14 DAY TRIAL // FIFA 15 will certainly be one of the biggest launches in the video game world for 2014, and it seems that the development team at EA Sports believes that the game will have a more important impact in North America than before, apparently thanks to the World Cup and its viewership figures.
Nick Channon, a producer working at the studio, tells VG247 that “Viewing figures in North America were amazing throughout the World Cup. Four years ago we saw a real lift of engagement in North America as people played the World Cup game and then stuck with FIFA. It’s great.”
During the tournament in Brazil, the development team delivered a constant stream of special teams for the Ultimate Team game mode for FIFA 14, based on the players that performed best during the various phases of the World Cup.
At the same time, the company has offered a special mode in the title on the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, giving players a chance to rewrite history and win the 2014 trophy with their favorite teams.
On the Xbox 360 and the PS3, an entirely separate World Cup title was launched, although it has not attracted too much attention because it did not appear on current-gen consoles.
Channon adds, “Anytime football’s being played in the real world it helps drive engagement in our game, so it was really big and always will be. We did things with FUT to keep that engagement and people seemed to like that connection between the real world and games.”
The Ultimate Team mode for the FIFA series, which has become very popular in the last few years, gets constant updates to reflect the form of real-world players, with weekly special team packs developed by EA Sports.
In the new football sim gamers can also enhance their team using the new Concept Squad feature and they also gain the ability to loan some players in order to use them for a limited number of matches.
FIFA 15 will be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 4 from Sony, the Xbox One from Microsoft and last-gen consoles, and will arrive in North America on September 23 and on September 25 in Europe.
Both national championship and the Champions League will be tracked and will influence the form of players in the simulation, as long as players activate the day match experience included.