers say they are willing to listen to player feedback, they have no plans to modify the defensive AI, which has been a long-standing complaint in the player community.

Players do want certain overpowered playstyles to be nerfed, but they want the AI's defensive strength and the game's defensive logic to change accordingly. Currently, the most effective offensive playstyles have been weakened, while the powerful AI defense remains unchanged. Against players focused on defense, it will be very difficult to break through their defenses.

A major reason many players find the nerf to passing playstyles unacceptable is that defense hasn't been weakened in tandem with offense. This will inevitably lead to many players focusing solely on defense, even on both sides, with the game revolving around who makes the first mistake. Such matches will be incredibly boring.

EVO

Another frustrating thing for players is that despite the developers' intention to nerf these playstyles, they've been distributing many players with these playstyles+ in recent EVO missions.

In EA FC 25, the developers did something similar. After releasing several evolutions with Power Shot, they nerfed Power Shot, instantly rendering players' hard-earned evolution cards useless. The value of all Power Shot+ icons and promotional cards plummeted, effectively destroying the market.

Now, the same thing is happening again in FC 26. For players who have spent a lot of time crafting evolved players, hoping they would shine in the endgame, the next patch will turn them into clowns.

How to Truly Solve This Problem?

It's already late February. By the time the patch is implemented, players discover the problem, the developers collect feedback, and submit a new patch, it will likely be March or April. With less than four months left in the game's lifecycle, it will be too late to fix it then.

What the developers should do now is maintain the existing framework and only make minor adjustments to truly unbalanced, overpowered content. They could learn from the experience of FC 26 for next FUT game, rather than making such a drastic overhaul halfway through the game's lifespan, rendering all the players' efforts futile.

Version 1.5.0 hasn't been officially released yet. Hopefully, the developers can successfully balance Playstyles and make basic attributes important again, thus preventing another player exodus. However, judging from the developers' recent actions, this seems unlikely.