Electronic Arts has announced a new partnership with Stability AI, the creator of AI image generation tool Stable Diffusion. The company will “co-develop transformative AI models, tools, and workflows” for the game developer, with the hopes of speeding up development while maintaining quality.
“I use the term smarter paintbrushes,” Steve Kestell, Head of Technical Art for EA SPORTS said in the announcement. “We are giving our creatives the tools to express what they want.” To start, the “smarter paintbrushes” EA and Stability AI are building are concentrated on generating textures and in-game assets. EA hopes to create “Physically Based Rendering materials” with new tools “that generate 2D textures that maintain exact color and light accuracy across any environment.”
The company also describes using AI to “pre-visualize entire 3D environments from a series of intentional prompts, allowing artists to creatively direct the generation of game content.” Stability AI is most famous for its powerful Stable Diffusion image generator, but the company maintains multiple tools for generating 3D models, too, so the partnership is by no means out of place.
It helps that AI is on the tip of most video game executives’ tongues. Strauss Zelnick, the head of Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two, recently shared that generative AI “will not reduce employment, it will increase employment,” because “technology always increases productivity, which in turn increases GDP, which in turn increases employment.” Krafton, the publisher of PUBG: Battlegrounds, made its commitment to AI even more clear, announcing plans on Thursday to become an AI-first company. Companies with a direct stake in the success of the AI industry, like Microsoft, have also created gaming-focused tools and developed models for prototyping.
The motivations for EA might be even simpler, though. The company is in the midst of being taken private, and will soon be saddled with billions in debt. Theoretically cutting costs with AI might be one way the company hopes to survive the transition.
The EA Sports FC 26 10-hour EA Play trial is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Xbox on PC via Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
Play your way with an overhauled gameplay experience powered by community feedback.
Score a Welcome Pack through October 30 and in-game rewards, such as Ultimate Team Draft Tokens and Clubs rewards.
Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass members can live the most true-to-football experience ever for up to 10 hours in EA Sports FC 26. If they decide to buy, their progress carries over to the full game, so they can pick up the season right where they left off.
Members can save 10% on the full game, FC Points, and other EA digital purchases. Plus, grab a Welcome Pack in addition to recurring rewards, like Ultimate Team Draft Tokens.
Feel the difference with a variety of game-wide changes to key fundamentals and much more in EA Sports FC 26.
Overhauled Gameplay
EA Sports FC 26 changes the game with two distinct gameplay presets. Competitive Gameplay is tailored for online head-to-head play in Football Ultimate Team and Clubs, introducing competitive positioning, fewer auto-tackles, increased passing speed, and more. Authentic Gameplay, however, delivers unrivaled authenticity in Career with more intelligent defenders, corner kicks tuned to match real-world success rates, a sense of real-world excitement during goalmouth scrambles, and more.
Football Ultimate Team
Put your dream squad to the test with Tournaments and Live Events, as well as a refreshed Rivals and Champs experience. Test your skills with up to 4 rounds of knockout football, or add variety with themed competitions and content all season long. New Bounties let you earn additional rewards or accelerate your weekly progress.
Manager Live
Manager Live is a new, always-online content delivery hub that adds a new dimension to Manager Career. Take on a variety of real-world and alternative scenarios throughout the new season, ranging from a few minutes of play to multiple seasons. Whether it’s managing your team after the latest high-profile transfer, starting the season strong with 5 straight wins, or writing your name into the history books by winning a treble, Live Challenges will test all aspects of your managerial prowess.
The EA Sports FC 26 10-hour EA Play trial is available Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Xbox on PC via Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Conditions, limitations and exclusions apply. See EA Play Terms for details.
The EA Sports NHL 26 10-hour EA Play early access trial is available on Xbox Series X|S.
NHL Edge data powers how your favorite superstars think, move, and play in true-to-life fashion.
Score 3,000 WOC Coins and Season Pass XP Multiplier Tokens, plus recurring rewards.
Game Pass Ultimate members can now take to the ice for up to 10 hours in EA Sports NHL 26. If they decide to buy, their progress carries over to the full game, so they can get ready for the next match.
