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Fox One Review: Fox's Streaming Service Is Heavy on Sports and News, and Made for Fox Fans
Gaming Gear

Fox One Review: Fox’s Streaming Service Is Heavy on Sports and News, and Made for Fox Fans

by admin


Pros

  • Expansive access to sports games of all types
  • Immersive experience for sports fans, with sports, stats and analysis
  • Many ways to personalize feed
  • Unlimited DVR

Cons

  • Difficult accessibility features
  • User experience inconsistent across devices
  • Limited access to primetime shows
  • No original content

Fox One, Fox Corporation’s first-ever direct-to-consumer streaming service, launched on Aug. 21 — the same day ESPN launched its own. Fox’s entire channel portfolio, which includes Fox News Channel, Fox Nation, Fox Sports, B1G, FS1, FS2, local Fox stations and the Fox Network, can be found here for $20 a month. 

What makes Fox One appealing, or at least of interest, is its focus on live sports and news programming. This is an attractive feature for customers, and, if you look around, you’ll notice a growing number of streamers vying for a piece of the live TV pie. Outside of live TV, news and sports, Fox One’s library includes an array of on-demand programming and a selection of Fox’s primetime hit shows like The Simpsons and Hell’s Kitchen. 

Though the platform combines the functionality of an on-demand streamer with a cable-like experience, there are some limitations. Is this enough to make Fox One a viable option in a streaming landscape crowded with premium platforms, competitively priced bundles and FAST services and channels?

Fox One feels like a good fit if you’re a fan of Fox and want anytime access to its live programming library. To that point, though, there are other streaming services offering much more content (and value) that make it difficult to justify the streamer’s $20 price tag.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

What is Fox One and how much does it cost?

After the demise of Venu, the joint sports streaming venture from ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, the media companies involved pivoted to their own alternative streaming projects. This past May, Fox announced the name of its app, Fox One, and launched the platform in August, with an emphasis on live programming. Targeted toward cord-cutters and Fox’s news and sports audience, the streaming app features niche content.

Fox One has two main subscription tiers, depending on the type of programming you’re interested in watching. It’s available to pay TV customers (eg. cable and satellite) at no extra cost, and next month, the streaming service will be part of a bundle with Disney’s ESPN. The company plans to partner up and offer additional bundling options in the future.

The basic Fox One plan costs $20 a month, or $200 annually, and provides a mix of live sports, news and entertainment content from across the Fox portfolio. The Fox One-Fox Nation tier costs $5 more at $25 a month and features everything the basic Fox One plan has, along with full access to Fox News and Fox Nation. Both plans offer a seven-day free trial and an unlimited DVR, and if you get Fox through a cable or satellite TV subscription, you can access Fox One for free.

When you visit the site, you can choose to sign up for one of Fox’s standalone streaming subscriptions to Fox Nation or B1G Plus. Each of these platforms has been around for a few years now, with Fox Nation priced at $9 a month or $71 annually (also, with a seven-day free trial), and B1G Plus costing $13 a month or $90 annually. Bear in mind these services are separate from Fox One, but customers can conveniently sign up in one place.

What’s it like like to use?

The Fox One homepage on my smart TV shows the menu options on the left side of the screen.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

For over a week, I tested the Fox One app on multiple devices. The design and user experience are pretty standard, and navigating through the app is simple enough. The home menus will appear in different positions, depending on the device you are using. On the web, you’ll find the main buttons at the top of the screen for Home, Live, Sports, News, Shows and My Stuff. There are also network hub buttons on the home page to help you easily navigate to content for Fox, FS1, FS2, Fox News, Fox Weather, Fox Deportes, Fox Business and B1G Network.

The menu headers appear on the left side of the screen when the app is used on a Roku Stick and my Samsung Smart TV. When using the app on my Samsung Galaxy S25, I found the menu at the bottom of the screen, which also included a selection for Shorts — a section featuring short-form vertical TikTok-style video clips highlighting moments from news programming and sports.

The live programming options were the first tiles I saw when scrolling through the home page, followed by a row dedicated to upcoming news and sports-themed shows. There are also rows for networks, teams, and personalities — listed as Fox Voices — which you can click to follow to further customize your viewing experience.

The viewer experience becomes more personal to you the more you interact with the platform.

During playback, watching live and on-demand programming worked as expected, offering crisp video quality and solid streaming. Clicking on the rewind or fast-forward button on my TV moves the progress of the video in short increments. The same functionality exists on the web, but you can also simply use the mouse to drag the progress bar anywhere in the video, which I found more intuitive.

Recording a program to the DVR is best when using the mobile app, the smart TV app or something like a Roku or Amazon Fire TV. Any show I clicked on had an Add to My Stuff button, which does exactly that. I attempted to do the same thing when logged into the website but was only able to record future programming through the live guide.

The service allows users to watch a sporting event or news show live in the moment, with the option to start from the beginning. If you’re looking to catch up on the latest game and don’t have the time to sit through multiple hours, the service offers rows where you can view condensed games, shorter recaps, clips and analysis.

Fox One’s multiview feature, as seen on my Roku device.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

The multiview function has its own dedicated row for watching multiple live programs at once. Fox News and Fox Business are grouped together, as are Fox News, Fox Business and Fox Weather, FS1 and BTN and FS1 and Fox News. This function works as expected and plays the feeds side-by-side in real time with the audio from whatever program you highlight.

This is one of the features I was really looking forward to using. However I discovered that it can only be found using TV OS, Amazon Fire TV or Roku, the last of which I do have. Fox told CNET that more devices will support the feature in the future.

Selecting the guide pulls up a live programming schedule that features limited channels. You cannot remove them entirely or customize the order in which they appear. That said, you can browse upcoming scheduled shows by date up to 14 days ahead of time.

When you click on a show that hasn’t aired yet, you can add it to My Stuff and the app will automatically record it for you. If you choose a game from the guide, you’ll be able to add it to My Stuff, but the service will also give you a list of options that’ll allow you to follow the league and the teams going head-to-head, which will prompt Fox One to record all programming associated with both.

As I stated previously, I used the app for about a week, so I didn’t spend extensive time testing the DVR. It worked as expected, and if you’re concerned about missing any shows, you can record up to 14 days in advance.

Fox One’s vertical live guide on mobile.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

Design-wise, I noticed on my TV that the thumbnail art and episode descriptions within a show’s season overlapped, making it impossible to read. This didn’t happen with every title I clicked on, so I am assuming this is an issue that is being ironed out. That said, suggestions for similar programming came up cluttered with a hodgepodge of shows that had no similarities to the show I was watching at all.

