Interview - 2014 FIFA World Cup developer chat

We recently had the chance to go hands-on with 2014 FIFA World Cup, and you can check out what we thought in our preview. We also got to sit down with developer Matt Prior and ask him some of the important questions regarding the game. Take a look at what he had to say below.

So the obvious question first, why release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and not the new consoles?

We have a limited number of dev resources that we can put towards the World Cup game, and for us to do that properly and get it to as many people as we could in a feature-rich version is Xbox 360 and PS3. They're by far the most popular consoles right now. Over time that will change, but right now their global penetration is way more than Gen 4. On top of that another area that was important for us was the Brazil market, where Gen 4 penetration is zero. So it was important for us to get to as many people as possible and get people in the host nation to play it.

Will the PS4/Xbox One be getting any World Cup content? 

There will be World Cup content around Ultimate Team which will be announced soon, I'm not sure of the exact date but that will be announced soon.

And what made you go down the route of having a standalone World Cup release opposed to DLC?

A couple of reasons on that. One, about 60% of our users are brand new, or they don't buy FIFA they just want to play the World Cup every four years. So for those people, the more casual guys, doing it as DLC is a big barrier because they can't walk through the shop and pick it up, they have to buy FIFA, then they have to go home and download the DLC. So for those guys it's, not only a barrier, but it's actually more expensive.

The other thing is that DLC limits us in terms of what we can do in terms of content and size. We saw this in some of the negativity for [the Euro 2012 expansion], that's basically what we could do. We can't update AI. We can't have every national side in the world. We can't have the radio shows. All the new stadiums, we couldn't have those. This is a feature-rich game with 10 modes, we couldn't do even close to that with DLC. And the World Cup is a massive event, one of the world's biggest sporting events, so to really do it justice as a massive event, we really do have to do it as a full priced package to bring as much content as we can.

And this will be a full priced game? 

Yes.

What are the significant gameplay upgrades when it comes to the action on the pitch?

A key for us is making sure any FIFA 14 users see a noticable difference in the way it plays. That's a motivation for them to purchase, because we will be the best football game out there. We've taken FIFA 14 and improved it with a bunch more months of improvement. We've tuned it, and a lot of it was based on feedback from the FIFA 14 communities, so some people felt FIFA 14 was a little bit laggy in terms of response. So that's where explosive player movement comes from, where players accelerate faster, turn faster, just have a better response time.

Similarly pinpoint passing, so the ability to get the ball to your player's feet faster, and less of the uncontrolled trapping error that bounces off, it's still there but it's been toned down. Those are the features that really make for tighter gameplay. And on top of that a whole new bunch of features, over a hundred new animations in there, over the back headers, side flicks, all of that contributes to a very different experience.

And then features like set-piece tactics where you can control your teammates. And penalty kick animations with the goalkeepers, things like that. More so than ever on an event title we've improved the gameplay.

Would you say this World Cup version is catching up with the next-generation version in terms of the new animations being added?

Well we have a luxury in that we didn't do an Ultimate Team, and there's a lot of reasons for that, but one of those is that it takes up certain resources. I don't want to get too technical here, but removing that frees up memory. What that allows us to do is add more to the gameplay without removing. Ultimately the Gen 3 consoles are a lot less powerful than Gen 4, so games on those consoles will never be able to catch up because the new consoles are much more powerful. But it does allow us to take World Cup beyond Gen 3.

It seems like the atmosphere before a match has improved from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of FIFA 14.

Yeah, and that's actually a key part for us. That's what makes the World Cup so special. And with it being in Brazil it couldn't be in a more exciting place, so that was a key focus for us. Getting the managers in there, they become a focal point of it. And also the external shots of the stadiums, building up that cauldron of excitement feel. So yeah, atmosphere was key for us because it's what makes the World Cup so unique.

The managers in particular were very impressive. Did you have to motion capture them?

No, unfortunately we don't have as good a... The players are often keen to help out with the game because they're fans of FIFA, they play themselves, that's kind of our demographic. The managers not so much. We don't have access to the managers as much as we normally would like so we have to go back to the old school reference route. But we got some of our best artists on it to capture them and that's why they look so good. 

How many managers are there?

19. 19 and Sepp Blatter, so 20 if you count Sepp!

Could you tell us a bit about the extra modes?

We've got a whole new bunch of modes, which was one of the key things to make the game feel feature-rich and complete. So obviously we've got the World Cup, we've got Road to the World Cup. We've got Captain Your Country, which is a unique take on gameplay that you can't get in FIFA, it's playing as an individual, working your way through the rankings until you get picked as a captain and try to win the World Cup.

We've got skill games in there, we've got the online World Cup so you can win the tournament online. We've got the Road to Rio. We've got online friendlies. We've got the two scenario modes, the Story of Qualifying events so you can go back and play through events that happened and try to change history or replicate it. And then Story of Finals which will be real world scenarios based on what you've just seen in real life in the World Cup.

How soon are you hoping to update the game with new scenarios after they've happened?

We're pushing to try and get it to about an hour after. We really want to try and tap into that passion and excitement that you've just witnessed. Previously we've had it the day after and you could lose a lot of what those moments meant. But we wanted to make the game the place that people go to after they've seen the event. We're testing it right now, everything is in place it's just a matter of streamlining the process. First time we tried it, it was about an hour and a half so we're now refining it.

So you're really trying to capture the excitement as it happens.

Exactly. You watch the match, you see the commentators talking about it after, you watch the highlights, then we want you to go off and relive that or make it better.

Are there any plans to localise the content for the Arabic audience?

Unfortunately there are no plans, no.

What would you say to FIFA 14 owners who are on the fence about buying the World Cup edition?

I'll say if they want the best game out there then we would be it because we're FIFA 14 plus a whole bunch of development. We're also the only place where you can experience the amazing atmoshphere and the excitement of the World Cup, which will hopefully be one of the best World Cups ever. If you're jumping on that bandwagon we're the only place where you can experience it.

And then there's a whole bunch of game modes and different experiences within those that you just can't get in FIFA, like Captain Your Country, like Road to Rio. So there's a lot of content and if you've played everything there is to play in FIFA and wondering what's new and what's fresh, the World Cup edition is definitely the place to get that.

And finally, what are you most proud of in this game?

Just kind of the atmosphere that we've created in the World Cup. The atmosphere is much more robust, previously it was just game to game to game. Now we've got the game, then you do training, which is a great improvement and you can actually influence your players, then you've got the different radio shows you can listen to, you go into the game and you see the exterior shots of the stadium, the crowds at home. The atmosphere and immersion that we've managed to cram into the World Cup experience is probably the best thing.