EA’s newest soccer simulator, FIFA 22, has been officially revealed, and it looks like the company is putting new technology to work for the current-gen versions of the game, which will unlock a lot of new potential for the soccer franchise. Although it’s unlikely that FIFA 22 will be a gigantic leap for the franchise, it still looks like EA is trying to use the new hardware to do a lot more with the series and continue to refine the gameplay.
FIFA has already been in the news quite a lot this year ahead of this reveal. EA found itself in deep water after it was alleged that the publisher was trying to aggressively push FIFA loot boxes on players. The company denied these allegations, but many still raise the question of whether or not the series is handling its monetization in a truly ethical way, regardless of how aggressively it’s being pushed. Nevertheless, this bad press has not stopped Fifa from returning later this year in full force.
FIFA 22 has been revealed by EA (via IGN) and although there’s no raw gameplay in the initial trailer, it’s likely that more will be more to show at EA Play later this month. On Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and Google Stadia, the game will utilize EA’s new HyperMotion Technology and proprietary machine learning to “deliver the most realistic, fluid and responsive football experience.” FIFA 22 will release on October 1, 2021 and feature Paris Saint-Germain’s striker Kylian Mbappé as its cover athlete.
EA Sports seems to be setting up for a major sports game comeback, as it not only continues to try and refine its already well-known franchises, like FIFA, but expands with new ones. EA has been investing in a handful of developers to add new annualized sports franchises and even revive old ones. With F1, College Football, and a new baseball franchise on the way, EA has set itself up to be one of the most valuable sports game publishers out there.
Whether or not FIFA 22 will radically shake-up the franchise remains to be seen, but it seems like it’ll be yet another entry that takes small steps in improving the series. It’s unclear if the new animations provided by the HyperMotion Technology will truly make the game more responsive, but it’s still exciting for fans of the franchise who want the most immersive sports game experience they can get. EA has a lot of valuable tech it can leverage, as demonstrated by the stolen source code for FIFA 21, so it’ll likely be a flashy technical showcase on the new consoles. It’s unclear if some of this tech will appear in other franchises or if it’ll be exclusive to FIFA 22, but there’s a chance that it could help inform these other upcoming sports games on a technical level.