Advertisements; you can’t get away from them. They’re here, but the ad load, as I experienced it, was lighter than what I’ve become used to when watching Hulu or even WWE Raw on Netflix. Since we’re still in the early days of the app, I have a feeling this will change. 

One more note about the ads: While I did experience ad breaks during the live news shows and live sports I clicked play on, there were no commercials interrupting the recap videos and clips.

Fox One’s accessibility settings are slim, and when I tinkered with closed captioning, I found the feature difficult to access and the experience was inconsistent across devices. On my TV, I was met with a QR code that directed me to a website that gave a support email address to contact. The same thing happened when using my Android mobile device. Fox advised that iPhone users are able to change these settings.

Since I don’t have an iPhone, though, the only way I could edit the style, appearance and placement of the captions was through the Fox One website. Instead of under my Account, I found the small CC icon at the bottom right corner of the video player itself.

The closed captioning settings menu, as it appears on Fox One’s web-based app.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

A tiny gear appears next to the CC icon, only when it’s turned on. Clicking that reveals a pop-up menu where changes can be made to font size, font style, font family, font color, font opacity, character edge, character edge color, background color, background opacity, window color and window opacity.

After changing things like size, color and style, the captions still varied in appearance, depending on the programming I was viewing and what device I was using.

What content is and isn’t on Fox One?

Don’t expect a deep library of Fox shows. Fox One’s library isn’t light, but it does feel light on Fox’s primetime TV hits. You’ll find shows like The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, The Masked Singer and Hell’s Kitchen here, but the episode and season count will be limited.

As I sifted through the shows, I began to notice that the newest seasons of shows — which have already completed their initial episode runs — were the only ones available to watch. If you’re looking to catch up on previous seasons of your favorite shows, you won’t find them here. However, you can watch primetime programming live by clicking on your Fox local channel in the live guide.

The app leans heavily into linear territory, instead of creating bespoke, original content. The reason, according to CEO Lachlan Murdoch, is to keep costs low and attract a cord-cutting crowd who wants access to Fox’s content, without subscribing to cable TV.

Fox One has plenty of content for sports fanatics and consumers of Fox News programming. The viewing experience is surprisingly immersive. The lineup of on-demand and live sports games goes quite deep here. For instance, football fans can find a plethora of NFL content on the app. It’s the first league listed in its programming row. Since Fox carries NFL games that are broadcast on Sunday afternoons, you can stream them on Fox One (and be sure to check out CNET’s NFL cord-cutters’ streaming guide).

The leagues row on the Fox One app is packed with sports programming options.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

There’s more than NFL games available on Fox One. A lot more. After a quick scroll-through on the Sports menu, I found the Leagues row halfway down the page. You can find nearly everything here, from MLB and college football to NASCAR, LIV Golf, college basketball, women’s college basketball and MLS. Take note: The NBA does not have a presence on Fox One.

There are rows upon rows of sports content dedicated to the leagues I listed above. It’s a bit overwhelming, to be honest. The amount of sport-specific replays and recaps can be dizzying to someone like me (I don’t really follow sports), but for die-hard fans, this is an absolute treasure trove. If you need a break from the games, you can find a plethora of sports analysis programming.

The app’s Top 10 picks are clickable for each menu listing — Sports, Shows and News — so if you want to watch the episodes of popular titles like Gutfeld!, Family Guy, Jesse Watters Primetime, The Joel Klatt Show or Outnumbered, you can stream new seasons (and in some cases, a few older seasons). If you have a favorite host or Fox personality, the Fox Voices row lists popular commentators like Tom Brady, Colin Cowherd and Nick Wright, and you can follow any of them to personalize your viewing experience.

Should you get it?

Only the latest season of The Simpsons is available to watch on the Fox One app.

Screenshot by Aaron Pruner/CNET

It really depends on what you’re looking for. Fox One, at least in its current iteration, is an app that’s meant to act as a supplemental means of watching Fox content. The library of Fox’s primetime hits may be lacking, but there’s a strong possibility that you’re already subscribed to Hulu, Disney Plus or another streamer that has these shows.

The app is stacked with content, though. If you’re a big sports fan or can’t get enough of Fox News, Fox One may be of interest. It’s got the desirable features like multiview and the live guide I mentioned earlier. Fox One is available on pretty much every device available on the market, but the user experience varies. And then there are the accessibility difficulties I mentioned above.

If you’re already a cable TV subscriber, I can see the value in using Fox One at no additional cost. But outside of that, Fox One, as a standalone app, doesn’t feel like it’s worth the $20 monthly price tag. Perhaps that’ll change now that the bundle with ESPN is live.



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EA Sports FC 26 Review - An Immersive Step Forward
Game Reviews

EA Sports FC 26 Review – An Immersive Step Forward

by admin


Outside of the name change to EA Sports FC, EA Sports’ football series had stagnated. With each passing entry, the community has grown increasingly concerned about the lack of significant changes to the annualized franchise. But after spending several hours with EA Sports FC 26’s many modes, I emerged impressed by the strides EA Sports took with this year’s entry. 

Sports games are driven by their communities, and EA Sports turned to community feedback to inform this year’s iterations of the studio’s titles with varying degrees of success. EA Sports FC 26 builds on this by overhauling gameplay with authenticity as its primary goal. Newly introduced for FC 26, the “Competitive” and “Authentic” gameplay presets enable players to choose how they want to play. The former’s arcade style is the perfect mode of play for FUT and the online suite, and the latter imbues career modes with a level of realized play that rewards your time on the pitch. 

Authentic mode allows players looking to immerse themselves in the most beautiful game to experience the chaos of scrambles in the box, the value of playing positionally, and the importance of winning every header. With its responsive gameplay, FC 26 is the closest attempt to pure simulation that the franchise has taken in years. But with authenticity comes a more methodical and slow-paced approach to matches, which you can easily feel from the moment you step onto the pitch.

Authentic and Competitive mode choices allow EA Sports FC 26 to develop gameplay that is closest to simulated, deliberate play. However, the most crucial element is that the jarring experience of switching between FUT and other solo-player modes is in your control, with gamble play pacing at your discretion. If you’re a fan of the fast-paced, high-scoring nature of FUT games, you can have that in your career modes. You’re in control of the pace, and that allows you to chart your time in FC 26 your way.

 

Regardless of which gameplay style you choose, goalkeeping receives a significant boost. Bad goalkeeping drastically impacts your love of the game, so thankfully, I can’t recall any goals that clearly should have been saved or cheap rebounds. This keeps scores lower, works to impact authenticity further, and helps make scoring more dynamic. 

