4 reasons why FIFA 17 Mobile will fail

By , on September 20, 2016
Last modified 7 years, 6 months ago

FIFA 17 Mobile has been revealed! Well, sort of. EA just quietly put all the details up on their site without telling anyone, which is helpful.

Our sister site Pocket Gamer has all the serious details, but here we're going to tell you exactly why FIFA Mobile (as it's officially known) is going to flop.

Because obviously.

4. It's called FIFA Mobile (for real this time)

FIFA Mobile

Last year, before the release of FIFA 16 on console, EA told us its mobile companion would be called FIFA 16: Ultimate Team, indicating a move towards pure pack opening and dream teams.

The giant publisher then changed its tune, instead informing us that FIFA 16: Ultimate Team would now be called FIFA Mobile - confusing everybody, including us.

In the end, the mobile entry for FIFA 16 was indeed called FIFA 16: Ultimate Team.

This year, it seems EA has remembered its dormant plans, and finally followed through with them by naming the latest mobile entry FIFA Mobile.

This is dumb.

It will confuse people, potentially making them think it's just last year's edition, and doesn't emphasise the game's novelty!

People who play sports games buy them every year, partly for updated squads and kits and the like, but primarily because they play them so extensively that even small, incremental changes seem huge.

If you don't say your game is new, by putting a fat 17 at the end of it, people won't care!

3. It's copying New Star Soccer

New Star Soccer

That's right: FIFA - the humongously successful beast of a sports game, one of the biggest games in the world, based on the most popular sport ever - is copying New Star Soccer, a tiny indie iOS game.

Madness.

In FIFA Mobile this year, there's a mini-game called Attack Mode, in which you and an opponent take it in turns to take charge of an attacking move.

Whoever scores the most, after a few rounds of toing and froing, wins.

Sound familiar?

New Star Soccer sees you do something very similar, trading blows with an AI enemy in an offensive sense only.

Picking the right pass and rifling one into the top corner, without worrying about your defensive duties, is immensely satisfying - but it's a loop New Star Soccer came up with over four years ago. EA jumping on this very small bandwagon feels desperate.

2. There's a renewed focus on Ultimate Team...

FIFA Ultimate Team

I used to like- nay, love Ultimate Team.

Opening packs, assembling your dream squad from the world's most exciting players - it was like being eight years old collecting Shoot Out cards once again.

This was before EA realised it was making them all the money, however.

Now, Ultimate Team has become such a behemoth, it is absorbing all EA's focus. Promised improvements to Career Mode never materialised, other modes got removed, and what was once the greatest football game around has stagnated. FIFA has been engulfed by its own mini-game.

Good job Ultimate Team's apparently going to be bigger and better this year, then!

1. … Meaning PES will once again be king

PES 2017

EA's over emphasis on Ultimate Team has caused the game to slip in almost every other area.

It seems PES will, for the second time in a row, be the far superior game then.

Shame. I used to like FIFA. Not anymore.

Ah well. The King is dead, long live the King.