Members can save 10% off EA digital purchases, including the full version of the game and NHL Points. Plus, score in-game rewards, including 3,000 WOC Coins and Season Pass XP Multiplier Tokens. It’s time to show out and tell the world to check my game.
Ice-Q 2.0 powered by NHL Edge
Think, move, and play like your favorite superstars. By informing player Attributes, Tendencies, and with the all-new Goalie Crease Control System, NHL Edge data brings a deeper level of authenticity to Chel.
NHL Visual Package
Enjoy a litany of visual updates, including the addition of the Delta Center as a playable arena, all-new net mesh behavior, neck guards for players, and a dynamic new menu screen. From Dynamic Cinematic Lighting that turns all preplays and off-play camera moments into a thing of beauty, to a font update for increased legibility, there are a ton of new updates to Chel’s overall visual package.
Be A Pro
The revamped Be A Pro mode lets you live your hockey journey from rookie to superstar with fresh storylines, characters, challenges, and cutscenes. Play your way from World Juniors to the draft. Experience the emotions of your first pro game: the highs of being a human highlight reel, getting grilled at post-game pressers for a lingering dry spell — and if that keeps up, having to work your way back to the big league from the minors.
The EA Sports NHL 26 10-hour EA Play trial is available on Xbox Series X|S. Conditions, limitations and exclusions apply. See EA Play Terms for details.
We’re seeing an injection of fresh life into this year’s Madden thanks to the return of college football with EA Sports College Football 25’s release. The college football franchise comes off an 11-year hiatus, tying nicely into Madden 25’s pro football package. But the return of college football can only do so much for Madden 25, as this year’s experience feels more like a mechanical iteration from past entries rather than a comprehensive overhaul.
Surprisingly, the biggest innovations in this year’s Madden are found in nitty-gritty gameplay details rather than in modes or presentation. EA has been proudly campaigning its new BOOM Tech physics suite; a physics package that incorporates realistic tackles and individualized player movements. By extension, the iconic Madden Hit Stick has been re-engineered so that you can control your tackles through risk/reward hit timings. I’m a terrible tackler in these games and even I found the Hit Stick timings to be intuitive and fun to pull off, even if it sometimes resulted in the carrier breaking through a poorly timed hit.
Image Source: EA SPORTS via Twinfinite
Thanks to the new physics suite, carrying the ball finally feels like it has some depth this year. You can set up combo jukes and spins through the right stick, and the overall movement feels more nuanced thanks to the physics overhaul. AI is improved, with a carrier’s center of mass and footing determining their balance and stability. Calculations like torque and rotation angles are all formulated into the enhanced physics suite to create more varied and realistic movement. As a personal anecdote, I can’t help but chuckle at the mountain of linemen squirming around to fumble the ball out of the carrier’s hands.
Players move individual pieces of their body per these new physics calculations, and it shows by the ragdoll-like movements after every hit. These newly enhanced physics do a great job of overcoming the rigidness and predictable player movements from previous games.
Unlike tackling and running, the passing game has remained largely untouched from previous iterations. I still enjoy leading receivers with passes and influencing whether it’s a bullet or lob, though the level of control still lags behind older sim-oriented titles like ESPN NFL 2K5.
That said, this is the most skill-based Madden we’ve seen in years, thanks in part to the new Hit Stick and physics. Player stats and abilities add that role-playing element to compliment the skill-based package nicely here, with skill trees for every team member and a perk system for each role. What’s even better is you can customize just how skill-based or RPG you want the experience to be through the extensive settings. Under the Player Skill tab, you can adjust a meter from 0 to 100 governing how accurate QBs are, reaction timing of catches, and a host of other parameters to make the experience as stat-dependant or skill-based as you wish.
Image Source: EA SPORTS via Twinfinite
Of course, if you really want a role-playing experience, Franchise mode supplies that in good measure. I like the option to only play certain highlights of games, but I wish you could decide when to step in and play. Sadly, there’s still no way to watch a game play out in real-time and take control of players when you wish. You either play a full game or select highlights of said game with little manual input.