You can feel the most significant difference in goalkeeping while playing FUT, but even as you progress through a career, the keepers you are playing against all feel different. Keepers matter, not just when their overall stats are in the high 90s, and that forces you to plan your attacks instead of just taking every shot on goal. One of the elements that most impacts goalkeeping is the fact that keepers now block with different animations for different saves, which makes it more difficult for strikers. 

The enhancements to goalkeeping are a good starting point, particularly because of save percentages that come close to the completion percentages we see in EA Sports College Football’s robo-QB problem, which can push challenging into frustrating, especially in close matches. Better balancing is essential to make this quality-of-life enhancement for a core position a shining star. 

Despite the gameplay enhancements, EA Sports FC 26 sometimes shanks the punt thanks to technical issues, including menu crashes and server disconnects. These aren’t constant, but when they do happen, they not only remove you from the immersion – they remove you from the game itself. What starts to wear on you is how frequently your account will disconnect from EA Sports servers, which, depending on the mode, will force you to stop playing, even if the game technically hasn’t crashed. 

Choice continues to guide EA Sports FC 26 in Player Career mode with the introduction of archetypes. At first glance, archetypes may seem familiar to those who also play EA Sports’ American football games. However, FC 26 isn’t copying anyone’s homework and instead has introduced a robust archetype progression system that adds much-needed depth to developing your player.

Inspired by the real-life greats, the Archetype system is more realized than any other EA Sports has put together. Replacing the Player Growth System of the past, everything you do as a player matters. From on-pitch goals to hit, set forward by your manager, to the choices you make off the field, player development isn’t just about looking at stat lines. Instead, you’re developing an entire identity and personality. 

Archetypes are broken into three identity categories: Virtuoso, Heartbeat, and Maverick. Are you looking to be the driving force of your team? Are you looking to play all 11 positions on the field? The important thing here is that you get that choice. This is made even more critical as you begin to specialize your player within the Archetypes. 

How you respond to your fans on social media, how much you praise your team, and as you start to build your nest egg with your weekly salary, the off-the-field activities also impact how you develop. Each of the choices you make about how to respond after losses, or if you book activities for your fans, shapes how the team views you. As you develop each of these three categories, you unlock different abilities that impact how you play, with the number of slots locked to progression, and from there, the abilities locked by how far into each of the three identity branches you have progressed. 

As you begin to specialize and define your player through their playstyle, specializations like Recycler, Maestro, and Spark for forwards, or Progressor and Marauder for defenders, give you control in charting your path and taking advantage of the nuances in how you play. Are you more of a Rapinoe or a Morgan? A Sun or an Mbappe? These specializations work to build that path. Archetypes are the core progression system, and they work exceptionally well to push role-playing expectations and immersion in sports titles. 

Much like other RPG choice systems, how you respond, the actions you choose to buy, all contribute to how fast you can unlock Virtuoso, Heartbeat, and Maverick abilities. Additionally, the ability to become a hybrid between all three isn’t easily obtained, pushing you to pick a specialty to get the full benefits. While you can split your identity between two branches, taking the time to read through what you can unlock in the future is essential to building a player you will be happy with. From a gameplay perspective, restricting branch movement is a crucial key to balancing players against one another. This is especially important for building characters within online clubs. 

 

The level of role-playing elements introduced for clubs and Player Career mode is one of the most in-depth overhauls in a sports title yet. It boosts immersion to a point that begs you to engage with your career as more than just scoring goals or landing a new contract. Modern sports titles are, in actuality, one part sport and one part RPG. It’s why we spend much time building Online Dynasties, Franchises, and, for FC 26, clubs. Stepping back and looking at the three standard bearers of the EA Sports catalog, FC 26 offers the most robust RPG experience that the studio has put forward. 

EA Sports FC 26 also features the largest roster of players, clubs, and stadiums yet. While this is vital to driving authenticity, it’s also key to immersion. Playing with a newer club, like my home team, Austin FC, as my male pro and the Houston Dash as my female pro, showcased how much investment has been given to both men’s and women’s soccer. Playing through parallel careers, there weren’t many moments that felt like either side was less than the other. 

While contracts for both women and men are drastically different, with my Austin FC pro making around $14k a week and my Houston Dash pro making only $1.4k, both players still had access to the same activities, with the prices adjusted to the salary you were locked into – a slight nod to authentic pay disparity without penalizing the player. 

The game wants to put you in your player’s shoes, and when you score a goal, you’ll experience a replay of the moment from the first-person perspective. While this feature is fun and has no significant impact on gameplay, the POV feature often suffers from visual issues, including awkward hair clipping through the frame. This stands out even more when compared to the visual successes of character models during cutscenes and gameplay, as well as the immersive stadium presentations.

Even with its issues, EA Sports FC 26 offers a level of player development and immersion that you just don’t get in other sports titles. On the surface, it’s easy to describe the gameplay overhaul as simple quality-of-life updates, but this year’s changes tackle several player frustrations (particularly around goalkeeping), ultimately improving the franchise for the long haul.. EA Sports FC 26 is a robust step forward for a franchise I had lost faith in, and now, I can’t stop playing.



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Battlefield 6
Game Updates

What Saudi Arabia Buying EA Means For Battlefield 6, Sports Games, And More

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Why does Saudi Arabia want to make games? What will the largest leveraged buyout in history mean for EA and its employees? How will the consequences of the new $55 billion deal ripple out across the rest of the video game industry? I reached out to some analysts to get their take on the sale and what it tells us about the state of gaming now, and where it’s headed. Here’s what they said.

A “soft-power” play

“This is the second-largest deal in games history—$50 billion for a mature publisher whose growth engine has stalled,” Joost van Dreunen, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and author of SuperJoost Playlist, wrote in an email to Kotaku. “It shows how sovereign capital, not just Big Tech, is now dictating who controls cultural IP. It also highlights how public-market fatigue with slow-growth publishers is pushing them toward privatization.”

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has mandated $38 billion be invested in turning the country into a gaming powerhouse, with sizable chunks of that already being spent on buying up mobile game makers, taking over esports, and acquiring equity in major gaming companies (it already owns 10 percent of EA going into the sale). While other private equity partners are part of the sale, Bloomberg reports that the majority of the funding comes from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

In the latest edition of his newsletter, van Dreunen points to the illogic of the the deal’s financial math, which values EA much more highly than its current cash flow would suggest it should be for a leveraged buyout in which $20 billion is financed through debt. He argues the deal underpins Saudi Arabia’s willingness to overpay for U.S. cultural IP, as well as Wall Street’s loss of interest in legacy gaming businesses whose growth potential has stalled out in recent years. “At the center sits the irrational financial logic that tells you it’s about power, prestige, and staking Saudi Arabia’s claim in American entertainment,” he writes.

