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EA names Bruins' Bergeron as NHL 15 cover athlete
Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron was named the cover athlete of NHL 15 this week, EA Sports announced. Bergeron's claim to the front of the box was earned after winning a cover vote that started back in early May and eventually garnered 10 million total votes from fans. Bergeron defeated Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban in the contest's final round. The vote, in which fans were able to participate by using hashtags on Twitter, drew ire from the community when it was revealed that small-print language in the contest's terms allowed EA and the NHL to pick an athlete other than the winner of the vote. EA told SB Nation last month that the language in the terms is standard for contests like the NHL 15 vote and used only to protect "the integrity of the fan vote" from those that might auto-generate votes for their favorite player. NHL 15 will launch September 9 for Xbox One, PS4, PS3 and Xbox 360. While the game will include some flashy new features for the next-gen consoles, those versions will not receive the 94 Anniversary mode. [Image: EA Sports]
NHL 15 missing '94 Anniversary mode' on Xbox One, PS4
The '94 Anniversary Mode' featured in EA's NHL 14 will return in the sports title's next installment, but not on the newest generation of consoles. NHL 14's '94 Anniversary Mode' re-envisioned the classic speedy gameplay of the EA Sports hit NHL '94, presenting matches in the game's modern engine. Speaking with Joystiq, EA Canada Producer Sean Ramjagsingh confirmed the bonus mode would not make the transition to the Xbox One and PS4 versions of NHL 15, but would return on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
FIFA 15 kicks off September 23
EA's next soccer sim FIFA 15 will hit store shelves in North America September 23, with a European release following on September 26. The game will launch across the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms. The PC version of the game will use the publisher's Ignite Engine, unlike FIFA 14. Those that pre-order the game's Ultimate Team Edition will receive roughly $40, (£30) in FIFA Ultimate Team goods. That includes items and game celebrations from the publisher's catalog of digital perks, EA Sports Football Club. [Image: EA Sports]
FIFA 15 PC engine, features on par with consoles
The PC version of the next entry in EA Sports' soccer series, FIFA 15, will be powered by the publisher's Ignite Engine. The engine was announced for next-gen versions of EA's sports games just over one year ago at Microsoft's pre-E3 2013 Xbox One event, though it was left out of FIFA 14's PC version. The tech is reportedly used by the publisher to enhance the intelligence and motion of athletes in its games thanks to "four times more calculations per second" than past efforts. The results were apparent in games like FIFA 14 (seen above) and Madden 25 on PS4 and Xbox One, and now it seems PC devotees will get a version of FIFA that "will include all the same core features" on Sony and Microsoft's latest consoles. EA will have more news on FIFA 15 at its E3 2014 press event on Monday, June 9. Head past the break for the minimum and recommended PC specs for the game.
NHL 15 checks first screenshot, pre-order bonuses
EA Sports offered a first still image of the next entry in its hockey series today, NHL 15, spotlighting San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton in striking detail. The game was announced near the beginning of May as the first in the series for next-gen systems, and will include character models with three layers that behave independently: the athlete's body, their equipment and their jerseys. Thornton's jersey certainly seems to be wrapping well to his pads in the screenshot. EA also recently announced the game's retailer-specific pre-order bonuses. Those heavily invested in the game's Ultimate Team mode will want to pre-order their copy through either EB Games or GameStop, as they will receive $24 in Hockey Ultimate Team gold-level card packs, amounting to one pack per week for 24 weeks. All other retailers will include a similar offer, though limited to $15 in Ultimate Team card packs instead. NHL 15 will launch this fall for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3. [Image: EA Sports]
PSA: FIFA 14's World Cup update delayed until tomorrow
For those sitting idly by their consoles, waiting for FIFA 14's Ultimate Team World Cup update, expect it to arrive tomorrow, according to an update on EA's official forums. The update adds a special World Cup mode within FIFA Ultimate Team, the series' card-collecting, squad-building mode. It also offers an offline World Cup kick-off game option for those playing on PS4 or Xbox One, which allows players to use the 32 national teams participating in the tournament this summer. While running its final phase of testing, the developer "encountered unforeseen issues that would affect all users who downloaded the update," and opted to "address them first before release." It anticipated that the World Cup kick-off mode will likely launch "earlier in the day." [Image: EA Sports]
FIFA 14 jets to Brazil with Ultimate Team World Cup mode on May 29
