Electronic Arts is one of several companies that decided to skip June's major gaming announcement events, confirming it wouldn't be holding an EA Play event this year. Instead, Electronic Arts says that it would announce its upcoming game releases for 2022 "when they're ready." June may not have fit its schedule, but it's looking like July will be a much better fit. EA is reportedly planning to individually announce three major game releases in July, including its upcoming FIFA, Need for Speed, and Skate titles.
According to insider source Tom Henderson, all three games are tentatively planned to be announced in July. As noted, there is no single event planned where the games will be shown, but rather will come in the form of individual announcements. Specific dates for each announcement aren't provided in the report. However, Henderson does say that he's been told that the FIFA and Need for Speed announcements will come in the second half of July.
FIFA 23 is a game that most fans of the franchise will already be familiar with, and an announcement is more than expected. Several important details about the game have already been confirmed by EA. For example, FIFA 23 will include both men's and women's leagues, including both gender's World Cup tournaments. EA has also previously said that FIFA 23 will feature full crossplay, a feature it tested in FIFA 22. Perhaps most importantly, this is the last EA soccer game to feature the FIFA branding. It will be known as EA Sports FC in 2023 and beyond.
Skate is another game that has previously been officially confirmed by EA. The next Skate was confirmed during the June 2020 online EA Play presentation, though at the time it was confirmed to be very early in development. Commonly referred to as Skate 4, even if an official title hasn't been announced, the new game will be the first Skate game released since 2010.
The new Need for Speed will be the most intriguing announcement of the three. Codemasters, recently acquired by EA, confirmed it was working on a new Need for Speed with Criterion earlier this year. It's also rumored to be a next-gen exclusive racing game. Otherwise, there are a lot of questions around the new Need for Speed, like whether it will really have "anime elements" or if that's just an odd rumor.
Fans of the FIFA, Need for Speed, and Skate series likely won't have to wait long for further information if this report is true. July is just days away from beginning, and even if the announcements themselves won't come until later in the month, EA will likely tease the announcements ahead of time.