FIFA 13 News Post

FIFA: Time to Improve the MLS Experience

03:32 PM - April 1, 2013 by RaychelSnr

Playing career mode with an MLS team in FIFA is like that nagging feeling you get when you're watching Man City play–everything looks good on the surface, but there's an undercurrent of inauthenticity running through it.

In real life, the biggest soccer league in the continent is an interesting hybrid of Europe and North America: While the action on the pitch mirrors a match you’d find on the other side of the Atlantic, off the field things are more North American—there’s a players draft, trading instead of buying and selling, and a salary cap (along with which comes a slew of special player quotas). But in the FIFA series, the MLS is just another league in the Career Mode, still stuck with the European management system. The MLS experience in FIFA needs improving, this much is obvious.

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# 1 Big_Mig_11 @ 04/01/13 04:05 PM

Great read. I agree with most of the article, that there needs to be an MLS specific software for the platforms in order to capture MLS stadiums, atmospheres, rules, playoff seeding, etc. The appetite for MLS fans can be had with a "MLS Mode" moving forward with FIFA, but down the line, there should be a revamped version of FIFA, like the World Cup games and Champions League.

# 2 DukesofHazzard @ 04/01/13 04:30 PM

I agree with everything in this article. You know they used to have a fifa euro edition game why can't they come out with an MLS version of fifa. Everything MLS with the game.

# 3 Blublub @ 04/01/13 05:11 PM

Hmmm...wouldn't the easier solution be for the MLS to drop the silly rules that try to shoehorn soccer into "the American sporting experience"? I mean you'd think twenty years into the league they would stop trying to cater to "casual fans" and make the league conform with the international game. Hell, get rid of the centralized player allocation, add promotion/relegation with the other US leagues and you'd see a huge interest in the league from hardcore fans.

# 4 Blublub @ 04/01/13 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blublub


	Hmmm...wouldn't the easier solution be for the MLS to drop the silly rules that try to shoehorn soccer into "the American sporting experience"? I mean you'd think twenty years into the league they would stop trying to cater to "casual fans" and make the league conform with the international game. Hell, get rid of the centralized player allocation, add promotion/relegation with the other US leagues and you'd see a huge interest in the league from hardcore fans.

Not to mention there actually was a dedicated Konami MLS game many years back that was actually pretty good yet sold miserably. I doubt EA wants to go there.

# 5 illaim @ 04/01/13 06:47 PM

Sans the shot at City, I salute this very good post

# 6 JJT @ 04/01/13 07:57 PM

Ya on the next gen systems there will be no excuse to not make this league great.

# 7 believeinnow @ 04/01/13 08:47 PM

The idea of an MLS-centric FIFA game is an interesting case that has been murmured about for years. It won't happen since it would require a completely different interface. Yes, Americans want everything to be americanized, but considering the MLS is ran differently than most other leagues, it would be unfair to change things for just one league. If they do that, then, they'll have to make changes to every other league. When Holland and Turkish leagues did playoff systems for a brief period of time, I don't think either saw those systems implemented in the game. Then to top it off, both countries stopped the playoff system.

# 8 JJT @ 04/01/13 09:15 PM

Fifa 13 units sold:

Holland - 10,000

Turkey - 17

Usa - 1,000,000

Thats why.

( #s might not be true lol)

# 9 rckabillyRaider @ 04/01/13 10:01 PM

I don't think a MLS game would work for some of the reasons mentioned in the article (though I definitely would buy it), but I do think EA should overhaul it in FIFA. At least obtain a USL or NASL license (how expensive can that be??) to have an expanded US Open Cup. Also implement some kind of CONCACAF Champions league, at least with the Mexican and MLS clubs. That would at least add a bit more variety during Career Mode

# 10 HKPound @ 04/01/13 10:58 PM

I would absolutely love if MLS was implemented correctly now that I've gotten into the league. I wish there was a proper CONCACAF Champions League though so we could at least be afforded the opportunity to play in that and than possibly the Club World Cup.

# 11 LosCriminales @ 04/02/13 07:26 AM

I've been beating this drum for some time myself. There have been a couple of MLS games - MLS Extra Time 2002 for Xbox 1 has CMGi field instead of Gillette and has Jack Edwards doing commentary but uses the PES engine. So there's still that system in the game - no shootouts (which happened at the time).

Anyway, I'm sure it's complete laziness on EA's part - take a look at their rosters -- someone like Clint Dempsey has a crap rating when playing for the Revs but then goes to Fulham and is magically improved.

Whatever.

# 12 Azamien @ 04/02/13 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blublub


	Hmmm...wouldn't the easier solution be for the MLS to drop the silly rules that try to shoehorn soccer into "the American sporting experience"? I mean you'd think twenty years into the league they would stop trying to cater to "casual fans" and make the league conform with the international game. Hell, get rid of the centralized player allocation, add promotion/relegation with the other US leagues and you'd see a huge interest in the league from hardcore fans.

Aside from having a playoff system (and since there's no Champions League for the top finishers to go to, having a playoff isn't a bad thing), the "silly" rules in MLS aren't meant to cater to anyone. They're to keep the league and its teams financially healthy so that it doesn't become yet another failed US league.

