FIFA 18 was the best-selling Switch title in its launch month globally, but in China, its legacy is bittersweet. It revealed that EA would never treat the Switch as a primary platform. FIFA 19 and FIFA 20 on Switch were barely updated (so-called “legacy editions”), and by FIFA 21 , EA had given up entirely, releasing only a rebranded version of the previous game. By the time Tencent officially launched the Switch in China in 2019, FIFA 18 was obsolete. The official Chinese eShop never received a modern FIFA title until much later, and by then, players had moved to eFootball on mobile phones.

: The free 2018 FIFA World Cup expansion, released on May 29, 2018 , officially added the China national team to the roster, despite them not qualifying for the real-world tournament.

| Method | Requires | Online Play? | Chinese Language? | Legality | |--------|----------|--------------|-------------------|----------| | Imported physical cartridge | International Switch | Yes | No | Legal | | Digital purchase (pre-delisting) | Foreign eShop account | Yes | No | Legal | | Pirated ROM + hacked Switch | Hacked Switch (modchip/software mod) | No (or risk) | No | Illegal | | China-region eShop | N/A – not available | N/A | N/A | N/A |

Official Tencent-distributed consoles in China are heavily region-locked. While they can play physical game cards from other regions (like the US or Japan), they cannot access online features or the eShop for games not officially released by Tencent.

: It didn't use the Frostbite engine. Instead, it used a custom-built engine designed to hit 60 FPS in both handheld and docked modes.

, representing a massive leap forward for portable sports gaming. However, for gamers in China or those looking for specific Chinese-localized ROMs and community patches, navigating the world of Nintendo Switch ROMs requires careful attention to detail.