Among the dozens of announcements and reveals at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, the newly unveiled UFL is one that caught the eye in particular. It’s not because of some stunning gameplay reveal – we didn’t see gameplay at all, in fact – but because of what the game’s aiming to do, which is upset the traditional balance of an entire genre of games. It’s not very often that a new football game comes along, never mind one with the avowed intentions of wrestling the dominance away from the historically huge duo of FIFA and PES (now eFootball).
Strikerz Inc. is taking up such a challenge, a new studio built up of offices scattered all across Europe, which harbours hopes of UFL sweeping the globe, much like its workforce. It’s a tough market to crack, especially considering the financial power of EA’s FIFA and the sheer number of players it attracts annually, so how does Strikerz Inc. plan to do this? I spoke to Eugene Nashilov, CEO of the studio to discover what makes UFL unique.
It’s clear when speaking to Nashilov that this isn’t some snap decision to make a new football game and get in on the action. UFL has been in development for 5 years already, and a huge amount of research was put into the football game genre before creative work on UFL even began.
“Before going into the development stage of the game, we conducted an in-depth study of the market, analyzed players’ needs and demands, examined the pros and cons of the existing gaming titles and very much more,” Nashilov explains. “The feedback and data we collected motivated us to create a brand-new game, one that meets and exceeds gamers' vision of the perfect football game.”
‘The perfect football game’ may well sound like lofty ambitions, but with the murmurs of disgruntlement among the FIFA community at its continued stagnation as loud as ever, UFL sees an opportunity to enter its horse into the race. But why does Nashilov feel like UFL will break the losing streak of non-EA and Konami football games that have sought to get a foothold?
“Football video games have been on the market for more than 25 years,” Nashilov begins, as he explains UFL’s overarching philosophy. “However, the games on the market today have failed to innovate: over the years, football simulators have barely updated themselves to keep up with modern gaming trends, mechanics and business models. The community has been complaining about it for years.”
Football simulators have barely updated themselves to keep up with modern gaming trends.
“Perhaps existing football games, with an eye toward their strong legacy, have found it difficult to change and bring new features in a timely manner. UFL, on the other hand, is a brand-new game that embodies and reflects gamers’ hopes and expectations.”
More than anything, UFL seems born from the developers' frustrations with the directions both EA and Konami have taken their flagship football games in over recent years. The studio touts its developers as “football fans and gamers ourselves”, ultimately striving to create the sort of soccer simulation they dream of playing. But what exactly will make UFL stand out?
One big question is club and league licenses, something FIFA have famously held over their rivals historically. On the Strikerz website it states, "In UFL, players will be able to create their own football clubs made up of more than 5000 licensed footballers and compete with other gamers worldwide to prove their skills and climb to the very top of the league". From this we can speculate that perhaps players will be creating their own virtual teams built from squads of real-life footballers. This hasn’t been explained in any way by the developers, but certainly sounds different to what current games offer.
While we’re yet to see any gameplay, the basic set-up sounds like a hybrid of FIFA and Football Manager, putting as much emphasis on what happens off the pitch as on it. Nashilov explains, “you will manage your club, form a roster, develop tactics and compete with other gamers in seasons to prove your skills and climb to the very top of the league. Competitive, fair gaming is at the very core of UFL’s gameplay. In this competition, your victory depends solely on your gaming skills and the choices you make.”
‘Fair to Play’ is UFL’s mantra, the core idea that drives what it’s trying to achieve, and ultimately its weapon in the fight against FIFA. It’s no secret that the loot box nature and pay-to-win aspects of FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode have been under heavy scrutiny for years now, and with billions of dollars being spent on it by players each year, it's seemingly impossible to avoid a pay-to-win landscape developing. Strikerz Inc. wants to keep away from this approach completely, firmly believing that the player’s skill level, and nothing else, should determine how successful they are in their football game.
“This is one of our core principles, essential for everything we do. We believe that our players’ success should not depend on the number of in-game purchases or the value of donations they make, but on their gaming skills, experience and mastery. You will never be obligated to purchase anything in UFL to achieve high ranks and remain competitive.
“The fair-to-play concept also means that we will regularly add new features and updates with no mandatory payments or yearly fees. Free to play is an established distributional model in the gaming industry and one we want to bring to the football simulation genre. We believe the fair-to-play model will make our game much more appealing for all the football lovers out there.