Player allocation is becoming somewhat de-centralized now that academies are up and running and starting to produce players. The SuperDraft is becoming less and less important, and I wouldn't be surprised if it goes away at some point.

As for promotion/relegation, MLS has already said they want that. I don't remember what the target year Garber gave was, but he said there isn't a promotion/relegation system in place now because there isn't a strong enough second-tier league. The only way they can have that sort of system is if it wouldn't kill off relegated teams, which right now it would. Could you imagine if NYRB or LA Galaxy were to get relegated right now? They'd have to dump their entire rosters to make up for the fact that no one would go watch them against NASL teams.

# 13 HKPound @ 04/02/13 11:31 AM

I've honestly never seen the issue with the MLS Superdraft, how does that hurt the league at all? Oh no, we are actually giving people the opportunity to get an education and pursue athletics, we must be idiots! The academies are growing which will help the league as well as the USMNT.

# 14 Jazzman1522 @ 04/02/13 11:32 AM

What keeps me from playing MLS in FIFA isn't the poor representation of MLS rules. It's the lack of a faithful representation of the US Open Cup and the lack of a CONCACAF Champions League to play in. This is totally wishful thinking, and will likely never happen, but I would love to see a game that is almost MLS-centric, but not quite. I would love it to include the development leagues in the U.S., if for no other reason than to play them in the Open Cup and to scout players from them. Then, throw in Liga MX teams and some Caribbean teams to play in Champions League. I would love this. It'll never happen, I'm sure, but I would love it.

# 15 HKPound @ 04/02/13 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jazzman1522


	What keeps me from playing MLS in FIFA isn't the poor representation of MLS rules. It's the lack of a faithful representation of the US Open Cup and the lack of a CONCACAF Champions League to play in. This is totally wishful thinking, and will likely never happen, but I would love to see a game that is almost MLS-centric, but not quite. I would love it to include the development leagues in the U.S., if for no other reason than to play them in the Open Cup and to scout players from them. Then, throw in Liga MX teams and some Caribbean teams to play in Champions League. I would love this. It'll never happen, I'm sure, but I would love it.

Yeah it's really a shame. Football Manager gets it down pat but EA won't do the same.

# 16 RedAL925 @ 04/02/13 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jazzman1522


	What keeps me from playing MLS in FIFA isn't the poor representation of MLS rules. It's the lack of a faithful representation of the US Open Cup and the lack of a CONCACAF Champions League to play in. This is totally wishful thinking, and will likely never happen, but I would love to see a game that is almost MLS-centric, but not quite. I would love it to include the development leagues in the U.S., if for no other reason than to play them in the Open Cup and to scout players from them. Then, throw in Liga MX teams and some Caribbean teams to play in Champions League. I would love this. It'll never happen, I'm sure, but I would love it.

What would you expect to happen 1st from EA: (A) adding NASL/USL-Pro for US Open Cup accuracy or (B) adding Carib/Central American teams to "Rest of World" for CONCACAF Champs accuracy?

Personally I think (A) would happen before (B), but I won't be holding my breath for either to happen anytime soon.

# 17 prettyfly @ 04/02/13 12:20 PM

Asking for accurate MLS league? What's next? Asking for accurate women soccer?

nah i think they should first try to make a better football (soccer) simulation befor they think about anything else....overhaul the AI, more variability at scoring goals, better dribbling animations and differences between the superstars (right now pretty much every player feels the same), more realistic player development, smarter transfermarket AI, implement coaches which will form teams differently etc.

# 18 celticfang @ 04/03/13 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blublub


	Not to mention there actually was a dedicated Konami MLS game many years back that was actually pretty good yet sold miserably. I doubt EA wants to go there.

Which was just a rebadged and reskinned (at the time) PS1 era PES game. It had the standared PES teams and the MLS teams tacked on.

I'd rather see another developer pick up the MLS reins and try to do an accurate MLS/NASL sim, I've not played too far into the indie soccer game scene but if anyone can do it (minus licenses and with fudged, but fixable names), it's the indie scene.

# 19 moblipeg @ 04/03/13 10:57 AM

I think the hard part about making a completely separate game is predicting exactly how many would buy it. Yes we can throw out fake metrics such as "x" amount of people bought FIFA 2013, so "y" amount of people will buy MLS 2014. Are FIFA purchasers buying the game to play as their favorite MLS team, or their favorite BPL team, or La Liga team, etc? Or are they even soccer fans at all? Maybe some gamers buy it because it is truly the best sports sim game out there. Some people I know don't even like hockey, yet they still buy NHL games every year because they are made well. I think it make just be easier from a cost standpoint for EA to just add in some bare bones options within career mode to make playing as an MLS team more palatable. I think all that you would need is some sort of salary cap structure put into the logic for just that league and a draft to take place. The game already generates fake names and backgrounds when you scout. I wouldn't think it'd be to hard for a basic draft to happen for just that league in career mode.

# 20 kerosene31 @ 04/03/13 12:16 PM

I'd love to see the MLS built out more realistically in Fifa 14.

As an American fan, I definitely wouldn't want a separate release. I'd rather keep a half-baked MLS option and still be able to play the rest of the world. I enjoy playing in the MLS, but not exclusively.

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