EA Sports announced a free update for FIFA 14 that adds a unique World Cup tournament mode to Ultimate Team, slated to arrive on May 29. The mode offers a separate card-collecting excursion within FIFA 14's Ultimate Team mode in which players gather their World Cup squad to participate in both the online and single-player global tournament. While players won't be able to transfer their current set of Ultimate Team cards to the World Cup mode, all card packs purchased within the tournament set grant players a separate gold-level card pack for their usual FIFA 14 Ultimate Teams. Chemistry for players' World Cup teams is boosted within the mode by each athlete's nationality and confederation affiliation. Additionally, Xbox One and PS4 players will receive an offline FIFA World Cup kick-off mode to play with the 32 national teams participating in the tournament this summer. The Ultimate Team add-on for FIFA 14 is the only way for players to enjoy the World Cup with the correct national team kits, crests and the Estadio do Marcana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on PC and next-gen consoles. EA Sports' other effort to celebrate the global sporting event was with 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, which launched in April for Xbox 360 and PS3. [Image: EA Sports]
EA Sports FIFA World plays footsie with PC in open beta
EA Sports has kicked off the open beta of EA Sports FIFA World, the publisher's free-to-play soccer game for PC. The PC version of the popular sports brand went through four closed beta phases and one limited open beta before launching globally. The game includes familiar Seasons and Ultimate Team modes as well as 600 clubs from 30 licensed leagues. EA Sports FIFA World uses three different methods of control: keyboard, mouse and gamepad. It also offers access to the Football Club social hub, in-game rewards for gameplay accomplishments and weekly featured tournaments for Ultimate Team, erm, teams. It requires a persistent Internet connection and an Origin account to play, though EA claims the game was "built to be enjoyed on average spec laptop computer or desktop personal computers." [Image: EA Sports]
Become the Ultimate Fighter in EA Sports UFC's career mode
EA dished out some details today on EA Sports UFC's career mode, which will drop created fighters into the game's version of the UFC's popular reality TV series, The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). Participating in the TUF tournament lands players on a team coached by a real-life fighter, training and battling to earn evolution and experience points to boost their combatant's physical skills and unlock special abilities. The game's career mode also features popularity and longevity gauges, the former impacting the attention players receive from sponsors and other fighters, who send players video messages in the game. So long as championship hopefuls fight smart and don't take too many hard hits in their careers, their longevity meter will stay steady enough to grant them lengthy stays in the UFC. EA Sports UFC will enter the octagon on June 17 for Xbox One and PS4 and includes Bruce Lee as an unlockable fighter. [Image: EA Sports]
EA Sports UFC stars Bruce Lee, fists get furious in June
EA Sports UFC's long-teased mystery fighter is Bruce Lee, and the late great martial artist is unlockable to all players who beat the career mode on pro difficulty or higher. EA also revealed the Enter the Dragon star enters the ring on June 17, when the Xbox One and PS4 game body slams onto retail shelves in North America. Europe joins the fight on June 19, and the UK specifically a day later on June 20. "It has always been part of our vision to have Bruce Lee, the most iconic martial artist of all time, in the first ever EA Sports UFC," said Creative Director Brian Hayes. "The team is very excited and tremendously honored to have the privilege of bringing Bruce Lee to life in our game. We've been working closely with the Bruce Lee team to ensure we represent the legend with as much visual and gameplay fidelity as possible." When you unlock Lee, you can play as him in the Flyweight, Batnamweight, Featherweight, and Lightweight divisions. If you want your fists of fury with no delay, the good news is if you pre-order the MMA fighter, he's available as a "Day One" unlock. [Image: EA]
EA CEO: Publisher may skip a year between future UFC games
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson recently contemplated a bi-annual release schedule for future MMA games that follow EA Sports UFC, which is slated to launch on Xbox One and PS4 this year. In an interview with CNN's Fortune Tech, Wilson described the frequency of some games and the "appetite" players have for them, noting that the UFC brand "feels like it's in that every-other-year mix" without committing to that release schedule as a guaranteed development plan. "We get a new GTA game every four or five years, but there is an immense appetite. What we're looking at right now is how long is it going to take us to build a truly innovative game in that genre, and when do we think gamers are going to be ready for that next one," Wilson said. EA announced the acquisition of the UFC license at E3 2012 following the demise of THQ, which published three UFC games. THQ's crack at the series began with annual releases in UFC 2009: Undisputed and UFC Undisputed 2010 prior to a two-year absence in the series. THQ's final game, UFC Undisputed 3, reportedly failed to "break even" at two million units sold as of June 2012. "Do I think that UFC would be an every year game? I don't know," Wilson said. "It feels like it's in that every-other-year mix, but in all honesty we haven't made that decision yet. That really comes down to how long it's going to take to make a great game and when do we think the audience is ready." EA Canada's Fight Night team is behind EA Sports UFC's development, led by creative director and Fight Night Round 4 and Fight Night Champion gameplay designer Brian Hayes. Wilson previously noted that the Fight Night series is "on hold" while the developer works on EA Sports UFC. [Image: EA Sports]
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil trailer is proud to be from (nation of origin)
This gameplay trailer for 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil bleeds red, blue, green, white, orange, yellow and potentially other national colors we missed. The soccer game that celebrates the global sporting event launches April 15 for Xbox 360 and PS3, and includes six core modes.