“In UFL, players will be able to control all aspects of the game, ranging from teams’ composition to what tactics and formations will be used in the upcoming match. Your path to victory is determined by your skill and ability. In other words, our game is designed to be a fair-to-play experience that implies a skill-first approach and zero tolerance for pay-to-win options.”
A fair-to-play experience that implies a skill-first approach and zero tolerance for pay-to-win options.
eFootball, Konami’s rebrand of Pro Evolution Soccer, will also soon be releasing as a free-to-play game, so the shift that Nashilov speaks about is already taking place. But with still some confusion about how eFootball will work in terms of paid add-ons such as modes and card packs, it’s certainly not going to be the completely free model that UFL claims to be. We don’t have full details on how that will work just yet, but it seems as though Nashilov is promising cosmetic-only paid content throughout UFL.
If UFL truly turns out to be as consumer friendly as pitched, then Strikerz Inc. could have a real game-changer on its hands. Of course, with any football game, it will have to get its on-the-pitch action right to stand any chance, and with no look at UFL’s gameplay currently available we just have no real way of knowing how close to creating ‘the perfect football game’ the developer is. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be finding out anytime soon either, with Nashilov explaining the team is, “neither ready to announce the exact release date nor give any information about the possibility of beta testing.”
It’s intriguing, though. Whereas new shooters, fighters and racers come out on a consistent basis to enter their respective crowded marketplaces, new football games are just a thing that don’t happen anymore. Strikerz Inc. may already have the likes of FIFA and eFootball in its sights, but the ambitions don’t seem to be ending there. Nashilov wants UFL to be bigger than a game and something that, if things go as planned, will be firmly part of sports culture in years to come.
With UFL, we’re building more than just a video game.
“The Premier League, NBA, NHL and others are not just sporting competitions, but powerful brands and sports and entertainment phenomena that connect fans around the world”, says Nashilov. “With UFL, we’re building more than just a video game. Our mission is to build a powerful sports brand and to create an ecosystem around the video game that integrates both online and offline aspects of the category: esports, music, fashion, content creation, celebrities, partners and more.”
It’s a stupendously big pitch, but in order to truly stand out against such established competition, I guess it needs to be. Time will tell on whether UFL can reach its lofty ambitions – but either way Strikerz Inc. has my attention.
Simon Cardy loves all things football despite how much it hurts him. Find him over on Twitter at @CardySimon.
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Strikerz Inc. is taking up such a challenge, a new studio built up of offices scattered all across Europe, which harbours hopes of UFL sweeping the globe, much like its workforce. It’s a tough market to crack, especially considering the financial power of EA’s FIFA and the sheer number of players it attracts annually, so how does Strikerz Inc. plan to do this? I spoke to Eugene Nashilov, CEO of the studio to discover what makes UFL unique.
It’s clear when speaking to Nashilov that this isn’t some snap decision to make a new football game and get in on the action. UFL has been in development for 5 years already, and a huge amount of research was put into the football game genre before creative work on UFL even began.
“Before going into the development stage of the game, we conducted an in-depth study of the market, analyzed players’ needs and demands, examined the pros and cons of the existing gaming titles and very much more,” Nashilov explains. “The feedback and data we collected motivated us to create a brand-new game, one that meets and exceeds gamers' vision of the perfect football game.”
‘The perfect football game’ may well sound like lofty ambitions, but with the murmurs of disgruntlement among the FIFA community at its continued stagnation as loud as ever, UFL sees an opportunity to enter its horse into the race. But why does Nashilov feel like UFL will break the losing streak of non-EA and Konami football games that have sought to get a foothold?
“Football video games have been on the market for more than 25 years,” Nashilov begins, as he explains UFL’s overarching philosophy. “However, the games on the market today have failed to innovate: over the years, football simulators have barely updated themselves to keep up with modern gaming trends, mechanics and business models. The community has been complaining about it for years.”
Football simulators have barely updated themselves to keep up with modern gaming trends.
“Perhaps existing football games, with an eye toward their strong legacy, have found it difficult to change and bring new features in a timely manner. UFL, on the other hand, is a brand-new game that embodies and reflects gamers’ hopes and expectations.”
More than anything, UFL seems born from the developers' frustrations with the directions both EA and Konami have taken their flagship football games in over recent years. The studio touts its developers as “football fans and gamers ourselves”, ultimately striving to create the sort of soccer simulation they dream of playing. But what exactly will make UFL stand out?
