The Grounds is the biggest new feature in EA Sports FC 27, offering an open world for the first time in the history of the studio's football simulators. Despite the enthusiasm of the gaming community, former company employee Renzo Barraza (known as DaaGlitcher) has sharply criticized the development process of this mode.
In his recent video, Barraza shared that the creation of The Grounds largely involved new people brought in externally or from other companies, while he was one of the few regular EA employees on the team. According to him, management changed the hiring policy, favoring specialists with a "managerial mindset." As a result, most of the newcomers neither played nor cared about football, and did not even know the rules of the sport, which significantly complicated the workflow compared to his previous experience on the gameplay team.
The former developer also described a strange and tense atmosphere in the office, noting that colleagues worked in absolute silence and could go for entire days without talking. The situation worsened when management began ignoring bug reports and team feedback. This, according to Barraza, led to widespread burnout and a loss of motivation among testers, who no longer wanted to play the game.
Barraza's personal conflict with the company reached its peak over the workload. Because he had to build The Grounds practically from scratch, he lost the opportunity to personally test the game. When he decided to play during a break, a senior employee complained to his manager about him using "busy time." The argument that arose following this incident ultimately led to Barraza's dismissal.
At present, these statements reflect only the position of the former employee. Representatives of EA have not yet commented on these allegations publicly.
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