Thankfully, the strategic gameplay here has improved thanks to retooled playbooks and new pre-snap tools. You have more defensive options with disguised coverage shells, while offensively, you can lengthen route stems to crack through coverage holes. Franchise Mode still has a long way to go before it can match the depth of, say, NFL Head Coach, but it is iterating little by little to get more sim-like.
Image Source: EA SPORTS via Twinfinite
On the presentation front, Madden 25 feels just as sterile and boring as it has in the past. The underwhelming Storylines interspersed throughout Franchise and Superstar do little to add to the intended liveliness and immersiveness of being a coach or star player. Storylines in Franchise mode consist of binary yes/no questions from a stiffly animated defensive coordinator or off-screen media interviewer. There’s no voice acting, of course, with large text font with mismatched colors functioning as the ‘dialogue’ between characters.
These Storylines feel like they have the budget of a browser or mobile game and don’t add much to the experience, other than the stat boosts from your answers. If NFL 2K5 could inject personality with a fully customizable crib and voiced media segments, why can’t EA do it with Madden with today’s tech? Likewise, the menus serve a purely utilitarian purpose with a clinical and clean UI completely lacking in style and personality.
One big upgrade with this year’s presentation is the addition of two new commentary teams. Yes, that’s right, eight long years of the Gaudin/Davis duo are finally at an end, kind of. Gaudin and Davis can still be your main cast of broadcasters if you wish. The three broadcast duos can be set to shuffle or you can manually select which ones you want on or off. The two new teams consist of Mike Turico/Greg Olsen, and Kate Scott/Brock Huard, and let me tell you, it’s a huge improvement over the old ones. I still heard plenty of repeated lines throughout my time, despite the supposed 42,000 new recordings, but EA has promised to add more recordings throughout the year with updates.
Superstar Mode gets the benefit of importing your player from College Football 25. Even though Madden doesn’t do anything to specifically recognize your college career, it’s still cool to finally live through a player’s journey from college to the Super Bowl. The character creator is pretty barebones, with only a handful of head templates and hairstyles to choose from, though it is nice to see some sliders for things like jawline etc. There’s a host of Abilities and Skills that you can allocate for your Superstar player, and for the first time, you can customize starting skills and physical ratings for a more tailormade experience.
Image Source: EA SPORTS via Twinfinite
Similar to my disappointment with player Storylines, the NFL Draft and Super Bowl additions feel underwhelming and insignificant. Yes, they added a Rogel Goodell model that greets your superstar character into the NFL, and even went so far as to give your character custom-tailored suits for his media appearances. But these moments still feel too sterile and binary due to the lack of voices and boring dialogue font.
I do like the occasional live-action Maddencast videos that comment on pivotal moments throughout your superstar’s career. Sure, they don’t say your name outright, but the charisma of the crew and that feeling of being discussed on a live broadcast is a nice immersive touch. 15 new minigames join this year’s Madden, most of them carried over from EA Sports College Football 25. Even though this year’s Superstar Mode is largely untouched from previous years, I still had a blast role-playing as my rookie quarterback from college through an NFL career.
Image Source: EA SPORTS via Twinfinite
We’re at the end of the review and Ultimate Team hasn’t been mentioned yet, and that’s because there’s not much new here to comment on. You build a dream team from the ground up through a lengthy and substantial grind. There’s still a lot of depth to be had here with plenty of stats, skill trees, and training that you can do to improve each player. I still lament that Ultimate Team and Superstar remain online-only modes requiring integration with an EA account. Just as well, the monetization is as egregious as previous years. The MUT Coin virtual currency is used to purchase player cards, XP Boosters, and just about anything else they can find to nickel and dime the player.
Madden 25 offers a really solid football package for those who missed previous entries. There are a lot of smart improvements to the running and defensive game, and the physics overhaul is noticeable. These gameplay upgrades help Madden 25 stand out as one of the most mechanically impressive football games in recent memory. While I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing matches, the slight additions to each mode didn’t feel as substantial as was advertised. And the awkward voiceless ‘Storyline’ scenes ring hollow, despite their good intentions to add immersion. Madden 25 is a solid game with some much-needed mechanical improvements, but the modes feel largely the same as last year.
