case study video game

1. Case Study
FIFA 18

2. TERMINOLOGY
• Electronic Arts and most specifically FIFA have gained so much more attention in the past few years. One of biggest factors
for this is because of the architecture they apply on their game (football stadiums).
• 3 years ago FIFA were accepted licensing by the Premier League which was a massive success for Electronic Arts. This
allowed FIFA to apply every Premier League stadium onto their upcoming game, which at the time was FIFA 16.
• The in-game architecture has become so important in recent years because it gives gamers that extra sense of realism while
playing their games. It also allows a wide range of supporters to play in their favourite football teams stadium.
• In the current FIFA, there is a game mode called ‘The Journey’ which includes lots of cut scenes. In the cut scenes you go
through a journey into the slums of Rio De Janeiro, which shows some really cultural architecture.
• FIFA has also started to include lots of terrain to their cut scenes. This can be recognised in the build up to each match when
the game shows an Aerial view of the biggest stadiums. In this view you can see car parks, roads and trees.
• Small objects have also been applied to your in-game experience this year. This can be seen in several different stadiums.
The most popular object is the giant coca cola bottle placed behind the net in the Estadio Monumental, home of River Plate.
Strangely enough, there is also a car place inside the Wanda Metropolitano, home of Athletico Madrid.

3. TERMINOLOGY
• FIFA 18 also includes NPC’S. This stands for Non-playable characters. NPC’S are used across several
different game modes on FIFA, the most noticeable being career mode, kick off mode, squad battles and
skills mode. NPC’s are very helpful because the difficulty they play at can be altered, so if you’re new to
the game you can play on amateur or semi-pro and if you’re very experienced you can play on world class
or legendary. Another reason why NPC’S are very useful is because if you haven’t got PlayStation Plus or
Xbox Live, you can still play against NPC’S because it is an offline feature.
• Another feature that has just come to life on FIFA is player motion. Player motion scans player faces and
then applies it onto the game so that players look almost identical to what they do in real life. The public
have recently been able to access a video showing the process of what players go through whilst using
player motion. In the video we can see that you have to scan the face in a 360 degree rotation, whilst also
taking footage of them sprinting, shooting and passing so that it can be replicated in the game. However,
not everyone in FIFA has player motion, as it is currently just the biggest players who receive this feature.
An improvement for the future would certainly being able to apply this to every player on FIFA!

4. FIFA V Pro Evolution
• Electronic Arts and Konami have been battling with FIFA and Pro Evolution for years. Over the past 5 years FIFA has really
took storm over Pro Evolution with an extra 900,000 users! This wasn’t always the case however, as Pro Evolution was the
biggest sports game in the world in 2006.
• The reason these two games are so competitive is because ones success results in the others failure, as most people don’t
buy both games. This is proven through FIFA’s recent success which has led to Pro Evolutions downfall.
• One of the biggest factors between both games is licensing. Many chose FIFA over Pro Evolution because they have licensing
to almost every league which means they can use official clubs and stadiums, in comparison to Pro Evolution who only have
licensing to 2 Premier League clubs (Liverpool and Aresnal). However, Pro Evolution do have access to The Champions
League and The Europa League and have recently just gained access to Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Valencia which
should be a cause of concern for Electronic Arts.
• Another major factor between both games is the graphics. Currently FIFA hold the trophy for best graphics quite clearly, as
Pro Evolution do not have the licensing to use player motions. Almost every top flight player on FIFA 18 has gone through
the process of player motions, which means their face is transferred into the game, in comparison to Pro Evolution who have
to start from scratch.
• Finally, Electronic Arts offer the most popular game mode on all sports games – Ultimate Team. This game mode is really
what keeps FIFA alive, but because Pro Evolution do not apply this, it prevents many gamers from choosing the Konami
game.

