EA Sports Announces Football Club, The Heartbeat of FIFA Soccer 12

[Steve_OS]

Check out the PS3 screenshots here and the 360 screenshots, right here.

EA SPORTS FOOTBALL CLUB DELIVERS REVOLUTIONARY NEW WAY TO CONNECT AND COMPETE IN EA SPORTS FIFA SOCCER 12

Status, Progression, and Real-World Storylines Will Drive Experience

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – June 6, 2011 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today a new live service* called EA SPORTS™ Football Club that will bring the world’s most passionate sports fans together and engage them within the massive FIFA online community. EA SPORTS Football Club—the heartbeat of FIFA Soccer 12 —connects players to the real-world game with fresh, new content all the time, enabling them to support their favorite club in new ways connected to real-world events, and connect and compete with friends, rivals and millions of other players around the world.

“The millions of fans playing FIFA online have shown us there is a constant appetite for a deep connected experience, driven by a love of the sport,” said Matt Bilbey, Vice President and General Manager of Soccer for the FIFA Soccer franchise. “EA SPORTS Football Club is a new social experience that brings the world’s soccer fans together, engaging and entertaining them in new ways that have never been done before in a sports game.”

EA SPORTS Football Club creates a new social experience where fans can connect and compete with their friends and millions of other fans playing FIFA Soccer 12, where status, bragging rights and progression are all measured and ever-changing. For the first time ever, everything that happens within EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer 12—and against friends—is measured in a meaningful way. Every match matters, all season long. Earn experience points and level up to build your status. Track friends, challenges and status through the web at easportsfootball.com. Share and compare accomplishments and spread the news on social channels like Facebook.

EA SPORTS Football Club also ignites the passion of sports fans and deepens their connection to their favourite team through Support Your Club, a central experience in EA SPORTS Football Club that enables fans to represent their club and compete against rival clubs in everything they do in FIFA Soccer 12. Earn club points and lift your club higher in the Support Your Club League Tables or help them avoid relegation. Virtual league tables are reset each week to create new challenges, renewed rivalries, and fresh storylines.

Fans will be more closely connected to the sport than ever before. Real-world storylines will drive content in EA SPORTS Football Club, making the game feel fresh and new all the time. Gamers will relive crucial real-world soccer events through regular challenges. EA SPORTS Football Club will have a dedicated team deliver new content and challenges so that FIFA Soccer 12 will look, feel and play like the real-world season.

There will be no additional charge for EA SPORTS Football Club as the service kicks off with FIFA Soccer 12 on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and PC when the game launches this fall.

To pre-order FIFA Soccer 12 visit http://www.easportsfootball.com. For the latest news on FIFA Soccer 12 join more than five million fans in the EA SPORTS FIFA community at http://www.facebook.com/easportsfifa or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/easportsfifa.

[Canes305]

Is everyone coming out with some kind of useless social interface?Do we have to pay for this also?

[PaperBoyx703]

Im pretty sure there is nothing forcing you to use it.

[Qb]

Re: EA Sports Announces Football Club, The Heartbeat of FIFA Soccer 12

Is everyone coming out with some kind of useless social interface?Do we have to pay for this also?

Towards the end of the press release it says it is free:

There will be no additional charge for EA SPORTS Football Club as the service kicks off with FIFA Soccer 12 on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and PC when the game launches this fall.

I'm not too big into online rankings & such --although it sounds like it could be cool for those who are -- but I am excited about the DLC real-world scenarios. I always enjoyed those with the World Cup game.

[misterbroom12]

This again seems like time wasted in the development of the game. We all are expecting and know that there will be problems with things like CM, whether it be as a manager or player, yet they always release the game with something like this that doesn't really add anything to the game. Your profile in the game held all your stats, if yourself and your friends truly cared you could all look them up quickly and tell each other and compare. We don't need online rankings to tell us.

[JMUfootball]

Re: EA Sports Announces Football Club, The Heartbeat of FIFA Soccer 12

Im pretty sure there is nothing forcing you to use it.

That's not the point though. The point is that precious development manhours and $$ went into making this mode. If offline career mode also got the necessary attention, the online mode could be a nice bonus. But from all the announcements, I have not seen anything about any improvements to one of the worst offline Career/Franchise/Manager modes in any sports game.

I think the online mode has potential, but is extremely ambitious at this point. Clubs are ranked based on how many points their users accumulate? Won't this just result in the most popular clubs being the highest ranked because they are the most played? The best part of the mode seems to be the matchmaking capability for fans of lesser clubs to find each other virtually and perhaps forge some sort of friendship. For example, Ipswich Town fans who play FIFA might be few and far between, but this mode makes it seem like they can easily find each other and play against each other.

Really the mode seems like more of an Online Lobby than anything, which is only marginally useful as soccer fans already have established methods of communication in place (online forums, facebook, club supporters' groups).

[sarlndr]

Re: EA Sports Announces Football Club, The Heartbeat of FIFA Soccer 12

misterbroom12 and JMUfootball have hit the nail on the head with this one.

CM mode needs/has to be fixed in order for this game to warrant a purchase from me this year.

[JJT]

Re: EA Sports Announces Football Club, The Heartbeat of FIFA Soccer 12

waste of time for sure, becomes useless when 13 comes out.

[scottyo60]

All I know is the Columbus Crew and random players here and there so every time I get a soccer game I feel so overwhelmed by everything.

[chadskee]

Re: EA Sports Announces Football Club, The Heartbeat of FIFA Soccer 12

Social integration is going to make it's way in to just about every game from here on out. It's inevitable.

[rckabillyRaider]

Re: EA Sports Announces Football Club, The Heartbeat of FIFA Soccer 12

Totally agree that the time/resources used for this should have been put to better use on other aspects of the game

[Whitesox]

Re: EA Sports Announces Football Club, The Heartbeat of FIFA Soccer 12

Social integration is going to make it's way in to just about every game from here on out. It's inevitable.

Especially in EA games, looking at the massive success that was Autolog in Hot Pursuit.