EA Sports is embarking on a major rebranding effort for 2023, the first year it will release a soccer game without the FIFA name. The new-look EA Sports FC brand has been everywhere at soccer matches and in the press for a while now, but now that EA is ready to show off the game, fans finally have a glimpse of what to expect. And it looks very bad.

The cover of EA Sports FC 24 ultimate edition has been released and features 30 of the greatest soccer players of today and the past. Both men and women are featured, as well as various leagues and national teams, clearly trying to showcase that "the look is new, but all the stars of the game are here."

At first glance, it might seem fine, especially since Erling Harland, in the center, is the focal point and EA seems to have done a decent job of recreating his face. However, look a little closer at the other players and you will quickly see how odd this is. Pirlo (top right) looks completely shocked, Beckham looks like a wax figure from Madame Tussaud's, and Bucayo Saca looks nothing like the man himself.

Some fans focused on the absence of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo, but it was the likenesses of the players that really got them excited, and older generation consoles such as the PS2, older versions of Pro Evolution Soccer and FIFA, and EA's The Sims series were compared.

"We were able to recreate the faces of two dead people reasonably accurately, but when we got scans of the faces of living soccer players, they looked like AI art," one fan noted. Well, it will still sell millions of copies. Poor Saka is most frequently compared to CJ in San Andreas. If the ultimate edition actually ships with this cover, I would be surprised. You can enlarge these junk faces to your heart's content on the official website.

The full list of players featured on the cover is:

Finally, for obvious reasons that the cover reveal got a lot of attention, EA also released a pre-rendered teaser with an irritating voiceover. It's very "pass the sick bag"-like, about how kicking a ball with 22 players is a legendary human endeavor, but it shows that one of the main features of EA Sports FC is the mix-and-match of new and old players EA will properly unveil this game on July 13. Plans.