Madden NFL 25
Madden 25 offers a really solid football package for those who missed previous entries. There are a lot of smart improvements to the running and defensive game, and the physics overhaul is noticeable. Madden 25 is a solid game with some much-needed mechanical improvements, but the modes feel largely the same as last year.
Pros
Improved defensive and running game thanks to added Hit Stick depth and combo moves.
The enhanced physics make for smarter and more unpredictable AI.
Addition of two new sets of broadcast announcers lessens the repetition previous entries had.
Lots of fun RPG elements like skill trees and perks that add a layer of strategy to the skill-based gameplay.
Cons
Ultimate Team and Superstar mode are locked behind an EA account and always-online, and Monitization is just as predatory as previous entries.
Storylines were overpromised, consisting of little more than generic question/answer responses with large text on a screen.
Not enough changes to Franchise or Superstar modes.
A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PS4, Xbox One.
Twinfinite is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
EA’s next soccer game is going to be a bit different than most of its countless sports releases. That’s because, unlike FIFA or Madden, its upcoming FC Tactical is a turn-based RPG-like soccer game featuring magical-seeming special moves. Weird, but intriguing!
The Week In Games: What’s Coming Out Beyond Madden NFL 24
Announced on October 11,EA Sports’s FC Tactical is a free-to-play soccer game for mobile devices launching in 2024. But to be clear: This new game isn’t replacing FC Mobile 24 Soccer, the pre-existing EA soccer game on phones that plays like the console version. Instead, FC Tactical is something very different, described by EA in a press release as a turn-based game that will contain over 5,000 authentic players across 10 leagues, including Premier and Ligue 1.
According to EA, matches are “simulated, with turn-based opportunities” where players will choose to defend, attack, pull off “skill moves,” or take shots at scoring a goal. Screenshots reveal an interface that looks a lot like other turn-based strategy games, just instead of tanks or fantasy warriors, there are soccer players in sports arenas.
Screenshot: EA
EA says FC Tactical will feature a variety of modes including online friend matches, ranked play, leagues, and guilds. Folks will have to “train players” to “master high-skill moves” or unlock specific traits. That sounds a lot like this is some weird soccer RPG, and things only get weirder when you look at some of the screenshots featured on the game’s website and Google Play Store page.
Some of the images show soccer players pulling off what I would describe as special attacks, complete with magical-looking visual effects like flames and energy pulses. I don’t expect any of these players are going to be summoning massive monsters to help them score a goal, but who knows?
CEO John Riccitiello has retired from game development software company Unity after possibly its worst month of bad headlines ever. The tech company that’s slowly morphed into an in-game advertising firm announced a confusing and seemingly predatory new set of fees for game makers in September, only to walk the policy back after studios threatened to abandon the Unity engine moving forward.
The Week In Games: What’s Coming Out Beyond Lords Of The Fallen
James M. Whitehurst, former head of the IBM-acquired open source software company Red Hat, will take over from Riccitiello as interim CEO while Unity’s board of directors search for a new long-term replacement. “It’s been a privilege to lead Unity for nearly a decade and serve our employees, customers, developers and partners, all of whom have been instrumental to the Company’s growth,” Riccitiello said in a press release. “I look forward to supporting Unity through this transition and following the Company’s future success.”
Riccitiello joined Unity back in 2014 shortly after leaving Electoronic Arts. He oversaw the game engine company’s shift from one-time licensing fees to an ongoing subscription model, launched the IPO in 2020, and made a series of acquisitions, including the in-app monetization firm IronSource in 2022. When Unity first went public, its stock price was around $68. Today it’s just over $30.
Once synonymous with the explosion of creativity and experimental design in the indie gaming space, Unity is being left by Riccitiello a month after a bungled new monetization strategy rollout burned bridges with tons of game makers. The initial messaging made it sound like game developers might be charged fees every time their game was installed, including retroactively.
A follow-up apology by president and general manager Marc Whitten later clarified that the new terms would only apply beginning in 2024, and laid out much bigger carve-outs for smaller studios whose games don’t hit a certain threshold of income. But for many developers it was too late. Their trust in the company had already been irrevocably shaken. Re-logic, maker of the Steam hit Terraria, pledged $200,000 toward the creation of a Unity competitor, and Slay the Spire dev, Mega Crit, says it will still move to rival game software platform Godot.