One big question is club and league licenses, something FIFA have famously held over their rivals historically. On the Strikerz website it states, "In UFL, players will be able to create their own football clubs made up of more than 5000 licensed footballers and compete with other gamers worldwide to prove their skills and climb to the very top of the league". From this we can speculate that perhaps players will be creating their own virtual teams built from squads of real-life footballers. This hasn’t been explained in any way by the developers, but certainly sounds different to what current games offer.
While we’re yet to see any gameplay, the basic set-up sounds like a hybrid of FIFA and Football Manager, putting as much emphasis on what happens off the pitch as on it. Nashilov explains, “you will manage your club, form a roster, develop tactics and compete with other gamers in seasons to prove your skills and climb to the very top of the league. Competitive, fair gaming is at the very core of UFL’s gameplay. In this competition, your victory depends solely on your gaming skills and the choices you make.”
‘Fair to Play’ is UFL’s mantra, the core idea that drives what it’s trying to achieve, and ultimately its weapon in the fight against FIFA. It’s no secret that the loot box nature and pay-to-win aspects of FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode have been under heavy scrutiny for years now, and with billions of dollars being spent on it by players each year, it's seemingly impossible to avoid a pay-to-win landscape developing. Strikerz Inc. wants to keep away from this approach completely, firmly believing that the player’s skill level, and nothing else, should determine how successful they are in their football game.
“This is one of our core principles, essential for everything we do. We believe that our players’ success should not depend on the number of in-game purchases or the value of donations they make, but on their gaming skills, experience and mastery. You will never be obligated to purchase anything in UFL to achieve high ranks and remain competitive.
“The fair-to-play concept also means that we will regularly add new features and updates with no mandatory payments or yearly fees. Free to play is an established distributional model in the gaming industry and one we want to bring to the football simulation genre. We believe the fair-to-play model will make our game much more appealing for all the football lovers out there.
“In UFL, players will be able to control all aspects of the game, ranging from teams’ composition to what tactics and formations will be used in the upcoming match. Your path to victory is determined by your skill and ability. In other words, our game is designed to be a fair-to-play experience that implies a skill-first approach and zero tolerance for pay-to-win options.”
A fair-to-play experience that implies a skill-first approach and zero tolerance for pay-to-win options.
eFootball, Konami’s rebrand of Pro Evolution Soccer, will also soon be releasing as a free-to-play game, so the shift that Nashilov speaks about is already taking place. But with still some confusion about how eFootball will work in terms of paid add-ons such as modes and card packs, it’s certainly not going to be the completely free model that UFL claims to be. We don’t have full details on how that will work just yet, but it seems as though Nashilov is promising cosmetic-only paid content throughout UFL.
If UFL truly turns out to be as consumer friendly as pitched, then Strikerz Inc. could have a real game-changer on its hands. Of course, with any football game, it will have to get its on-the-pitch action right to stand any chance, and with no look at UFL’s gameplay currently available we just have no real way of knowing how close to creating ‘the perfect football game’ the developer is. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be finding out anytime soon either, with Nashilov explaining the team is, “neither ready to announce the exact release date nor give any information about the possibility of beta testing.”
It’s intriguing, though. Whereas new shooters, fighters and racers come out on a consistent basis to enter their respective crowded marketplaces, new football games are just a thing that don’t happen anymore. Strikerz Inc. may already have the likes of FIFA and eFootball in its sights, but the ambitions don’t seem to be ending there. Nashilov wants UFL to be bigger than a game and something that, if things go as planned, will be firmly part of sports culture in years to come.
With UFL, we’re building more than just a video game.
“The Premier League, NBA, NHL and others are not just sporting competitions, but powerful brands and sports and entertainment phenomena that connect fans around the world”, says Nashilov. “With UFL, we’re building more than just a video game. Our mission is to build a powerful sports brand and to create an ecosystem around the video game that integrates both online and offline aspects of the category: esports, music, fashion, content creation, celebrities, partners and more.”
It’s a stupendously big pitch, but in order to truly stand out against such established competition, I guess it needs to be. Time will tell on whether UFL can reach its lofty ambitions – but either way Strikerz Inc. has my attention.
Simon Cardy loves all things football despite how much it hurts him. Find him over on Twitter at @CardySimon.
Continue reading...