Gaming continues to consolidate in search of growth

The conventional wisdom was that amid the post-pandemic flurry of market consolidation, EA would merge with someone sooner or later. It reportedly engaged in acquisition talks with Apple and others back in 2022, with a potential deal to to merge with NBCUniversal eventually falling apart over price. Pundits have called on Disney to buy the publisher of Madden and FIFA (now EA Sports FC) for decades. “We couldn’t be in a stronger position as a standalone company,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said back in 2022.

What’s changed since then? EA hasn’t has a new runaway success story since Apex Legends, which shadow-dropped back in 2019 and stumbled last year amid declining interest. EA Sports FC, Madden, and now College Football are the core games sustaining the publisher, but it’s unclear where they go from here. Battlefield is taking on Call of Duty again for the first time in years, but it’s an expensive live-service gambit at a time when few new multiplayer games seem to be able to stick for any length of time.

“EA’s mobile games business has traditionally underperformed and should be a much larger part of its overall business,” Piers Harding-Roll, Games Research Director at Ampere Analysis, told Kotaku in an email. “This alignment could help transform EA’s mobile business. EA’s revenue growth in recent years has been benign, so the opportunity to drive growth and build out a long-term strategy by bringing together a cross-section of expertise is attractive to both parties.”

The publishers attempts to adapt its hit franchises into mobile games have either been canceled (Battlefield), quickly closed down (Apex Legends), or struggled to bring in boatloads of money (Madden). “The deal creates opportunities for Saudi Arabia to strengthen its console & PC presence, and provides EA with an opportunity for synergy with [Saudi-owned mobile developer] Scopely for ongoing mobile expansion, now that both are under the PIF,” Daniel Ahmad, Director of Research and Insights at Niko Partners, told Kotaku in an email.

Leveraged buyouts are a recipe for pain

Big private-equity deals involving lots of debt often bring with them sharp cuts. Business analysts will call this “right-sizing” or “rationalizing the business,” but what it means is people paid a fraction of their CEO’s salary get fired. EA currently has roughly 15,000 employees, a number many industry watchers expect to decline. “Leveraged buyouts deposit a large amount of long-term debt on the company being acquired and an additional $20 billion of debt will need to be serviced through cutting costs and building more margin from existing businesses to generate more free cash flow,” Harding-Roll said.

There’s been a lot of debate on whether going private will free the company up to invest in franchises long-term rather than invest almost exclusively in games that deliver predictable quarterly returns. Could a lack of shareholder pressure yield more single-player blockbusters, or provide EA with enough runway to give the next Mass Effect as much time in development as it needs? Or will the debt crunch incentivize EA to lop off anything that’s not generating revenue and retreat even further into annualized sequels?

“EA’s empire is heavy on sports and sprawling studios, so some ‘right-sizing’ is inevitable—expect a sharper split between the sports division and everything else, some studio consolidation, and likely relocation of certain functions to Saudi Arabia,” van Dreunen told Kotaku. “Being private could also tilt its content strategy back toward longer-cycle franchises rather than quarter-to-quarter live-ops churn. Battlefield gets a cushion, but there will be trims and a sports-versus-everything-else carve-out.”

Unconventional players in uncharted waters

Video games are a notoriously chaotic business, mergers are inherently unpredictable, and a sovereign wealth fund has never owned one of the biggest gaming publishers in the world before (following Activision’s sale to Microsoft, EA is the biggest non-platform, non-Chinese company in gaming by revenue). While it’s reasonable to explain the deal by pointing to Saudi Arabia’s global PR blitz and synergies in sports and mobile gaming, it’s also reasonable to think it’s way too early to tell how this will shake out, especially when you throw a $20 billion loan into the mix.

“I can’t say I know what it all means yet, or what this deal will result in when it comes to EA’s games and studios,” Mat Piscatella, Circana’s Director of Gaming Research, told Kotaku. “I’d hazard to even attempt to speculate at this point. Of course, leveraged buyouts have a certain history that generally hasn’t been great for the acquired companies, but I do not know if that will be the case here given the parties involved.”

“It’s very much about aligning gaming and esports alongside entertainment and sports as key diversification pillars for the Saudi economy,” Ahmad added. “The deal also begs the question of what will come in the future regarding mergers and acquisitions for the global games industry, given the ongoing consolidation trend, and the ability for smaller companies to break through to walk among the giants.”

While more layoffs may be a grim inevitability, the analysts Kotaku spoke with didn’t predict any seismic shifts in the immediate aftermath of the deal, set to close next summer. “I don’t expect any significant changes to the upcoming slate of games over the next couple of years,” Harding-Roll said. “The biggest opportunities remain growth of the Battlefield franchise, growth of the EA Sports FC franchise during the World Cup 2026 and bigger exposure to mobile gaming.”



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GameFi Guides

Another Sports Betting Powerhouse Is Getting Into Prediction Markets

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In brief

  • PrizePicks becomes first sports entertainment operator to receive FCM license from National Futures Association, allowing it to offer prediction markets.
  • The move follows European lottery giant Allwyn International’s $1.6 billion acquisition of 62.3% stake in PrizePicks earlier this week.
  • PrizePicks joins FanDuel as the second major brand in sports entertainment and gaming to enter the prediction market space, estimated to reach $95 billion by 2035.

Fantasy sports company PrizePicks is entering the prediction market game, after just landing a Futures Commission Merchant, or FCM, license from the National Futures Association.

That makes the company the first sports entertainment operator to receive an FCM from the NFA, which allows it to list contracts from licensed prediction markets. It also makes it at least the second major brand in the sports gambling and gaming space next to FanDuel to enter the red hot prediction market biz, which analysts estimate could reach $95 billion by 2035. Competing sportsbook DraftKings has also been rumored to be exploring a jump into prediction markets but has yet to confirm those intentions.

The new license for PrizePicks also marks the expansion of European lottery giant Allwyn International into the U.S. market. At the start of the week, the company acquired a 62.3% stake in the DFS operator in a deal valued at $1.6 billion.



Allwyn is a global lottery operator and manages the UK National Lottery. In fact, the company already had a small foothold in the U.S. before the deal was finalized.

