FIFA ULTIMATE TEAM THE BIG GAME
FIFA ULTIMATE TEAM PICK OF THE PITCH
FIFA Ultimate Team has quickly grown to become the biggest part of the behemothic football franchise. Matthew Jarvis finds out what to expect from the mode in FIFA 15 from producer Marcel Kuhn
Release Date: September 26th Formats: PS4, XO, PS3, 360, Wii, PC, 3DS, Vita Publisher: EA Developer: EA Sports
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.576 billion goals have been scored in FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) to date – just one
of the many impressive statistics highlighting the biggest mode in the burgeoning FIFA series. But despite the now roaring success of the mode, the collectable deck- building game was initally hard to grasp for many players when it was first introduced in 2009. “People say that they tried FUT
three or four years ago, and were totally confused what it was all about: chemistry and blah blah blah,” admits FIFA 15 Ultimate Team producer Marcel Kuhn. “But in the last two years, we’ve looked at it and added specific usability and screen designers to our team that we didn’t have before, who are really all about educating people and trying to help them figure out what the core of the game is about.” The new focus has worked –
nearly 22 million people have now played Ultimate Team. It’s an astonishing number that highlights just how big the mode has become.
www.mcvuk.com
Kuhn says that the gentle
approach FUT takes to introducing new concepts is key to the popularity of the mode among players who aren’t obsessive football fans. “FUT especially tries to cater to
people who don’t know football as well,” he explains. “It’s really important to us too, because we want to establish a new group of guys who can get crazy about FUT.” But, he adds, EA needs to
be careful that existing fans aren’t put off by being forced to re-learn things they already know; it’s a balancing act. “People say: ‘You should be like
Grand Theft Auto, where first you have your house, and then you get your street, and then your block...’” Kuhn muses. “It’s not really like that in FIFA because there are so many guys that go in wanting to play everything and who don’t care about learning how to play bit by bit. But there are also a lot of people who don’t know and they get overwhelmed. In our main menu there’s the
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People say they tried FUT three or four years ago, and were totally confused. But in the last two years, we’ve really tried to help them figure out
what it is about. Marcel Kuhn, EA
central tab, which essentially for the first half an hour runs you through all the major components. So it will show you loan players first, because it’s a cool new feature, but afterwards it explains to you how you can rename your club and what your club is, what tournaments are and how to play them, how to get coins and what they mean in the game.”
MARKET MOVES Ultimate Team’s rapid growth has provided a highly profitable business for EA, with the digital revenue of FIFA 13 booming by 94 per cent above that of FIFA 12, hitting $200 million (£119m) – largely thanks to Ultimate Team. And this impressive figure has been hit despite the title’s micro-transactions being completely optional. “It’s a good balance between the amount of players grinding and paying,” says Kuhn. “That’s one of the growth factors of FUT that is right.
August 29th 2014
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