As is the case every year, Electronic Arts (EA for short) is getting ready to launch another entry in its long-running FIFA series. Still going strong since its inception in the mid-90’s, FIFA is only challenged these days by Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (or PES as its known to its friends) when it comes to letting players on PC and console enjoy the beautiful game.
This year, though, FIFA will ship with a new technology known as “HyperMotion” (more on this later), as well as all the world’s top teams, players and leagues. There are exceptions of course – the likes of Juventus from Italian Serie A features with a different name and player kits, while other teams like Atalanta have signed exclusive deals with rival PES too…
Aside from this, there’s also the matter that FIFA 22 won’t let console players automatically upgrade to the PS5 or Xbox Series X/S version of the game, as was recently reported on IGN.
That is unless they get the Ultimate edition of the game, which retails for $99.99 US dollars. This is in contrast to last year’s FIFA 21 which let PS4 or Xbox One players automatically upgrade to the new-gen, PS5 or Xbox Series X/S version free of charge.
This time, though, “dual entitlement” will only be granted to those who purchase the Ultimate edition of the game as stated earlier, and as described on EA’s website.
Electronic Arts decision might have to do with the fact that FIFA 22 is getting a big next-gen upgrade in the form of HyperMotion gameplay, which will only be available on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and not on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Yes, for the first time in years the PC version of the game will lag behind the console versions. FIFA 22 on PC will be based on the PS4 and Xbox One versions instead this year, and won’t feature any of the fancy new “HyperMotion” stuff.
According to EA, HyperMotion uses advanced motion capture in order to “raise the footballing intensity, responsiveness, and physicality of every player in the game” and cutting-edge machine learning “to create organic football realism across a variety of interactions on the pitch”.
But no matter how fancy the stuff EA is doing with its HyperMotion technology might be, there’s no reason why a high-end PC cannot run the new-gen version of FIFA 22. But EA told Eurogamer in late 2020 that the average PC player is running FIFA on less powerful PCs, and raising the system requirements to accommodate all the next-gen bells and whistles would leave many fans out in the cold.
“When we looked at what generation to put the PC game on, we looked at our fans and what capabilities they had with the hardware they have”, said EA via FIFA executive producer Aaron McHardy.
“And we have that information to understand what the power of the PCs out there in the world are. And when we looked at that, in order to run the gen five game, our min spec would have been at a spot that would have left a lot of people out in the cold not being able to play the game”, added McHardy.
PC gamers will therefore have to settle for the last-gen version of FIFA 22, or otherwise fork out for a new-gen console to enjoy FIFA 22 in all its glory. The problem is that new-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X are still in short supply (and the situation might not change at all this year), meaning most people will likely be running the last-gen version of FIFA 22 when it comes out on October 1 this year.
But still, PC players will eventually get the next-gen enhancements found in FIFA 22 as has been the case in the past, and it’s likely that FIFA 23 or FIFA 24 will be as fully featured on PC as it will be on console, even if having to wait for this might undeniably be a source of frustration for some no doubt.