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FEATURE
GAMES
“The Journey is
something we’ve
wanted to do for a long
time, and with the power
of Frostbite, we can now
create those environments easier and a
lot quicker,” explains Prior.
"We’ve been working on it for just over
two years now, but this is completely new
for us and an area of gaming that the core
FIFA devs didn’t have any experience with.
“We had to write scripts and audition
actors, so it took a while to plan it out, and
we had a totally separate team working on
it. We also had to get some people with
expertise who’ve delivered this kind of
mode in other games before in to help us!”
The comparisons between Alex Hunter
and new Manchester United prodigy Marcus
Rashford are obvious, and although Prior
says the mode isn’t based on the striker’s
ascension, the comparison between the
two is inevitable.
“It’s eerily similar in terms of what
happened to him,” remarks Prior. “I actually
met him the other week and to get his
feedback is great because it validated the
authenticity. There’s obviously the family
element and the support they give through
the inevitable ups and downs of the
footballers' lives, and that was a significant
element in all the young footballers we
spoke to including Harry Kane, Dele Alli, and
Reece Oxford. They all liked what they saw.”
It is undoubtedly a side of football that
we’re all intrigued by.
We read the stories in
the papers of lads who
have come from humble
beginnings earning
$400,000 a week, living
extravagant lifestyles,
driving the best sports
cars and buying country
mansions. Growing up,
many fans of the sport
(this one included) harbor
similar dreams; now with
The Journey, we can live
vicariously through the
eyes of Alex Hunter.
“It’s the side of football
people are interested in;
it’s the side of football in
the real world,” says Prior.
“You can get a certain
level of vision on with
Instagram, social media,
perhaps websites, but
with The Journey you’ve
got a window on these
guys’ personal life like
never before, and this is
something we think our
users are interested in.
“We’ve always done an
amazing job of focusing on
the 90 minutes on the pitch,
we’ve never done off the pitch
and what makes a player tick, what
they have to go through to be a professional
player and all the rest of it."
For The Journey narrative, Prior says the
studio turned to former
Eastenders
actor
and now sports journalist, TomWatts, for
help.
"He has just finished writing Beckham’s
autobiography actually, so we wrote the
story with him as a consultant. That guy just
absolutely lives and breathes football; he’s
like an encyclopedia, so getting that window
into the world of football was fascinating."
This is a bold move for the franchise but
a necessary one if EA are to expand the
player base beyond the millions who already
buy the game on an annual basis. While the
requisite skill level to play the game online
could potentially put off new recruits (no
one likes being beaten 15 nil in their first
game), the introduction of The Journey will
actually teach new adherents to FIFA how to
play the game as the mode progresses.
However, the core FIFA players are a
passionate bunch and might
view the introduction of
a single-player campaign
mode in the game with some
trepidation. Not so, according
to Prior, who says he’s happy with the
feedback received so far.
“This is something very unique that
they’ve never seen before in FIFA.
But we’ve put a lot of work into this.
Authenticity is one of FIFA’s key pillars, so
if we were going to do a story, then we
were always going to make sure we made
it as authentic as we possibly could, and
the feedback we’ve been getting is very
positive.
“The FUT users will probably go off and
play FUT eventually. It’s not a mode that is
intended to dominate that space, but
certainly by the reaction thus far, everyone
will love it.”
There are 64 different
player nationalities in the
Premier League. Over its
history, players from 97
countries have competed
in the Premier League.
Raheem Sterling, Romelu
Lukaku and Harry Kane
are the only players born
after the Premier League
began in August 1992 to
have scored hat-tricks.
The average attendance at
a Premier League game is
36,000.
The Premier League has a
potential global audience
of close to 5 billion.
During the 2015/16
season, Jamie Vardy
became the first player in
Premier League history
to score in 11 consecutive
games.
5
Facts
About
The Premier
League You
Didn’t Know
(Probably)
This is something
very unique that
they’ve never seen
before in FIFA
•
FIFA 17
is out Sept 29