5. AUDIO + SOUND EFFECTS
• One of the most important aspects in games is the audio and sound effects that are included. These are included across
every game mode on FIFA 18. The most noticeable sound effect that is included in FIFA 18 is the commentators that take
coverage of all the matches. Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend are the current FIFA commentators and have been for
several years. The commentary is pre-recorded and includes the names of the biggest players in FIFA. But each FIFA more
player names are being applied to the commentary list from the lower leagues to still give players that sense of realism. The
tone and mood of their voices will change if you’ve scored or received a red card also.
• FIFA also apply soundtracks for users to enjoy whilst they’re in the menu. FIFA soundtracks have become very important in
recent years because players are spending more time in the menu section after improvements on Ultimate Team, so it’s
important we have some good music to make our FUT experience more enjoyable.
• Finally, FIFA have also applied small but very important sound effects to the In-Game experience, which includes the crowd
on match days. The fans will celebrate if you score a goal at home, and will boo if you’re playing away from home. The fans
will also sing official chants for the club you decide to use for your FIFA Ultimate Team badge. Another small feature that has
been applied to FIFA 18 is the player sound effects. An example would be each time Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates you can
hear his trade mark ‘SI’.

6. Electronic Arts Graphics
• Each year the graphics are getting better and better for games produced by Electronic Arts. The graphics in the current EA
sports games all use player motions for the biggest stars in the game. More players are introduced to the games every year,
almost to the point where we can expect to see every player on every EA sports game to have a replica version of
themselves on the game. As mentioned in the previous slide, all the biggest sports games are usually published by Electronic
Arts, so we can expect to see all sports games advancing at the same time.
• The second noticeable change that has been made to EA sports games is licensing. 3 Years ago, FIFA earned the right to
include all Premier League Stadiums onto the game after partnering up with the Premier League. A year later we then saw
Madden 18 introduce every NFL stadium onto the game after agreeing to another partnership to earn all rights to the
stadiums. All the official stadiums across Electronic Arts completely replicate the real life versions, with them including the
littlest features, such as a framed photo in the tunnel of The Emirates Stadium.
• Another improvement running through Electronic Arts is the fans. The fans are controlled as NPC’S, but they are responding
to our actions by using the players so much in the current games. If you are playing at home and you counter attack up the
field, you can hear the fans excitement the further you proceed. EA have also introduced interaction between the fans and
the players you control, as you can now celebrate with the fans throughout many of their games. Although this is very
impressive, I still believe there is a long way to go with the fans throughout all Electronic Art games as you will often see the
same fan in several locations of the stadium as the face has just been copied on another fan. It was also discovered that a
Manchester City players face had been used as a fan in the crowd, which had mixed reactions at the least.

7. Game Engines
• 2 Years ago, Frostbite because FIFA’s new gaming engine. This was first released with FIFA 17, back in
September 2016. Once playing FIFA 17, I instantly recognized the difference in game play. Players seemed
more agile, sharp and more realistic. They were also more prone to do something different each time they
received the ball. A big issue with previous FIFA’S was that players were constantly passing and shooting in
the same motion they previously did.
• Frostbite is a platform used across PlayStation, Xbox and PC. This means that FIFA will still be available
across these 3 platforms in the up-coming years.
• There are two sets of PC specifications-one for playing the game in DirectX12 and another for DirectX11.
Though EA hasn’t specified what DRM the game uses, safe to use it would be Denuvo-which is the industry
standard at this point. Interestingly, the minimum and recommended spec for FIFA 18 on DirectX12 is
identical
• FIFA 18 is known to take up a hefty amount of storage up on our consoles, with FIFA 18 taking up 37.93 on
Xbox and PS4, not to forget the regular updates you need to download to ensure you can play online. This
could be a massive improvement for the future if Frostbite can decrease the storage take up.

8. IMAGE ANNOTATIONS
This is an aerial image of
the Santiago Bernabeu
on FIFA 18. Here we can
see the cars, the car
park and trees. These
are all items we can say
are either Terrain,
Architecture or objects.
Here is an image of
Ronaldo running in his
trademark motion. This
is being tracked to
replicate on FIFA 18
when using Ronaldo
himself.
Here is an image of the Los Angles
Chargers stadium on Madden 18. The
stadium includes all the features you
would see on a match day, including the
Chargers tunnel, alongside all the
stewards located around the stadium.