“For Allwyn, the transaction is a unique opportunity to enter the strategically important sports and entertainment industry in the United States, expanding its business in the country beyond its existing operation of the Illinois Lottery,” the company said in a press release.

PrizePicks offers its real money, peer-to-peer game in 35 states and Washington, D.C.

The daily fantasy sports app specializes in “pick em” style contests. Instead of drafting an entire team and competing against other bettors, users make parlay-style bets on whether an athlete will go over or under a stat—like how many passing yards Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will get in a specific game.

“The honor of being the first sports entertainment platform to receive a FCM registration from the NFA is a testament to our industry-leading compliance and consumer protection programs that both the NFA and CFTC demand,” Mike Ybarra, CEO of PrizePicks, said in a press release.

A PrizePicks spokesperson told Decrypt the company has “nothing concrete to share just yet,” about its plans to offer prediction markets to its users.

The FCM grants PrizePicks permission to offer prediction markets by teaming up with a company that has a Designated Contract Markets, or DCM, license. The list of DMC holders has grown considerably in the past year and includes the two largest prediction market operators: Kalshi and Polymarket.

A company can list and clear its own prediction market contracts with just a DCM, but not with an FCM. The latter allows companies to act as third-party brokers for prediction market platforms. For example, Robinhood is able to offer Kalshi prediction markets to its users because its derivatives arm holds an FCM license.

Sportsbooks and prediction market companies alike have been racing to obtain such licenses from the CFTC in order to legally enter the U.S. market, which is so far dominated by Kalshi. Just last week, Kalshi reported hitting $1 billion in monthly volume from its markets as it leapfrogged Polymarket in global market share in the sector.

Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication for clarity.

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EA Sports FC 26 Review - Strong Potential
Game Reviews

EA Sports FC 26 Review – Strong Potential

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Like almost every annual sports game, EA Sports FC 26 is exactly what you would expect it to be: an iterative upgrade on last year’s game. To EA’s credit, it’s a pretty good upgrade, all things considered. This is partly due to how off the mark EA FC 25 was, but also because of a concerted effort to solve some of the series’ longstanding issues by focusing on player feedback. The end result is an interesting attempt to appeal to every type of player. It’s not wholly successful in this ambition, but EA FC 26 is at least a step in the right direction.

The headlining change is a shift to two distinct playstyles. The series has always felt somewhat different when played online compared to offline, but the feeling is now much more pronounced and extends beyond the foibles of online netcode. Competitive and Authentic gameplay presets make a marked difference in how the match engine handles. You can choose between either one when playing offline, but online modes, such as Ultimate Team, are locked into the Competitive playstyle (even when playing Squad Battles against the CPU).

The Competitive preset is all about player skill. The pace of the game is rapid, with passes ping-ponging between players’ feet, and the spotlight is on dribbling, skill moves, and consistently high-scoring matches. Despite this proclivity for attacking football, defending has also been improved. Successful tackles actually regain possession, rather than knocking the ball right back to the attacking player’s feet, so a lot of the frustration from previous entries has been exorcised.

That’s not to say you won’t feel outmatched, though. The midfield in online games is practically nonexistent when defending. There’s so much space, passes are so fast, and it feels so responsive that it only takes a couple of passes to reach the edge of the opposition’s box. This, then, is where the vast majority of tackling occurs. I’ve tried preventing this by playing two defensive midfielders and setting instructions for them to stay back, but it makes no difference; players off the ball are too static. With so much of the game spent near the boxes, it only takes one missed tackle or a burst of speed for the attacking team to go clean through on goal. As a result, games are typically high scoring, with scorelines like 5-4, 6-2, and 8-7 being the norm.

Goalkeepers are marginally better–less likely to parry the ball back into dangerous areas–but keeping a clean sheet (or limiting your opponent to fewer than two goals) is still a miracle. There’s a significant element of skill involved in defending, mainly because you can’t just rely on the AI to do it for you, but the odds are still heavily stacked against you. If there were more of a midfield battle, tackling wouldn’t be as risky, and this would lead to fewer chances for each team overall. In its current state, Competitive matches are enjoyable when you have the ball, but mostly overwhelming when you don’t. It’s still an improvement on last year’s game, where frustration was the prevailing feeling when playing online, but it’s not without issues.

The Authentic preset, on the other hand, can be enabled when playing offline, altering the gameplay to provide a closer approximation of real football. The pace is significantly slower, placing a greater emphasis on each individual phase of play, with tactical midfield battles, physical defending, and methodical build-up play. Other variables can also affect matches, such as wind altering the trajectory of crosses and a wet pitch causing the ball to either skid across the surface or slow down. Authentic offers a more considered way of playing, although, like previous games in the series, the CPU isn’t the most appealing opponent. It’s either too easy to play against or slightly overpowered and able to keep possession of the ball for long stretches of time, so you’ll likely need to tinker with the sliders to find a suitable balance.

It’s a shame there’s no way to use the Authentic preset online, but the single-player Manager Career is at least more interesting this time around. A new Manager Live feature lets you play out different scenarios and challenge yourself beyond the norm. There’s one that tasks you with avoiding relegation after beginning the season with a 20-point deduction, and another that asks you to lead Real Madrid to a domestic double while starting Jude Bellingham in at least 25 matches. Others are centered on being top of the table at Christmas or earning a certain amount of money in transfer fees. It’s a different way to play that freshens up the experience for those who enjoy playing through multiple careers, especially if you fancy an extra challenge.

Unexpected Events is another new feature that throws a few curveballs at you throughout a season. These random scenarios inject some personality into the off-field aspect of Manager Career, breaking up the drudgery of simulating from one match to the next. This can result in your plans being disrupted by losing two players for the next game because they clashed in training and injured one another, or ate some dodgy food the night before. Another player might come to you feeling homesick, forcing you to make a decision, or the club might get taken over by new owners, altering your expectations and increasing the transfer budget. Football Manager players are no strangers to events like this, but they bring some of the unpredictability of real-world football to EA FC’s career mode, forcing you to adapt to an ever-changing landscape.

Ultimate Team has also undergone some adjustments, introducing new features while course-correcting with others. In the latter’s case, I’m referring to Rivals and the reintroduction of relegation, which banishes the days of being stuck in a division you’re clearly not good enough for. Progression in Rivals has also been improved by adding bonus objectives that can net you in-game coins and extra points for the weekly rewards. In one game, I earned 2,000 coins by starting a Team of the Week player in my team, then added more points by scoring two consecutive goals, fulfilling two of the objectives.

