The 2026 offering is a juddering, dated calamity … Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition. Developed by Delphi Interactive, it streams via Netflix with sluggish phone controls and robotic commentary by Clive Tyldesley. Football fans should avoid it.
The worst World Cup games in history
Until now, the worst was World Cup Carnival (1986), the first official Fifa tie-in. Publisher US Gold had a deal with Ocean Software to repurpose Match Day, but it fell through. With three months to go, US Gold rebadged a dire 1984 sim, World Cup Football, by Artic. Released in a fancy box with a fixtures chart and flag stickers, it was a critical and commercial disaster.
Four years later, Sega's World Cup Italia '90 for Mega Drive was another catastrophe: terrible controls, awful music, and a weirdly zoomed-in pitch view. For USA 94, US Gold put out a decent SNES version, but the home computer alternative was called “an inoperable canker on the lungs of the innocent children” by Amiga Power.
The EA era and its limits
For France 98, Electronic Arts brought its Fifa engine to the World Cup. Fifa: Road to World Cup 98 is considered one of the greatest, with 2006 and 2010 close behind. After 2014, World Cup content was absorbed into main Fifa titles. But games struggle to capture the tournament's spectacle: crowds, disastrous ceremonies (Diana Ross penalty at USA 94), and terrible team songs.
Some attempts: World Cup USA 94 on Sega Mega CD featured Scorpions tracks, including “No Pain No Gain” with lyrics “You got no vision in your head, you got no vision, better dead.” For 2010, EA included the vuvuzela horn noise. Replicating iconic moments like Cruyff's turn or Zidane's head-butt is tough, though EA's best titles let players relive history. Fifa World Cup 2014 even had a Story of Finals mode updated an hour after matches. The most notorious attempt: 1986's Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona, which featured neither.
Culture over sport
The true beauty of the World Cup is on the periphery: Tartan army exploits, TikTok moments of fans swapping shirts. The only game to capture this cultural phenomenon is Despelote, an indie narrative about a boy obsessed with Ecuador's 2002 qualification. Matches occur on TV sets in bars, yet it contains more love and drama than a thousand hours of Fifa World Cup: Launch Edition. For home tournaments, stick with EA Sports FC, eFootball, or retro Fifa World Cup 2006.
