Electronic Arts Goes Immersive in new FIFA Game

There’s no doubt that soccer is the most popular game in the world. The makers of its FIFA equivalent video game are going all-in on new immersive technology to make their version as real as the action of your favorite side on the pitch.The company is longtime powerhouse Electronica Arts (EA) which recently shared the trailer for FIFA ‘22 for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, to be released on October 1, 2021.

Unleashing HyperMotion Tech

The game’s trailer, which is a long one at nearly 4 minutes, shows off the next-level engineering that has allowed its makers to use real-time motion analysis and capture to make the players on the screen look, move, and feel as close to the real-thing as possible. The ultimate goal of it is to give the player as much immersion into the game as possible, whether they are practicing, getting a locker room pep talk, and of course, battling it out on the pitch against their arch rivals. This has been achieved by using sensors to record millions of frames of action from real players performing on a real pitch in real matches, with every single maneuver analyzed and recorded so that it can be re-enacted with the controller of the player’s choice This was done using Xsens motion-capture suits on the live players.

FIFA ‘22 is the first game designed completely for the next-generation experience, not just given an add-on to let players see what the future might look like.In most games, a handful of players are chosen to head for the recording studio and wear mo-cap technology to go through the motions of traditional football moves like shooting, passing, dribbling, and tackling. This game has taken an entirely new approach, putting sensors on all players during 11-on-11 true life matches, right down to the arguing between teammates and wiping sweat off one’s brow. All of that in-game motion capture wasn’t just to make things look pretty, however. The data was analyzed and parsed with machine learning (ML) to enhance the artificial intelligence (AI) of all computer-generated players to give the best simulations of offensive and defensive strategies in the history of FIFA’s video game series. It’s a marked improvement over basic flaws in the game that would see players execute tackles from way down field and others get tangled together in impossible combinations on air battles for free kicks.

EA’s History of Innovation 

EA and EA Sports have a remarkable endurance in the video game world, rapidly approaching their 40th anniversary after being founded in San Mateo, California, in 1982. Its landmark achievements over the years have included The Sims, Medal of Honor, Mass Effect, and EA Sports titles including FIFA, NBA Live, Madden NFL, and NHL Hockey. First introduced in 1991, EA Sports ha been ranked as one of the most valuable sports brands in the world by Forbes Magazine, with a net value pushing $1 billion.