14 DAY TRIAL // The biggest new addition to the Ultimate Team mode in the coming FIFA 16 is the new Draft experience and the development team wants gamers to approach it as a faster and more exciting way to experience everything that the football simulation title has to offer.
Adam Shaikh, creative director of FIFA Ultimate Team, tells VG247 that "One of the original reasons for Draft Mode was more to provide an interesting and compelling change of pace for very experienced players: high risk, high reward, and to really shake it up. It became obvious very quickly that this was a great distillation of the FUT experience."
Draft is designed to allow gamers to choose relatively quickly from five pre-determined tactical setups and then also select a captain and a squad of 23 players by selecting from random offerings that include the normal versions of players but also the in-forms and other special versions launched by EA Sports.
Once a squad is assembled, gamers can take them into four match tournaments that have an entry fee but can deliver big rewards, which should make them attractive even for those who do not have a lot of time to invest in FIFA 16.
EA Sports is also aiming to keep the playing field as level as possible
Shaikh also wants his team to make sure that there are never moments when gamers feel that they need to spend money to get content for Ultimate Team to be successful.
The Draft mode makes it even easier for newcomers to take on veterans because the squads tend to vary from moment to moment based on what the random element of FIFA 16 delivers in terms of choices.
For the rest of Ultimate Team, EA Sports is also improving micromanagement of a team and there are tweaks to the transfer market and the value of players that are designed to make it somewhat easier for gamers to get access to the superstars of the game.
FIFA 16 is coming to the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 and the PC in its fullest incarnation, arriving on September 22 in North America and two days later in Europe, with those who get the title on older devices having to accept that the Legacy versions will miss some features.