Doing this feels crucial because there are fewer rewards in general, and most of those you do receive are untradeable. This is part of EA’s attempt to slow the game’s power curve, which even replaces Ultimate Team’s previous season pass with a game-wide pass, allowing you to earn XP in career mode, Ultimate Team, and Clubs for rewards in all three modes. I’m not a fan. If I’m playing Ultimate Team, I don’t particularly care about unlocking FIFA 15 legend Seydou Doumbia as a manager in career mode; I’d rather have more packs and players to upgrade my team.

To compound the issue, the season pass has also been gutted to make room for a premium version that requires real money to purchase. This always feels like an egregious practice outside of free-to-play games, but especially when the series has featured a free season pass for the previous few years. It’s commendable that EA wants to slow down the power curve, but it remains to be seen how effective this will be, given that people willing to spend real money can earn more rewards from the season pass and purchase numerous packs in the in-game store.

This is one of the legacy issues that will, unfortunately, never go away, simply because it makes money. Others, such as inconsistent tackling, inaccurate passing, and a stale career mode, have thankfully been addressed in positive ways. The Competitive preset still favors the attacking team a little too much, and in an attempt to appease every type of football fan, EA Sports FC 26 misses the target. It’s close, though. There are flaws on and off the pitch, yet this is the best the series has been for a short while. It might not walk away with a trophy this year, but it’s getting closer to glory.



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EA Sports FC 26's first patch is here with a nerf to Low Driven Shots, and a fix for that Manager Career bug that had players abandoning the team
Game Updates

EA Sports FC 26’s first patch is here with a nerf to Low Driven Shots, and a fix for that Manager Career bug that had players abandoning the team

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The early access period of EA Sports FC 26 appears to be chugging along nicely, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any issues to address. The game’s first official patch, version 1.0.2, is now live with a host of changes.

The bulk of the changes in this update affect AI players, as well as Low Driven Shots. Interestingly, some of the tweaks address feedback made all the way back in the game’s closed beta.

Update 1.0.2’s biggest change is a nerf to Low Driven Shots, making them less accurate when shooting with extreme power. Difficult to perform Driven Ground Passes have also been made less accurate, such as those taken at 180 degrees.

There are also a number of changes to the AI, particularly when attacking and positioning. Wingers will now make attacking runs into the box more often, and Wing Backs will stop dropping too deep in their own half of the pitch when their team is in possession.

The patch fixed a bug that would sometimes cause AI players to not make runs into open spaces when they should, too, and improved their “offside awareness.” One of the more amusing bugs that the patch also fixed has to do with Manager Career players leaving the team during sims. Read on below for the full change log:

Gameplay

  • Tuned Low Driven Shots based on your feedback in the Closed Beta to be less accurate when shooting with an extreme amount of power.
  • As part of our AI attacking updates based on your feedback, made the the following changes:
  • Increased frequency of wingers making attacking runs into the box.
  • Wing Backs will no longer drop too deep in their own half when their team is in possession.
  • Improved teammate offside awareness.
  • Addressed instances of players not making runs into open space when it could be beneficial.
  • Improved positioning of players when playing with low defensive depth so that they’re not pushing too high up the pitch.
  • Center Backs are now less likely to run wide when marking central attackers.
  • False Backs now transition more intelligently to defense to better maintain defensive shape.
  • A goalkeeper dive indicator now displays where an incoming shot is coming from.
  • Changed the Camera Pan input based on your feedback and to avoid button conflicts.
  • As shared on the EASFC Tracker, we’re continuing to work on Be A Goalkeeper updates to improve the gameplay experience. We’ll share more details in the near future.
  • Improved cases of unexpected heavy touches when sprinting in wet weather Authentic gameplay based on your feedback.
  • Improved instances of Ground Passes unexpectedly falling behind the intended receiver.
  • Tuned difficult to perform Driven Ground Passes to be less accurate, for example, first time Driven Ground Passes taken at 180 degrees.
  • Addressed incorrect shooting animations that sometimes occurred when attempting lace shots, resulting in unexpected behavior.

Image credit: EA Sports/VG247

Ultimate Team

Addressed the following issues:

  • Players weren’t always able to enter multiplayer gameplay after accepting a Co-Op invite.
  • Player Item portraits were sometimes misaligned on the Squad screen.
  • A stability issue could have occurred after completing the Onboarding and viewing your Squad for the first time.

Career Mode

Addressed the following issue:

  • Players could’ve incorrectly left your club when simming through the calendar.

General audio and visual

Made the following changes:

  • Updated some star heads, kits, and placeholder text/images.

Addressed the following issues:

  • [PC Only] Adjusting display settings while in Borderless could have unintentionally resulted in performance loss.
  • [PC Only] Addressed a few instances of controllers not recognizing inputs. We will continue to investigate this and other reported PC issues and provide updates in the near future.
  • Addressed a number of stability issues that could have occurred.

FC 26 has been live for Ultimate Edition owners for several days now, but it officially goes live for everyone else tomorrow, or today if you’re on PC. We’ve put together a few guides to help you in these early days, such as our recommendations and tactics codes for the best formations, the best young players to sign in Career Mode (Wonderkids), the fastest players in EA FC 26 and more.



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NYT Connections: Sport Edition on a phone
Gaming Gear

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints, Answers for Sept. 25 #367

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Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. If you’re good at spotting other connected words buried within the clues, you’ll do well. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Throw it in there.

Green group hint: Two by two.

Blue group hint: Like the singer Bennett.

Purple group hint: Sing out.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Parts of a baseball glove.

Green group: Items that come in pairs.

Blue group: Famous Tonys.

Purple group: Starts with a music genre.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025.

NYT/Screenshot by CNET

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is parts of a baseball glove. The four answers are fingers, heel, pocket and webbing.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is items that come in pairs. The four answers are boxing gloves, shin guards, skis and sneakers.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is famous Tonys. The four answers are Dorsett, Gwynn, Parker and Romo.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starts with a music genre. The four answers are Popovich, Raptors, Rockies and skateboard.



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Jamal Musiala and Jude Bellingham in EA Sports FC 26
Product Reviews

EA Sports FC 26 review: a football sim for all seasons

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Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release date: Early Access: September 19, 2025 | Full release: September 26, 2025

Developer and publisher EA’s marquee sports franchise is in a strangely privileged position. For years, FIFA fans lambasted the developer for wheeling out what seemed like the same game in a fresh lick of paint, and while the newer EA Sports FC titles haven’t exactly rewritten the FIFA rulebook, they have felt like more complete, harder-to-criticize packages overall.

