Siddharth Ganguly

Common FC 26 Glitches We Know Of: Missing Kits, Stadium Shadow Bug and More

FC 26

EA FC 26 is just around the corner. The latest ratings are out, people are getting hyped, and EA has promised several new features for its devoted fanbase. The game has never been away from controversy, with players reporting glitches, bugs, scripting in Ultimate Team, and expensive packs and microtransactions have plagued the shiny glitz of the series to reveal a murkier underbelly.

EA FC 26 promised to shed light on a newer game, away from controversies, and a better next-gen experience for players. However, it seems like the game series has once again ran itself into the wall, flying too close to the sun with its ambitions.

Players have already started reporting weird glitches, asking for refunds on their packs.

So what are the newer problems that plague everyone’s favourite footballing simulation? Let’s find out.

Simple Skill Moves

EA FC 26 comes packed with a new feature: Simple Skill Moves, where players can deactivate all 100+ Skills & replace them with 9 Skills that can be performed with easy controls. No wonder newbies and rookie players would have a field day with this one. While more experienced players are wary of this, beginners who are new to the game and might have problems with the massive amount of skill moves available, would cherish using a more streamlined and easier method to flip a ball or perform a panenka.

The feature is part of the Accessibility options.

When enabled, you can execute a skill move using just one flick of the right stick (RS) in any of the four cardinal directions (forward, left/right, back). The specific move triggered depends on the Skill Move Star Rating of the player, so players like Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, and Vinicius Jr. can perform amazing dribbles with just a flick of the switch, literally. This feature is exclusively announced for console gamers, so PC gamers would have to sit out on this one.

However, don’t get your horses up, the simple skill moves won’t make you a pro gamer all of a sudden. EA has capped the limit of simplified skill moves you can do in a row with three moves in a chain, and has also increased the probability of making a mistake, making the choice a simple but error-prone one. So being overdependent on simple skill moves would be a bad idea.

There are several bugs/glitches or issues being reported by users related to Simplified Skill Moves. Here are the major ones, with what people say:

  1. Cannot disable Settings
    Many players report that once they enable Simplified Skill Moves, they are unable to turn them off , the setting is greyed out or locked.
  2. Simplified binds interfere with regular skill moves
    Because the Simplified mode overrides some right-stick inputs, people are saying that tried-and-true skill moves (manual inputs) no longer work as expected when Simplified is on. Moves like Ball Rolls or specific direction flicks don’t respond.
  3. Locked by other related settings
    One user, playing on Nintendo Switch, discovered that the “Skill Moves Rating” setting in Visual (or UI / display) settings influences the availability of the Simplified Skill Moves option. If “Skill Moves Rating” is turned off, it seems to lock Simplified Skill Moves’ toggle to whatever state it was last, making it unchangeable.
  4. In-game performance issues
    Some users say moves execute too slowly, or the error rate is too high, making simplified moves undesirable in high-level or competitive matches. Although this isn’t exactly a “glitch”, as it has been deliberately put by the developers to even the playng field and prevent players to continuously spam simplified skill moves, it can be a bit of an unnecessary nuisance for players looking to do a quick move without the hassle of learning all directions on the controller.

In the Pitch Notes / Gameplay Deep Dive, EA acknowledges Simplified Skill Moves, explains how they work, and that they are in the Accessibility menu.

On the EA forums, which are being riddled with complaints, some users have tried to figure out solutions to the problems given.

ProblemWorkaround / Fix
Simplified Skill Moves are greyed out / can’t disableGo to Visual Settings → Find Skill Moves Rating → Turn that ON; once it’s on, you can modify the Simplified Skill Moves toggle. After that, you can switch Skill Moves Rating back off if desired.
Want to disable Simplified moves permanentlyUse above method, then ensure Simplified is set off. Check again in a new match / after restarting the game to confirm.
Moves not working as manual skill moves after enabling Simplified modeTurn off Simplified; check the control settings and skill move star rating; test in Training / Practice Mode. If simplified was overriding, disabling it should restore manual inputs.

Missing Kits

Ultimate Team players are fuming at this “glitch”. Basically, EA FC 26 has some kind of glitch or bug when it comes to kit variety in Ultimate Team. Kits are quite few, and even if they do exist in career mode, they aren’t available on online, despite players paying handsome money for licensed kits of their favorite teams.

