Matt Prior, Producer

FIFA 09 Ultimate Team -- Online Tournaments

Before I talk about Online Tournaments I wanted to inform you that we have confirmed the pricing for FIFA 09 Ultimate Team. It will be available beginning March 19 for 800 Microsoft points or $9.99. In addition, for those of you who don’t want to play their way to accumulate packages of cards, bronze packages of cards can be purchased for 20 Microsoft points or $.25, silver packages for 40 Microsoft points or $.50 and gold level packages for 80 Microsoft points or $1. It’s important to point out that this 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. Silver and Gold packs are locked out initially and can’t be purchased during the free trial period. It takes 6 and 12 games, respectively, before the Silver & Gold packs are unlocked.

One of the questions I get asked most often is “what are the differences between league matches and tournaments?”

League matches earn leader board points that are the ranking system for the leader boards but the points awarded are not just tied to the result. Like the coins, leader board points are also awarded based on your in-game performance. There are 5 leader boards in total: Overall, Online League, Offline League, Online Tournament, and Offline Tournaments.

Tournaments are knockout format that go to extra time and penalties if undecided by the 90th minute. Lose, and you’re knocked out of the tournament and must start again, so there is a lot of pressure. League games add to your standings on the Ultimate Team leader boards and can end in a draw. League games tend to be used as a means to earn coins and skill points while resting players in an effort to strengthen the squad or to try out new formations and players.

The online Knockout Tournaments are where gamers will come up against each other and will be where the true champions are decided. We implemented an advanced match making system that should allow for much better matchups and increase the ability to find an opponent. The format is the same as the offline: 16 gamers face off in a knockout format with only one winner taking home the trophy.

There are 18 online tournaments in all. The lowest of these is the Bronze Divisional Cup which will be the first tournament most gamers will unlock. The tournaments are unlocked by skill points which are earned by playing games. The better the performance, the more points are earned. Skill points do not decrease, so once you have unlocked a tournament, you can enter it as many times as you want. If you want to advance and fill out your trophy cabinet however, you’ll have to win it. Winning a trophy will fill in your trophy cabinet as well as earning the tournament banner. Tournament banners are hung in your training arena so you’ll instantly be able to see a measure of your success when you go back. A truly successful gamer will have a completed cabinet and an arena festooned with banners. Additionally, winning a trophy then unlocks the Silver versions and winning that unlocks the Gold. Each level of tournament will feature progressively better gamers so at the Gold level it will truly be a battle of the elite.

We have implemented advance matchup logic that should ensure more chance of matching up in an online game. Online gameplay is a key part of Ultimate Team and not having an opponent to play can be very frustrating for online games, so we have tried to create a ‘match up anytime’ system and hopefully gamers will have less wait time to match up and will match up against someone near your ability.

Quitting out is one of the most frustrating things about playing online, so we have tried to combat this by ensuring that quitting out is the worst possible course of action for gamers. If a gamer quits out, they will not be awarded any coins or skill points and all their players will be deducted a contract. If the gamer decides to finish the game, even if they are losing heavily, they will still be awarded coins and skill points, as there are set values for just finishing an online game. We hope that gamers will soon realize that quitting is the worst thing they can do and that by playing out the game they will be rewarded. You’ll definitely grow your team much quicker if you finish games.