EA SPORTS FIFA 17 is officially out and in stores, meaning that soccer fans across the country can finally sleep soundly at night. This latest FIFA edition marks the most complete and realistic release in the series’ history. And with huge additions like "The Journey" and completely rewritten features, FIFA 17 promises to offer the soccer gamer what has been missing in previous editions.
Monday night, I had the opportunity to chat with Matt Prior, EA SPORTS’ creative director for FIFA 17. Here's our conversation, in which we touched on the underlying creative process behind FIFA 17, what it means to make a game primarily for a next-gen console, the improvements to the women’s side of the game, and what specifically sets this edition apart from FIFAs past. Give it a read, and let me know if you have any lingering questions for Mr. Prior. (And go here to read our full look at the game.)
MLSsoccer.com: There are lots of upgrades and improvements in FIFA 17 compared to past editions. On which of these did EA SPORTS work the hardest?
Matt Prior: The one that has obviously made the biggest impact is "The Journey." It’s a brand new mode, it’s something that we’ve never done before in FIFA, and it brings a side of football that there’s a huge appetite for with the advent of social media, those kinds of things. It’s a real window into the lives of players besides just the 90 minutes they spend on the pitch. So, it’s a new facet of football that we’ve always wanted to bring to FIFA but we never really could in the past.
It’s kind of a game within a game. [The main character in "the Journey"] has his own social media account; he can make the FUT team of the week, which is him making a game mode, within the game. Yeah, it’s crazy, your head will explode with all the layers.
One thing I was happy to have noticed was not only the continuation of, but actually improvements made to the women’s side of the game, too. What inspired you to do that?
The women’s game is an important side of the game and it will continue to be. It will continue to grow, and we’ll continue to keep it in the game. It was a big decision to put it in, something we’re very proud of doing. So, as FIFA evolves, the women’s side of the game will evolve. All the gameplay improvements, those will contribute to the women’s side of the game as well. It’s an important side of the game that we’ll continue to improve.
I have to ask about the creative process behind deciding to make FIFA 17 somewhat of a departure from FIFA 16. There were a lot of improvements in that edition, but it didn’t feel different, like FIFA 17 does. What made EA SPORTS decide to make this the year to go in a different direction?
One of the biggest decisions in regard to that was moving over to the new game engine. We moved over to an engine called Frostbite, which drives the game, to use a car analogy. That blew the creative shutters off in many ways, particularly with "The Journey." It allowed us to create environments that before, we could have done, but it would have taken so long that it wouldn’t have been practical. The locker room, the apartment, the airplane, all that kind of stuff is really doable this year because of the move over to Frostbite.
FIFA 15 and 16 were designed primarily with the Xbox 360 and PS3 still in mind, and were ported to the next-gen consoles. With FIFA 17 being primarily designed for these next-gen consoles like the Xbox One and PS4, were you able to hit the sweet spot when it comes to the capabilities of these consoles? How close are you to maximizing this?
We’ve not maximized it. There are always ways to optimize it, ways you can try to squeeze as much as you can out of the console. We’ve done a great job in the past of actually focusing on the transition to the new platforms and how we can utilize what we’ve built on from the older consoles. So in a lot of ways we do build from the ground up with the new console in mind, and that ability and that way of thinking has really kept us at the top of our game, so we’ll continue to do that. We never rest on our laurels.
The question that always gets asked is, "What’s next? Have you finished?" We’ve literally got a laundry list of ideas. We’ll never create a game we’re 100 percdent satisfied with, because we’ve always got ideas to put in. So, no, there’s always ways we need to improve. I guess when we get to a level where you can not discern the game from the real thing, side by side with our game, we’ll say, "Okay, I guess we’ve taken it as far as we’ve got to."
Take me outside "The Journey" a little bit. That’s one game mode, a single player game mode, but you know how FIFA gets played. It’s kids at parties, multiplayer, etc. What is the gameplay improvement in this edition that is going to make those people the happiest?
It’s a suite of features really. Like I said, it’s been a big year for us throughout the gameplay. If I had to pick one, maybe the attacking improvements, and also the Active Intelligence system, which is basically the way your teammates move, look for space -- they’re much more intelligent. What that does is create a more fluid game, much more opportunity. So if you compare it with last year, I think it’s a much more fun and exciting game. The set piece rewrite, the physical overhaul, a lot of the main systems are different, so it’s a much better game this year.
