EA confirms Project Gridiron: open-world American football, and Fight Night returns

Electronic Arts has confirmed that it has a new open-world American football “experience” in development, known internally as Project Gridiron. According to Vandal, the company describes it as something completely new, social in nature and set in an open environment, an approach reminiscent of The Grounds mode coming with EA Sports FC 27, but carried over to one of its American football franchises.

The announcement does not come at just any moment. In the same hours, EA has been at the center of a round of layoffs, the closure of BioWare, rumors of Star Wars Battlefront 3 and the cancellation of a The Sims project. The publisher, recently acquired by private investors, is trying to offset that flood of bad news with a very clear message: sports will remain its backbone, and Project Gridiron is one of the proofs of that commitment.

What you need to know

• Project Gridiron is the codename for an open-world American football experience with a social component, confirmed by Electronic Arts.
• The reference model appears to be The Grounds, the mode EA Sports FC 27 will debut in football, as reported by Vandal.
• Fight Night returns: the boxing series, with no new entries in the last 15 years, is coming back as part of the same batch of announcements.
• Turbulent context: the confirmation coincides with layoffs, the closure of BioWare and the cancellation of a The Sims project.
• Sports as a priority: EA promises to strengthen the entire EA Sports catalog, with EA Sports FC as its example of success year after year.

What we know and don't know about Project Gridiron

What has been confirmed is little, but significant. EA speaks of a completely new experience, not just another mode inside the annual release of the moment, and emphasizes two ideas: social play and an open world. The source does not detail which specific franchise the project will belong to, so for now it is a matter of speculation whether it will be integrated into the NFL franchise, the college one, or launched as a standalone product. There is also no date, no platforms and no business model on the table.

The comparison with The Grounds is the most useful clue. If EA replicates in American football the formula it is preparing for EA Sports FC 27, we are talking about a space where players move around freely, meet other users and take part in activities organically, closer to a virtual plaza than a match menu. It is the direction the entire sports gaming industry has been looking toward for some time, and EA seems determined to have its own version in every major license.

An EA that cuts back on everything except sports

The bigger picture matters as much as the announcement. While the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age closes its doors and a The Sims project gets canceled, the company devotes its public message to two sports franchises: the return of Fight Night after 15 years of silence and this new American football project. The reading is obvious. Under private ownership, EA is concentrating resources where the return is most predictable, and EA Sports FC proves every season that licensed sports are its most reliable asset.

For those who have followed the company through its narrative games, the message is a hard one. For those who live in its sports titles, on the other hand, it is confirmation that the catalog is not only being maintained but is expanding its ambition with new formats.

Our take

At Underworld Lordz we view Project Gridiron with equal parts interest and caution. The idea of a social, open-world American football game makes a lot of sense for content creators: a shared space generates spontaneous moments, encounters with the community and material for streams that a quick-match menu will never produce. If EA executes it well, it could become a natural meeting point for the Spanish-speaking community of this sport, which today is heavily fragmented across Discord servers and private chats.

That said, competitive players have reasons to be wary. Social open worlds usually come with stores, passes and cosmetics, and the risk that the experience gets built around spending rather than gameplay is real. On top of that, every resource that goes into a pretty lobby is a resource that does not go into the game engine, the balance or the netcode, which is what truly decides a competition. EA will have to prove that the social and the competitive can coexist without the latter footing the bill.

And we cannot ignore the context. Announcing a new project on the same day workers are laid off and BioWare is shut down is, at the very least, a questionable communication decision. We welcome investment in sports, but we would prefer that EA's ambition not be measured solely by what it cuts from the rest of its catalog.

What do you think?

Project Gridiron is still a promise with a codename, but it marks where EA Sports wants to go in the coming years. We want to know what the community thinks, both in the Americas and in Europe. Would a social, open-world American football game hook you, or would you rather EA focus on polishing the competitive game? Tell us in the team chat or on our Discord.