Why? Because a decade’s worth of minor tweaks is bound to add up to something great. As I wrote in my EA Sports FC 25 review this time last year, “it feels like we’ve reached a point where the overall FC experience is so good that it’s hard to chastise EA for making small improvements to an already excellent foundation,” and the latest entry in this long-running series, EA Sports FC 26, is shielded by the same safety blanket.

FC 26 is not a dramatically different offering from what’s come before, but it is an objectively better game than FC 25 in a few key ways.

There’s a brand new gameplay option for slower, more realism-focused offline play, a clever real-world integration for Career Mode, and meaningful player-requested changes for Ultimate Team (FUT) and Clubs. The graphics have never been better, and, of course, there’s the customary thrill of using up-to-date players, in up-to-date kits, at up-to-date clubs.

None of these upgrades are particularly flashy; they’re more under-the-surface than something you can advertise in a TV spot. But (I promise!) they do bring new, unexpected depth to EA’s tried-and-tested modes – particularly Career Mode, which feels closer to Football Manager than it’s ever been (complimentary).

Keeping it real

Cole Palmer in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports)

If you pressed EA to tell you this year’s single biggest FC upgrade, it would probably say “the overhauled gameplay experience powered by feedback from the FC Community.” That sounds like marketing mumbo jumbo, but FC 26 genuinely does play better than FC 25 for a number of reasons.

There are fewer bounce-backs this year (read: matches feel less like a game of pinball), dribbling is more responsive, it’s easier to change direction, goalkeepers no longer parry the ball straight into your opponent’s lap (or rather, they do so less frequently), and, mercifully, headers are now scorable again.

These were the five most tangible gameplay improvements I noticed during my short time with FC 26 ahead of launch, though EA also says that tackles are cleaner, interceptions are more controlled, passes are quicker, and skills are easier to perform.

Some of the best players in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports)

Players with high dribbling stats definitely feel more powerful in FC 26. The likes of Lamine Yamal, Cole Palmer, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are now just as fun to play with as they are to watch in real life, and while pace freaks like Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior will undoubtedly remain the weapon of choice for FUT loyalists, it’s nice that more of the world’s best players feel genuinely threatening in-game. There’s a new Gamechanger PlayStyle for flair finishers like Yamal, too, which feels like a cheat code when paired with existing dribble-focused PlayStyles like Technical+.

EA has also rolled a bundle of realism-focused tweaks into an entirely new gameplay preset called Authentic Gameplay. An optional mode in Kick-Off and Career Mode, Authentic is tuned for higher realism and true-to-life match speed; dribbling is slower, tackles are more violent, AI defenders are smarter, and rebounds, blocks, and bounces are more unpredictable. In other words, Authentic is a slower, harder, but (in my experience) more rewarding gameplay experience than Competitive, which is the faster-paced gameplay preset locked to online modes like FUT and Clubs.

Just look – look! – at Marc Cucurella’s in-game hair in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

In Authentic, it’s much easier to keep hold of possession for long spells, and much harder to slip players in behind using L1. It’s also nigh-on impossible to burst away from defenders with pacey players, which – as in real life – encourages you to aim for space (I do expect EA to tweak the latter aspect in the coming weeks, though, as Mbappé should be able to leave Francesco Acerbi for dead, regardless of the game mode).

It’s true that previous FC games (and indeed previous FIFA games) featured a Simulation preset that, in theory, imposed similar realism-focused gameplay changes. But toggling this option always felt like spiking your players with horse tranquilizer. Yes, in FC 26, Authentic Gameplay feels slower than its Competitive counterpart, but it doesn’t throw the whole FC experience out of kilter. I like it a lot.

Board Expectations 2.0

The Manager Live Hub in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

Career Mode is the perfect place to give Authentic Gameplay a spin, and EA has sprinkled some great new features into its decades-old take on Football Manager.

The headline addition is Manager Live, which evolves last year’s Live Start Points mechanic into a series of full-blown, inspired-by-real-life challenges. Manager Live is essentially Manager Career, but you commit to fulfilling certain objectives or storylines in a given number of seasons. The catch? Each challenge imposes a unique set of feature restrictions and operating conditions, meaning it’s harder to cheese your way to victory by buying the best players or never rotating your squad.

For instance, one Manager Live challenge – Winning With Youth – tasks you with finishing at least eighth in any European league while only playing players under the age of 24 and not signing any players under the age of 21. Another – European Royalty – challenges you to win the UEFA Super Cup twice in three years with increased referee strictness and no ability to restart matches. These feats are harder to complete than they sound, and they force you to think more like a real-life manager under similar real-life pressures.

The Icon and Heroes selection in my edition of EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

By completing Manager Live challenges, you can earn classic kits and, for the first time, the ability to play with Icon and Hero players in regular Manager Career. I haven’t yet had enough time with FC 26 to complete one of these multi-season challenges, but luckily, my Ultimate Edition version of the game included three Career-ready Icons straight out of the box (you best believe Fernando Torres went straight into my 2025 Chelsea side).

Other neat updates for regular Career Mode include Manager Market and Unexpected Events. The former gives managers their own Manager Profile and Job Security rating, and you can track which coaches are untouchable, under pressure, or seeking new opportunities throughout the season in a dedicated Manager Market menu. Previously, you’d have to hope and pray that your next role of choice would appear in the hard-to-find Vacancies tab, but now, you can track your dream managerial job and react accordingly.

The Manager Market interface in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

Unexpected Events are exactly what they sound like: random scenarios (positive or negative) that test your adaptability as a manager. Events like Abrupt Retirement, Urgent Family Leave, and Budget Malfunction bring new dynamism to long seasons, where previously, you’d only have the odd player injury or contract negotiation to contend with. Again, this is another small-but-welcome change.

No more rage quits?

Live Events are a new addition to Ultimate Team in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports)

For FUT fans, those aforementioned gameplay tweaks will prove the most meaningful change (the improvements made to goalkeeper parries, in particular, should reduce the number of rage quits considerably). But EA has also reintroduced Tournaments under a new Live Events banner in FC 26, while Gauntlets force you to rotate your FUT squad in every round, encouraging you to build two competition-ready XIs. During my pre-launch testing, I only had one live Live Event available – the Early Access Elimination tournament – but three more were listed as ‘upcoming’ post-launch.

Other changes include the removal of Rivals qualifiers, the addition of a second tier of Weekend League, and – finally! – fairer consequences if your opponent disconnects from a match by any method: yes, you’ll be awarded the win if the score is a draw.

