STACK NZ Sep #77

FEATURE GAMES

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

5 Facts About The Premier League You Didn’t Know (Probably)

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

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.

This is something very unique that they’ve never seen before in FIFA

GAMES

you’ve got a window on these guys’ personal life like never before, and this is something we think our

During the 2015/16 season, Jamie Vardy

became the first player in Premier League history to score in 11 consecutive 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 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 and new Manchester United prodigy Marcus Rashford are obvious, and

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.

• FIFA 17 is out Sept 29

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.”

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