By Zaheer Kachwala
(Reuters) – Cristiano Ronaldo-backed UFL plans to launch a PC edition in summer and a mobile version next year, the CEO behind the studio that made the soccer videogame said, looking to take advantage of a slowdown at industry leader Electronic Arts.
The free-to-play game that was launched in December on Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series consoles has already hit more than 3 million downloads.
Since the studio, Strikerz, lacks the rights to use many official team kits, it partnered with professional footballers’ union FIFPro to feature popular players.
“I would expect the PC (version) to be released somewhere between the end of spring and summer…between May and August,” Strikerz founder Eugene Nashilov said in interview to Reuters.
The game could be an alternative to EA’s “FC”, formerly “FIFA” games, which has dominated the football gaming world for more than two decades with their yearly releases and licensing deals, several gamers and analysts have said.
“In the coming months, maybe February, maybe March, we are expecting to have an alpha test on PC,” Nashilov said, as the studio looks to develop features that would be exclusive to PC.
One of the selling points of UFL is it is free to play, a formula that Nashilov would like to keep as monetization is focused more on paid downloadable content such as a career mode. For comparison, EA “FC 25” costs $70 in the U.S.
The studio has also planned several updates to the game this year to improve functions such as “reputation” – a currency which can be used to buy players.
Unlike the annual launches of EA’s soccer title, UFL is taking a live-service approach where the game gets frequent updates to add new content, fix issues and make changes.
Yearly launches were partly to blame for the underperformance of EA’s newest soccer title, Nashilov said, echoing a view shared by some gamers who argue EA should take more time to bring in significant game-play changes.
Still, with around 18 million to 20 million people playing EA’s online multi-player mode Ultimate Team, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, the company remains a juggernaut that will be tough to challenge.
Player reviews for UFL have been poor with a user score of 3.4 out of 10 on review website Metacritic with most of the complaints relating to the sluggish movement mechanics. “FC 25” however has a lower user rating of 2.6.
The game is backed by soccer superstar Ronaldo who joined the project along with a team of investors more than two years ago and is also a minority stakeholder.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
Comments