Matt Prior, Producer

FIFA 09 Ultimate Team Overview

Welcome to the FIFA 09 Ultimate Team blog. Over the next few weeks I’ll try to give you an in depth look at our new FIFA 09 Ultimate Team mode for FIFA 09 so check back regularly here for updates. FIFA 09 Ultimate Team will be available to everyone who owns FIFA 09 on PS3 and X360. A title update will be available on March 19th so all you will need to do is start up FIFA 09 on, or anytime after that date, and update the game. Once updated, you’ll see the ultimate team menu item in the main menu. Selecting it will enable you to select the language (English, French, German, Italian & Spanish) and will trigger the download. The download will be around 1.3 gigs and it’s free to everyone. With the download you receive a 5-match trial of the game, and if you like it, you’ll be able to purchase it at the end of the trial.

Ultimate Team enables gamers to assemble and manage their fantasy team by collecting virtual cards in about 30 different categories. One of the card categories is Gameplay cards which will provide a unique variation to FIFA 09. The gameplay cards have additional influence on the on-field proceedings and add a fascinating new element to the existing gameplay. There are over 80 different types of gameplay cards that can affect anything from the length of throw-ins to the composure of your opponent's keeper. It’s important to note that none of them are so powerful that they can make the game completely unbalanced. Even with the most powerful cards applied, it’s still down to the skill of the two gamers.

All the teams & leagues that are in FIFA 09 are available to play as opponents and feature in the 36 tournaments that are in the game.

In terms of which specific leagues & players are available as cards, they are: Barclays Premier League, Coca Cola Championship, Coca Cola League 1 & 2, French Ligue 1 & 2, Bundesliga 1 & 2, Italian Serie A & B, Spanish Liga BBVA, Belgium Pro League, Norwegien Tippeligaen, Scottish SPL, Austrian Bundesliga, Switzerland Axpo Super League, Korean Republic K League, Mexican Primera Division, Australian A League, & 11 Rest-of-the-World teams including AEK Athens, River Plate, Panathinaikos and Boca Juniors.

With your free download you’ll receive a starter pack that features your first squad of players, your first home and away kits, your first training arena and home stadium, the Create Captain card and a few gameplay and training cards, 28 in total. After that each pack of cards you receive will feature 12 cards. From the starter pack you create your best squad, taking into consideration the composition of your team, the formation you want to play, the nationality of the players and a variety of other factors that impact Team Chemistry. Each time you play a game, win or lose, you’ll earn coins that are the in-game economy and the means to buy packs. The better your performance, the more coins you’ll earn, but even losing will get you some coins. You’ll also earn more if you play online, so in no time, you’ll have enough coins to purchase your first bronze pack. Bronze packs obviously don’t contain the best cards, so if you want to get the best, you’ll have to save up for Silver or Gold. It takes 6 and 12 games, respectively, before the Silver & Gold packs are unlocked. If you don’t have the time to play games to earn the in-game economy, you can use real world cash or Microsoft points in the in-game Sony/Microsoft store. It’s important to point out that the use of real world cash is only a shortcut and won’t buy you anything that you can’t already earn in- game; it’s simply a shortcut for those who want to use it.

There is a new trade card system that enables you to post any of your cards for trade with other gamers. You can set the minimum price, a 'buy- now' price and the trade expiration. In addition to coins, you’ll also likely be offered swaps for any of the cards you post, so checking on the status of your trades can be very interesting. You can check the status of any trades by going to your trade pile. In addition to trading away unwanted cards, you can also put them in the collector’s album. Putting them in the collector’s album will award a coin amount based on the quality of the player being put in. For example, put in a 75 gold rated player and you’ll get over 400 coins back. Complete an entire team in the collection and you’ll get a big coins bonus, so astute use of the collection can be a very useful way to help fund the building of your team. If you don’t want to trade the card and already have it in your collection, you have the final option of discarding it and even this will get you a modest coins award, so every card has value.

Once you have created your team then you can start playing in league matches and tournaments, both online and offline, against CPU controlled teams in FIFA and fantasy teams assembled by players like yourself around the world. I should also mention that Skill points are the means to unlock tournaments. After each game you’ll be awarded skill points based on your performance. Play better and you’ll earn more Skill Points to advance to more difficult tournaments.

For Xbox gamers, FIFA Ultimate Team features 10 Xbox achievements that can earn 250 points. Updating FIFA 09 on or after March 19 will provide access to Ultimate Team and will additionally install trophies for the PS3 version. It will install 47 trophies for FIFA itself and the 10 trophies specifically for Ultimate Team so it will give gamers plenty of new goals to achieve. A lot of the FIFA gameplay trophies can also be earned by playing Ultimate team.

That’s an overview of what to expect from FIFA 09 Ultimate Team. In future blogs I will detail the types of cards available, different strategies for developing team chemistry, look at our cool Create Captain customization feature and at the leagues and tournaments.

Matt