This is a huge problem considering that EA hasn’t given any tactful response to the questions posed by players. Players are noticing that there are fewer kits in the Ultimate Team and this could ball up into a huge concern for the millions of players who wait patiently for the football game to drop on market and e-commerce shelves.

Players are complaining that the game is packing the same kits over and over again, and the lack of variety and distinction is really concerning for a game that prides itself on its numerous licenses and global reach.

Citing “FALSE ADVERTISEMENT“, the user @fut_trader_D is one among the many fans who are enraged at this weird glitch. Discussions are rampant on the EA Forum regarding the unavailability of the kits of several big clubs, including Chelsea, PSG, Liverpool, etc.

What could be the reason behind EA’s silence on this grave issue? We have a few theories.

  1. Licensing / Permissions delays: Some people are speculating that kits may not be fully licensed yet, so EA may be holding them back or releasing them later. However, this theory is invalidated due to the fact that Career Mode doesn’t seem to have this problem.
  2. Content Pack Issue: The glitch could be due to certain kits not being included in the active pack/market pools. Incidentally, that means that even if they exist in the game, they’re not showing up in packs or the transfer market online.
  3. UI Glitch: Some fans speculate that the filtering and search system is not registering the licenses properly, making it a UI (User Interface) issue. The new FC 26 UI is a bit different than earlier iterations, leaning more into a dark, heavy maximalist tone, which hasn’t been integrated into Ultimate Team properly yet. Although this theory seems far-fetched, it could actually be true.
  4. Platform or region differences: Since the game hasn’t been released globally yet, with the official date to be 26th September, some fans speculate that kits could be region-locked and would be available once the game is released worldwide. Also platform limitations could be an issue, as the game releases on several platforms (PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch, XBOX, etc.) and might have limits on the basis of what platform the game is being played on.

Although no clear solutions present themselves, users are working their way around the problem by waiting for the game’s official launch globally. Maybe then the licensed kits would come back. It remains to be seen if EA refunds the players who already spent money on packs.

Stadium Shadows Feature

EA introduced the Stadium Shadows Feature, which enables dynamic lighting, camera movement and moving shadows of the stadium depending on the time of day, direction of the sun, and the weather conditions around the pitch. This feature, on paper, adds a much more enhanced and immersive experience to players, making the game look and feel more real, by adding shadow zones.

However, players don’t seem to be that appreciative of it.

Actually, while the Stadium Shadows feature noticeably brings the feeling of depth and real-time changes, it also lends a sharp visual problem for players. When the shadows cover half the ground and you don’t have a kit that corresponds to the reduced lighting, it makes the gaming experience jarring and decidedly more difficult for players. This in turn, leads to loss of clarity and makes it a problem for people who just want to play the game, no questions asked.

Usually, we all play on top-down, wide camera angles, and shadows in corners and extending throughout the field leads to blocked vision, where the angle makes the contrast extreme during sunset. Also, unless you are running an exceptional gaming rig or have the most up-to-date hardware, the shadow movement would lead to lags and framerate issues.

While EA has allowed players the option to toggle Stadium Shadows, the toggle hasn’t been seen to work perfectly all the time, leaving some stadias with long, dark shadows which completely block the line of vision. Also, most of them look hilariously unnatural, while some look borderline creepy.

The option to toggle shadows should come off as a lifesaver in this occasion. Although it is clear that EA had their heart in the right place, considering that real shadows is something we see even when we watch games on television, the translation of the same experience onto our gaming monitors hasn’t been smooth. Babysteps, you see.

So, to end on a high note, let’s just play the waiting game. Only four days till the game hits the shelves worldwide, and then we can definitely see improvements. As EA has tried to redesign the UI, totally reconceptualize the gameplay and graphics, and implemented changes that have also received positive feedback, EA FC 26 surely has a lot at stake for EA and for gamers in general. So the much-loved but much-maligned series, which is drawing polarised reactions now, might fix themselves up with a few patches in the coming weeks. By October, the issues should be ironed out and we could be back in the GridIron to grind out results.

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