Rethinking monetization more aggressively was also one of Riccitiello’s legacies at EA. His seven years at the FIFA (now EA Sports FC) and Battlefield publisher saw it experiment with day-one DLC, microtransactions, and a focus on post-launch content. While there was no week-long crisis moment on the scale of what happened at Unity last month, it’s clear he helped usher in the company’s current live-service era, which many players now feel nickel-and-dimed by. Madden and FIFA’s lootbox modes were both added while he was head of EA, though they didn’t become the billion-dollar windfalls they are today until the tenure of his successor, current CEO Andrew Wilson.
Perhaps nothing summed up Riccitiello’s time at both EA and Unity better than another controvertial incident last year. In an interview with Pocketgamer.biz in July 2022, he called developers who don’t think about monetization early in the process “fucking idiots.” He immediately walked the comments back the next week, calling articles about it “clickbait” that took his comment out of context, but later apologized, saying he should have chosen his words more carefully.
That unforced error came shortly after the company revealed hundreds of layoffs at the same time it was buying IronSource in a $4.4 billion all-stock deal. Six hundred more were laid off at Unity earlier this year. Meanwhile, Riccitiello, in addition to the millions he has in Unity stock, will be kept on salary until April of 2024.
Update 10/11/2023 4:50 p.m. ET:SFGate reports that Riccitiello is set to earn up to $8.4 million through stock options over the next six months. That’s in addition to the roughly $253 million he already holds in current Unity stock.
There’s an obsession with incremental changes and bullet-point features in the sports game scene, one which challenges fan’s ability to take a step back and assess each game as its own standalone title. It’s something I try and address in my own sports reviews on this site, and it’s something I’m taking to its logical conclusion here in this Quixotic attempt to pluck one game out of hundreds and call it the “best”.
Sports games by their nature don’t turn up for each new season as entirely fresh products. The economics of the industry have determined that they re-use the same engine and models for years at a time, which means the difference between them can often be limited to current uniforms, a few new features and some adjustments to ball physics. And those changes are usually influenced as much by fan feedback as they are by the development teams working on them.
So it’s tough looking at say Madden 17 as something entirely separate, since its creation was heavily influenced by the sales and reception of Madden 16, and it will in turn play a big part in how Madden 18 is designed. How do you pick one of those games and say, ok, THIS ONE is the best, when much of what made it great may have been inspired by—or come directly from—an entirely different video game?
Then you have to take into account the way sports games have changed their entire outlook over the last 20 years. In the 90s, series like FIFA and NBA Live were perfectly happy being fast, accessible, almost arcadey. Fast forward to today and advances in technology have turned blockbuster sports games into simulations, each one trying its hardest to replicate the on-field experience as best it can (or, if it can’t, then the broadcast experience instead). This makes direct comparisons between games in long-running series pretty damn hard!
Making matters worse is that each sport is different, with its own set of fans, style of play and culture. What makes the #1 baseball game better than the #1 hockey game? Is football better than basketball?
……Image: FIFA 98
I think I’ve found one way to compare all sports games, though, and as weird as it may sound at first, it’s through the one thing they all have in common. The one thing they’re more fixated upon than anything else, and which in many ways defines sports video games as their own distinct space in video games. And that’s content.
Every sports game is stingy. It’s possibly the most defining thing about the business, and is often the first thing that non-fans will mock. The genre’s business model is built entirely around balancing the need to make gamers happy with the game they just bought, but unhappy enough that they’ll turn around 12 months later and buy an incredibly similar product.
So after lingering over a short list of truly great sports games—Madden 2002, NBA 2K11, Pro Evolution 6, NBA Jam, NFL 2K5—I’ve settled the tie by going with one that wasn’t just a very good sports game in its own right, but one which decided to just say “fuck it” and give fans everything they could have wanted or needed for years to come, all in the one box.
That game is FIFA: Road to World Cup 98, as bizarre but beloved a major sports game as I think we’re ever going to see.
