With FC 27, EA Sports attempts something the games industry has long struggled to sustain: a living social world built around a sport, its culture, and its community. The Grounds arrives as an open-world hub where up to 100 players share a digital football neighborhood—part theme park, part street pitch, part walking museum—designed to be the franchise's most meaningful addition since Ultimate Team reshaped football gaming in 2009. Whether it becomes a genuine gathering place or another ambitious mode that quietly empties out, as so many before it have, is the question that will define its leg