EA is making some changes to how players on the field are going to celebrate. Eurogamer reported that FIFA 21 will not return two of their celebrations due to it causing “toxic behaviors” with their online gaming communities.
What Celebrations are being removed from FIFA 21?
In the new FIFA 21 game, the post-goal “Shush” and “A-OK” celebrations are the two that are being removed. The “Shush” was removed because it was used by members of the online community to waste time after they had scored. “A-OK” got removed because the gesture was similar to one that was popularized by white supremacists. Both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Warzone removed similar celebrations from their games as well last month.
“We were told by the community that there’s toxic behaviors in the game and we wanted to make sure we removed them,” lead gameplay producer Sam Rivera said during a July preview event. “So we removed some of the celebrations that people thought were not the best idea to have in the game.”
FIFA 21 released their Pitch Notes earlier in the week that covered celebrations in the game. They announced the removal of the walk back cinematic after a goal in online matches. The game is also reducing the length of goal celebrations to speed up the game. Replacing the “Shush” and “A-OK” celebrations include the “Finger Swipe” and the “Selfie” celebrations. Player signature celebrations including Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Steven Bergwijn, and others are expected to be in the game as well.
FIFA 21 will be released on October 9 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.