Fifa 09 Clubs - EA Canada Rocks

Q: What is FIFA 09 Clubs?

A: FIFA 09 Clubs is a mode designed for PLAYSTATION 3 and XBOX 360 that enables gamers to form or join user-controlled ‘clubs’. These clubs are ranked within divisions based on total points. Clubs will be relegated and promoted within divisions based on their points. If a club has more points than the second best club in their division and more points than the last club in the division above, they will move up a division and send the last placed squad down a division.

Q: How many players can you recruit to your club?

A: FIFA 09 Clubs supports up to 50 players in each club. However, only ten players can play for the team during a match.

Q: Who selects the team each game?

A: The Club Manager can change the club’s team at any point. The team selected will not impact the playing field, since all teams and their players will be set to the same attribute levels. The outcome of the match will be based on the performance of the players on your team.

Q: Who’s going to want to play left-back?

A: There are a lot of people who appreciate the importance of defense on a football team as well as midfield and attack. We hope that the kind of guys who are very good on defense and very disciplined on defense will become a commodity that teams will want to play with and suddenly they will become very valuable. We envision a landscape where teams try to recruit the best players at each position to build their teams into the best in the world. If you want a good buzz in a 10 vs. 10 match you might not necessarily be involved in the action all of the time but for the shorter moments that a real footballer would be in a football match it takes on a whole different level of stress and excitement. When you get your touches at left back, for example, you know you can’t fail because you will be letting down nine human players on your team if you make a mistake. Every interaction takes on an exponentially greater significance. Instead of thinking as an individual you have to play and react as a team.

Q: Will there be a fixed schedule? How will consumers schedule a game?

A: No, there is no fixed schedule. Matches can be held at any time. When there are enough players ready to play (minimum of 3) then they will be matched up against another club for competitive play.

Q: How can you recruit players to your club?

A: Managers can scout players based on position, rating, wins, losses and games played. Other detailed information can be reviewed such as shots on goal, passing, tackles, cards, fouls and offsides. When a manager sees a player that fits his or her requirements, they can invite them to join their club.

Q: How have you improved the online play?

A: The framework we established with FIFA 08 Be A Pro: Online Team Play (5 vs 5) is sound and supports 10 vs. 10. The challenge for us is to make sure those rare occasions where the game might go out of sync are eradicated. When you have one console versus one console it happens infrequently. When you have 5 versus 5 the frequency is suddenly significantly more because now you have 10 consoles rather than two. When you look at 20 consoles connected online to each other suddenly the stability of the game and the rareness of the occasions when the game goes out of sync become more manifest so we have really needed to work hard on those issues. We have daily 10 vs 10 sessions in the studio and the game is very stable.