Both Madden NFL 21 and FIFA 21 Hit Next-Gen This December

Next-gen EA Sports is still on its way, but it won't make the launch date of the new consoles. Electronic Arts announced today that its next-gen versions of both FIFA 21 and Madden NFL 21 will arrive on Dec. 4, for both PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S.

According to Electronic Arts, the next-gen versions of FIFA 21 will include blazing fast load times, deferred lighting and rendering, enhanced animation technology, and more upgrades like off-ball humanization. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but making a sports game look nicer and load faster sounds pretty good.

Both games make use of Dual Entitlement as well, meaning current-gen owners of either Madden NFL or FIFA can upgrade to the next-gen version of their respective games, as long as they stay within the same console family. You can also still go back to your PS4 or Xbox One version as well; the Dual Entitlement program won't wipe away ownership of previous-gen games, though it won't be able to move all save data and progress between the two consoles.

You can check out our reviews of both this year's Madden NFL and this year's FIFA entry here, as they represent both the end of one generation's sports games and the start of the next. Given the visual upgrade games like NBA 2K21 are seeing on the PlayStation 5, the next-gen hardware could provide a big boost to sports aficionados. It will, however, be a functionally similar game, warts and all. Speaking as a Madden player, even some relief on load times might be enough to make me consider a new Xbox.

Madden NFL 21 and FIFA 21 arrive on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S on Dec. 4, 2020.