Fifa 22 – a lifestyle game

But maybe it also shows where the Fifa developers are focusing. It seems less important to EA when the soccer simulation is playfully developed than when it captures and replicates the lifestyle of soccer stars. Maybe Fifa should also be the lifestyle product itself. Another example: from the intro of career mode, the player visits the male supplier of Paris Saint-Germain and is invited to choose an outfit for his budding professional. Speaking of career mode: in Fifa 22, players can create their own football club for the first time and even color the stadium seat shells to their liking. If you want to take a single professional to the top of the world, you can give them individual skills, like in a role-playing game. In the popular online mode Ultimate Team, the main changes are the structure of the competitions.

EA Sports is sticking to its controversial collectible card principle, in which players have to spend hundreds or even thousands of euros in order to create realistic chances of a top-tier squad with Messis and Ronaldos. No wonder: According to its own statements, the group made nearly 30% of its sales in 2020 with in-game purchases at Fifa and Co – around US $ 1.6 billion.

Fifa 22 is certainly not a gameplay revolution. In all likelihood, the reviews will be even worse this year than for Fifa 17-21. And rightly so.