Captain your country in 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil
EA's quadrennial FIFA World Cup sub-series comes around as often as the global sporting event does, but this year's version will still include some familiar modes. EA Sports announced six core modes for 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil this week, each celebrating the cherished soccer event in different ways. First up is the game's Road to the FIFA World Cup mode, which allows players to take one of the 203 international teams through the World Cup competition starting in the qualifying rounds. That's separate from the game's "authentic" 2014 FIFA World Cup mode, which begins with the teams that qualified for the group stages and can be played online or locally. The game also includes the Road to Rio de Janeiro mode, which has players competing online at each of the 12 Brazilian World Cup venues, similar to FIFA 14's Online Seasons mode. 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil also includes two historic modes: Story of Finals follows this summer's competition and issues challenges based on the results of each real-life match while Story of Qualifying features over 60 matches from the two-and-a-half year qualifying cycle for the upcoming World Cup event. The latter mode also features challenges specific to the outcomes of those historic games as well, such as scoring two goals as a 10-man France team against Spain in 11 minutes to qualify for the event. Lastly, players will be able to guide an individual athlete, either real or created, through the World Cup process in Captain Your Country mode. While a similar mode from 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa allowed players to use their created footballers from FIFA 10 in the mode, it's unclear if 2014 FIFA World Cup maintains the same compatibility with FIFA 14. The game will also feature standard online and local friendly matches in addition to 50 new skill games. 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil launches April 15 in North America and April 17 in Europe on Xbox 360 and PS3. [Image: EA Sports]
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil announced for Xbox 360, PS3 in April [Update: Not next-gen]
EA announced a new game to accompany this summer's World Cup soccer event: 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. The game will arrive on April 15 in North America and April 17 in Europe for Xbox 360 and PS3. Pre-order bonuses for the game include special All-Star and Classic XI teams, though no price was given for the game and its four editions. The next entry in EA's World Cup series will uses licenses that span 203 national teams, 7,469 athletes, 19 officially-licensed managers and 21 new stadiums, which will include all 12 stadiums from Brazil in which the global event will take place. EA said that 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will improve on the excellent FIFA 14 with one hundred new animations and other buzzword-like locomotion features such as Explosive Movement and World Class Control. It will also include an offline tournament mode, Road to the FIFA World Cup, as well as the new online mode Road to Rio de Janeiro, which has players "win their way across a map of Brazil's 12 host cities in licensed and authentic stadiums." EA CFO Blake Jorgensen was pretty clear in including the next FIFA World Cup game in the publisher's list of games upcoming next-gen games during its Q2 2014 earnings call in late October 2013. We've asked EA if 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will come to PS4 and Xbox One, and will update as we learn more. Update: An EA representative tells Joystiq that the game is "coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PS3 as a fully featured console game. There will not be a World Cup full console game for the new generation of consoles." To make up for it, the publisher plans to issue "a range of engaging content within FIFA Ultimate Team so that fans on the new generation of consoles can experience the World Cup in fun and unique ways."