At the time of its release in 1997, it was a damn fine football game. It had very flash polygonal visuals, audio commentary, all the things we’ve long associated as being hallmarks of the FIFA series. But it’s where the game went above and beyond what we expect of a sports game can include, whether at the time or today, that marks it as truly great.
INDOOR FOOTBALL – In addition to regular 11v11 football, FIFA 98 also included an entirely separate 5v5 indoor mode, with its own rules and conditions, like the fact the ball never went out of bounds. It was just as fun as the actual FIFA. Maybe more fun. And while it had actually been introduced in FIFA 97, the fact it stuck around in 98 when there was so much else in the box is one of the things that helped cement this game’s legacy.
AN ACTUAL WORLD CUP – The reason for the game’s longer title was the fact that the development team decided to include, alongside domestic leagues, the 1998 World Cup. Not just the finals in France, but the entire qualifying system as well. That meant over 170 nations and their squads made it into the game, an absolutely ridiculous number that literally represented every football-playing country on Earth at the time (modern FIFA games usually only include a few dozen). You could, if you wanted, play as one of the smallest nations on the planet, take them all the way through qualifying then win the tournament itself, a feat so monumental that after FIFA 98 it would only be seen again in standalone video games specifically made for World Cups.
Image: FIFA 98
CUSTOMISATION: Besides the 170+ national teams, there were almost 200 club sides included in the game as well. And you could customise the lot. Home kits, away kits, even a player’s appearance. I remember spending what must have been weeks tinkering with this, making sure that every major team’s kit matched its actual design, and that player haircuts had been accurately recreated. This wasn’t just useful in 1997, either; people were playing FIFA 98 for years to come because as 1998, then 1999 rolled around, you could just update the kit designs again.
Here’s the most incredible thing about all this: FIFA 98 was so big it made another of EA’s own video games completely pointless. In addition to FIFA 98 (released in 1997), EA Sports had a game in development designed to cash in on the World Cup itself, due for release in early 1998. Simply called World Cup 1998, it had official branding throughout, from the tournament mascot to branded kits (a first for the series). But with only 40 teams, what was the point of buying it it when you could just fire up FIFA 98, edit some kits and enjoy much the same experience?
To get non-FIFA fans up to speed on just how crazy this was, it’s like NBA 2K18 shipping on four blu-rays, or the next MLB game deciding to include the entire Japanese and Korean pro leagues, just for one year, just for the hell of it.
This kind of thing just isn’t supposed to happen with sports games, because it gives fans everything they need to not buy your game the next year. Yet here we have, for one beautiful year, EA sports giving away the keys to the kingdom. Amongst the blur of year-to-year releases, FIFA 98’s largesse looms large like no other sports game’s inclusions ever have.
But it’s not just the excess content that’s helped FIFA 98 endure. Quantity would be nothing without quality, and the game includes several other series favourites, from the humble free kick arrow (still somehow superior to anything EA comes up with these days) to the ability to slide tackle a goalkeeper and get instantly sent off, which despite its punishment ranks as one of the most cathartic moves in all of video games.
Then there’s the matter of the game’s soundtrack, beginning with its intro, perhaps the most iconic in sports game history:
Don’t let Blur’s cameo overshadow the game’s real musical hook, though, which is the fact much of the menu music was provided by The Crystal Method:
Sports games using popular music is nothing new today, but in 1997 it was a coup for FIFA (for reference, check out FIFA 97’s tragic attempts at hip-hop and rock). Indeed, you could trace the series’ current place on the pop culture landscape back to FIFA 98 and its soundtrack, which dared to suggest that, hey, maybe these sports video games can be cool.
In a world where sports games are and always have been seen as disposable, FIFA 98 stands apart. By including so many teams across such a breadth of competition, and allowing for such a degree of customisation, people were able to dig in and play it not just throughout 1997, but well into the next few years as well.
Even today, when the FIFA series is known as much for its licensing as it is its football and has over 20 years of experience under its belt, you’ll find fans still talking about FIFA 98 in reverent tones. Amazing what some decent music, tiny teams and the ability to let try and murder a goalkeeper will do to a fanbase…
The Bests are Kotaku’s picks for the best things on (or off) the internet.
