When it comes to the pinnacle of simulation video games, EA Sports FC, formerly known as FIFA, sits at the top. Even after losing the license for the naming rights of FIFA, EA Sports quickly pivoted to FC and continued producing the most successful sports game in the history of the industry. While NBA 2K and Madden are dominant franchises in their own right and have set the standard for the sports gaming on US soil, they don't come close to the popularity and global impact of EA Sports FC.
With EA Sports FC losing naming rights to FIFA, there will be more than one football game in the market in the future. FIFA is reportedly planning to release its own video game to compete with EA Sports Even with the new competition, the EA Sports team is still confident, they have the best game in the world.
"Yes, 100 percent." EA Sports Director Experience Design Matthew Prior says on FC 24 being the best game in the world. "It's a huge year for it. One of the huge pieces this year that makes this game so special is the HyperMotion V. It's a long been a dream for us developers to get that real world animation from not just athletes but real world situations. You're going to see a new level of authencity."
It's hard to make sports video games anymore authentic than they have been in the past but EA Sports FC has seemed to raise the bar. Their new technology will take mimicking the identity and tendencies of players like Erling Haaland, FC 24 cover star, to the next level.
We sat down with the aforementioned Matthew Prior briefly to talk about FC 24 and its groundbreaking authencity.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
What went into the presentation of this game?
It's been a massive year. A lot is happening in the presentation space. We've got a new enhanced Frostbite engine, which really improves the visuals all around. We've got new lighting throughtout the game which makes it look that more realistic and authentic. We've got new skeletons which is a huge piece is driving the autheneticity of the players which is something we're always trying to go after. When you play as Haaland, we want you to feel like he's Haaland versus he passes to Rodri and that feels like Rodri. So the skeleton is a huge part. Another piece that I find really exciting is the kind of different mantra we are adopting towards the presentation. So in the past, we've very much looked at the presentation of our game as emulating TV.
Our game feels like a game when you're watching on TV. So at the dawn of FC, it feels like an optimum time to kind of switch that around. And what we're saying is we're kind of innovating rather than emulating. So with those HyperMotion overlays that if you, if you saw the presentation, what we're now doing is not thinking what do TV broadcasters do but what can we do that TV broadcasters can't. And we met with a lot of TV broadcasts. We sat down with a lot of them and it was very interesting conversations because we've obviously use them to emulate how our game looks. But it was interesting to hear about, they actually play our game to think how they can use our game as, as, as reference to it for their TV broadcast. And one of the things that they kind of unanimously said they were quite jealous of us because we live in a virtual space, we can put a camera anywhere. So that's what, that's an interesting thing that, so that's like with the HyperMotion overlays, we're starting to do things in, in, in the game that you don't currently see in broadcast.
You guys have elevated the industry in terms of making the game realistic. Do you feel like this is the best and most authentic video game in the world?
Yes, 100 percent. It's a huge year for it. One of the huge pieces this year that makes this game so special is the HyperMotion V. It's a long been a dream for us developers to get that real world animation from not just athletes but real world situations. You're going to see a new level of authencity. so you get that extra level of effort, you get, you know, that, that crazy Haaland almost karate kick goal. You could never motion capture that. But now we're able to pull that kind of top level athlete from the top level game. So you're going to see a new level of authenticity within the animation and the game play that we never thought, we never thought possible.
You know, we used to do motion captures with athletes and, you know, we use the likes of Messi and Ronaldo, but they're always in a motion cap suit in a kind of weird alien space and they give 100%. It's still not truly authentic, right? But now with HyperMotion V, we're getting all that authenticity. So it's huge. That revolutionary word is probably thrown about too much in the games industry but I think that this is revolutionary tech.
With the integration of the women's game, how have diferred the women's presentation from the men's presentation or is it exactly the same?
No, we try to do everything as authentically as possible. So the authenticity in the women's game is driven by how it is represented in the real world. So the women's Champions League will have all the women's Champions League or broadcast overlays and all. And one of the things that we want to do when we do bring the women's game to our game is do it authentic and do it 100% on an equal level as the men's game. So the player skeleton is a good example.
So obviously that was the reason we want to get to a level, a new level of kind of 10 times more anatomically correct. It was not only to improve the authenticity of the men, but also the women and get that right. So in terms of presentation, a lot of it is driven by the real world. So that kind of inflects how we treat it. It's not different per se, but it's different in how you would see a woman's game on TV.