Job listings point to next-gen open world Star Wars game
Recent job listings posted by Electronic Arts indicate that an open-world Star Wars game is in development. One of the listings, seeking an animation director for EA Canada, is for "a major new next gen open world action game" in the beloved sci-fi property. The same description is listed for an executive producer position and a lead combat designer position at the studio, which was linked to the Star Wars property by a former recruiter for the publisher on Twitter. The concept of an open-world Star Wars game isn't new, as Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios nearly signed with LucasArts to develop one sometime between 2005 and 2009. Likewise, LucasArts' Star Wars 1313 was reportedly being developed as an open-world game before Disney closed the developer and halted the game's development in April. EA obtained the exclusive rights to develop and publish Star Wars games in May, later announcing a new DICE-developed Star Wars: Battlefront game at E3, expected to arrive in mid-2015. The publisher also recently claimed that it will not pursue any games based on the new movies in the series.
New FIFA World Cup game in development for Xbox One and PS4
During yesterday's investor call to discuss EA's second quarter of fiscal 2014 financial results, CEO Andrew Wilson noted that the publisher is working on a new FIFA World Cup expansion game. Additionally, CFO Blake Jorgensen brought up FIFA World Cup again when asked about next-gen games in development, indicating that the game will appear on Xbox One and PS4. It is unknown if the game will also be developed for current generation systems. "In the last two weeks, you've also seen several announcements about our product slate for the remainder of this year and into FY15," Wilson said. "We are refining our focus on our biggest brands and great new IP in development, including The Sims 4, EA Sports UFC, FIFA World Cup and Dragon Age: Inquisition." EA Sports traditionally launches a new World Cup-branded game in line with the global sporting event, which occurs every four years. The last game in the series was 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, which launched in April 2010. Given that the next World Cup is scheduled to begin in June 2014 in Brazil, a new entry in the sub-series is hardly surprising. The publisher's next-gen efforts will not include Tiger Woods in its future golf games, and Jorgensen also noted that Titanfall will be exclusive to Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC "for the life of the title" during the call. EA will launch the next-gen version of FIFA 14 along with the new consoles this coming month.
FIFA's digital revenue tops $145 million in first half of fiscal 2014
EA's FIFA series has generated over $145 million in digital net revenue in the first half of fiscal 2014, a period that stretched from April 1, 2013 through September 30, 2013. The news came from EA's Q2 2014 earnings report, and was derived on a non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) basis. EA reported that FIFA's digital revenue saw an increase of 25 percent over the first half of fiscal 2013. The publisher reported $70 million in digital revenue from FIFA 13 in the first quarter of 2013. FIFA 14 launched at the end of September and features legendary soccer players in its popular Ultimate Team mode on Microsoft consoles, which accounts for a chunk of its digital revenue sales.
Next-gen FIFA 14 trailer is alive
This trailer for FIFA 14, set to Chase & Status' song "Alive," shows footage from the PS4 and Xbox One version of the soccer sim. The game will launch alongside each console in November.
EA addressing FIFA 14 balance issues in future update
EA recently acknowledged a few gameplay issues for FIFA 14 in an official forum post as items being considered for a future update. The three pieces of feedback from players regarding the soccer sim's on-field gameplay the developer will look to tweak are the reported over-effectiveness of goals scored on headers from crossed balls and corner kicks, overpowered finesse shots as well as the accuracy of lofted through-balls. It didn't list a specific timeline for when the game would be patched. EA also acknowledged continued reports of freezing during the game, an issue we encountered a few times during our review process, and will "continue to investigate these reports internally." The game's day-one patch addressed stability issues in FIFA 14's Skill Games and Creation Centre modes.
FIFA 14 review: Plateau
Apparently following an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" methodology, the FIFA team hasn't introduced any large, game-changing features this year. Heading into the next console generation, this is very much a "tune-up" year in regards to FIFA 14, and for good reason: It's pretty hard to top EA Canada's efforts with the FIFA series in recent years. Each iteration of the soccer sim has gradually tapered off its impactful improvements, with the introduction of physics in FIFA 12 and then First Touch Control in FIFA 13. Continuing the trend, the biggest on-field changes in FIFA 14 revolve around one of the first things players will notice: The game feels a bit slower. The fact is, the game's actual speed may not be any slower than before, but the continual tweaking of passing and dribbling mechanics has lead to FIFA 14 becoming a much more methodical game than before. Your team's progressions seem to take a little longer since the defense plays your attackers tighter, resulting in passing lanes that are a tad harder to find. The dribbling mechanics added in FIFA 13 have been altered – no longer requiring players to hold the left trigger – and effectively performing some of the fun combinations from last year is more difficult and confusing now.