Best bit

(Image credit: EA Sports FC 26)

Hitting my first trivela assist with Lamine Yamal after beating three defenders using the Technical+ playstyle. These types of moments felt harder to pull off in previous games, but FC 26 actively encourages them.

Those Live Events now feature in Clubs, too, as does a new Archetypes system for developing your Pro, which encourages you to pick a specific style of play (Magician, Creator, Engine, and so on) and run with it. You can choose more than one Archetype (once you’ve unlocked more), but each Archetype progresses separately, so you’ll need to play multiple matches with each one to level them up.

Honestly, I’m not too sure about this new system. Previously, you were able to change your Pro build on the fly to suit the needs of any given position, or just to mix things up. In FC 26, you’ll be able to get really good at being one type of player, but then be forced back to square one if you join a squad that necessitates a position change.

I’m intrigued to see how longtime Clubs fans take to this new progression system – though any annoyances might be offset by the long-awaited ability to join multiple clubs in FC 26.

 Should I play EA Sports FC 26?

Ronaldo Nazário in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports)

 Play it if…

 Don’t play it if…

 Accessibility

The Accessibility menu in EA Sports FC 26 (Image credit: EA Sports / Future)

EA Sports FC 26 offers a comprehensive suite of accessibility options, including settings for subtitles, button remapping, color blindness, and increasing the size of the player indicator. It also introduces a dedicated High Contrast Mode for low-vision and cognitively disabled players. All of these accessibility options can be found in a dedicated Accessibility Settings tab. The game has six difficulty levels – Beginner, Amateur, Semi-Pro, Professional, World Class, Legendary, and Ultimate – and features support for 21 languages.

 How I tested EA Sports FC 26

I played EA Sports FC 26 for five days ahead of its official release. During that time, I had access to all modes and features and was able to compete against real-world players who also had early access to the game (before the start of EA’s Early Access promotion).

I played on PS5, using a standard DualSense controller, on a Samsung QN95A Neo QLED 4K TV. I’ve played every EA Sports football title since FIFA 13, and also reviewed FIFA 22, FIFA 23, EA Sports FC 24, and EA Sports FC 25 for TechRadar Gaming.

First reviewed September 2025.

EA Sports FC 26: Price Comparison



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Mario Tennis Fever Preorders Are Live - First Mario Sports Game For Switch 2
Game Updates

Mario Tennis Fever Preorders Are Live – First Mario Sports Game For Switch 2

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Mario Tennis Fever is available to preorder for $70 at multiple major retailers ahead of its release next year on February 12, 2026. The latest Mario sports game is the first for Nintendo Switch 2 and will be exclusive to the new hardware. And like most Nintendo-published titles for Switch 2, Mario Tennis Fever retails for $70.

Mario Tennis Fever was unveiled on September 12 during the Super Mario 40th Anniversary section of the latest Nintendo Direct. The livestream also revealed Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2, which releases much sooner (October 2) and is available for Switch 2 and original Switch.

$70 | Releases February 12, 2026

Mario Tennis Fever’s physical edition is up for preorder at Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and GameStop. No preorder bonuses have been revealed, but retailers often have exclusive bonuses for Nintendo games. We’ll update this story if that happens with Mario Tennis Fever.

The full game is stored on the Switch 2 game card. Nintendo estimates a 10GB download for the digital edition of Mario Tennis Fever, which is available to preorder on the eShop for the same price.

Technically, Mario Tennis Fever is the second Mario sports game to release exclusively on Switch 2. Nintendo recently added Super Mario Strikers to the GameCube catalog for Switch Online + Expansion Pack members. But Mario Tennis Fever is the first all-new Mario sports game for Switch 2.

Mario Tennis Fever (Nintendo)

Mario Tennis Fever will have local and online multiplayer for up to four players. It supports button/stick controls as well as motion controls with the Joy-Con 2. You’ll be able to play as 38 different characters from the Mushroom Kingdom. The “Fever” moniker is a reference to this entry’s new twist: Fever Rackets. There are 30 Fever Rackets with unique special effects such as freezing the court and shrinking your opponent’s racket.

In the new Adventure Mode, monsters who inhabit a mysterious island turn Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, and Waluigi into babies. Donkey Kong is also in the campaign, but he isn’t a baby (sadly). Baby Mario and his friends will need to develop their tennis skills all over again to escape the island.

Other game modes include Trial Towers, Tournament, Ranked Matches, Online Room, and Mix It Up. Mario Tennis Fever will borrow from Super Mario Bros. Wonder by having Talking Flowers commentate matches in Tournament Mode and by introducing Wonder Effects to Mix It Up Mode.

Mario Sports Games for Nintendo Switch

The last Mario Tennis game, Mario Tennis Aces, released back in 2018 and was the first Mario sports title for the original Switch, too. Since the Nintendo Switch 2 is backward compatible, you can play the trio of Mario sports games for Switch on the new console: Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Golf: Super Rush, and Mario Strikers: Battle League.

Mario Sports games for Nintendo Switch

More Nintendo Direct Game Preorders

Along with the new Mario games, Nintendo announced release dates for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. Preorders are also open for seven new Amiibo, including a pair of Super Mario Galaxy figures. Mario fans should also check out Rosalina’s Storybook, a hardcover edition of the in-game book from Mario Galaxy published by Dark Horse. Preorders for Rosalina’s Storybook are live now for $25 at Amazon.

If you need a Switch 2 before Mario Tennis Fever’s launch, Amazon is now taking preorders for the Pokemon Legends: Z-A Switch 2 Bundle ahead of the value bundle’s October 16 release. Check out a list of all of the new games featured in the Nintendo Direct that you can preorder now below.

Nintendo Direct Preorders:

Nintendo Switch 1/2 Game Preorders

Sign up for GameSpot’s Weekly Deals Newsletter:



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NYT Connections: Sport Edition on a phone
Gaming Gear

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints, Answers for Sept. 13 #355

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Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition trusts that you know your sports movies and your mascots. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Think Wimbledon.

Green group hint: Cinema on ice.

Blue group hint: Iconic team symbols.

Purple group hint: Not basketball, but…

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Tennis shots.

Green group: Hockey movies.

Blue group: Live college mascots.

Purple group: ____ baseball.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Sept. 13, 2025.

NYT/Screenshot by CNET

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is tennis shots. The four answers are backhand, drop, slice and smash.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is hockey movies. The four answers are Miracle; Mystery, Alaska; Slap Shot and The Mighty Ducks.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is live college mascots. The four answers are Bevo, Sir Big Spur, Smokey and Uga.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ baseball.  The four answers are backyard, fantasy, inside and major league.



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