Following the full announcement of EA Sports FC 27, the new social mode The Grounds, which will be one of the game's main innovations, came into focus. However, shortly after the mode's presentation, a former Electronic Arts employee who participated in its development criticized it.
The Grounds is a social hub where players can meet each other, participate in mini-games, and interact with the environment. After the release of the first gameplay trailer, community opinions were divided: some positively assessed EA's attempt to add a massive new mode, while others considered it a questionable innovation, created more to attract attention.
An additional wave of discussion was sparked by the words of Renzo Barrasa, a former developer of the FIFA/EA Sports FC series. He worked at Electronic Arts from 2013 to 2025, progressing from tester to quality control specialist. Barrasa now creates content under the pseudonym DaaGlitcher, where he regularly publishes materials about football games and shares his views on the genre's development.
According to Barrasa, The Grounds was the last project he worked on before leaving the company.
This was the last project I worked on for FC. I think this new mode will further reveal the company's true philosophy. A video will be released soon where I will talk about what I had to go through while working on one of the worst projects of my career.
The former employee has not yet specified what he means by "the company's true philosophy" and what problems arose during development.