La Liga, Spain’s top flight of professional football and home to some of the world’s biggest clubs—like Barcelona and Real Madrid—has signed a new sponsorship deal that sees its previous branding (“La Liga Santander”) swapped out, with the league now to be known as LALIGA EA SPORTS.
Which is all well and good for everyone involved, I’m sure hands have been shaken and money exchanged, but this isn’t a business press release website. I don’t really care what the top flight is called, and EA Sports have been sponsoring big european football leagues for years in one way or another (they’ve got multiple deals with the Premier League, for example, including appearing on referee’s uniforms).
No, I’m here to talk to you about the second division’s rebrand. Known either as La Liga 2 or Segunda División, depending on where you’re from, it’ll now be called (again, their caps, not mine) LALIGA HYPERMOTION.
Hypermotion, for those who haven’t had to read the bullet points of sports game press releases for the past few years, is a system EA cooked up to try and sell FIFA where they combined 11v11 motion capture with machine learning to try and improve the physics and animation of the players in the game.
That’s what a whole league is now named after. Not a video game company, not even a video game, just a physics and animation system designed for a single video game series where the benefits it brings are negligible at best (it’s mostly just empty PR calories, FIFA hasn’t fundamentally changed the way it plays or looks for years).
Of course nobody on the streets will actually call it that, everyone will still just call it La Liga 2 or whatever they’ve been calling it forever, but still. I’m very much looking forward to EA expanding these types of sponsorships, when next season’s Championship will be renamed to THE FROSTBITE LEAGUE.
EA Sports and Nike announced yesterday that, at some point in the “future”, games like FIFA and Madden will feature integration with .Swoosh, which Nike describes as its “new digital community experience”.
Street Fighter 6 Has The Best Training Mode I’ve Ever Seen
Despite this, and a wider public reaction to the concept that landed somewhere between ambivalence and condemnation, there are still some companies willing to stick it out. Partly because they’ve got one eye on the future, and also maybe because they signed a bunch of contracts in 2021 and now have to see them through.
Nike Virtual Studios and EA SPORTS are today announcing a new partnership aimed at enhancing and personalizing the virtual sports experience for fans all over the world. This collaboration brings together two of the biggest names in sport and entertainment and will lead to all new ways for members of .SWOOSH, Nike’s new digital community experience, and EA SPORTS fans to express their personal style through play.
What’s funniest about the announcement, perhaps, is that even Nike and EA are embarrassed by (or intentionally obfuscating, you pick!) the truth, which is why you won’t find mention of the term NFT in the news, or even a reference to Web3. Instead EA simply says the partnership will make “.SWOOSH virtual creations available allowing members and players unique new opportunities for self-expression and creativity through sport and style.”
EA Sports games offer that already, of course, sometimes in the form of free unlocks, others that you have to pay for using in-game (or real-world) currency.
You can hear someone tell you Tom Brady’s age (45!) and it doesn’t really hit you, because the guy still looks pretty fit and healthy. To fully grasp the length of Brady’s tenure on this Earth, then, you need to realise that the man has appeared in a video game for the PlayStation. Like, the original PlayStation.
Brady, born in 1977, was drafted by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft—as the 199th pick—and spent his first season in the league as a fourth-string QB. He was so far down the NFL pecking order, in fact, that for his first appearance in Madden—Madden 01, which not only released on the PS1 but also the Nintendo 64—he wasn’t even named, he was just listed on the Patriots depth chart as “QB #12″.
A year later, having moved up to the backup spot, he took over from the injured Drew Bledsoe, led the Patriots to a Super Bowl victory and the rest is history. Brady retires as the statistical leader in almost every category that matters for a QB, from passing yards to passing attempts to TD passes, while also leading the league in ball deflation controversies, crypto scam endorsements and weird ways to kiss your kid on the mouth.
To celebrate his career—or, for many more of you, to celebrate his retirement, announced today—I’ve put together this slideshow showing his video game career, from those early days on the PS1 through to the NFL 2K series, Madden and some other stops in between. It won’t be every game from every year, that would be boring—and for recent Madden games incredibly repetitive—but still, it’ll be a nice little walk down memory lane. Unless you remember playing any of these first few games, in which case I’m sorry for reminding you how old you are.
