After the release of the demo last week there were some more grand reveals about the forthcoming edition of EA’s FIFA franchise. FIFA 18 will be the first title to feature a handful of esports team jerseys in the game.
Official jerseys from the likes of Fnatic, Vitality and Team Liquid will be available to use in the game, as the game publisher looks to push further with its esports agenda.
Most of these announcements came through Twitter, and there could potentially be more on the way. Another team, Hashtag United, a popular YouTube football team with a number of FIFA players on its books, will also have its kits in the game.
We're very happy to announce that this year's #ASRoma eSports kits will be available on @EASPORTSFIFA Ultimate Team! ??? #FIFA18 pic.twitter.com/cIX77eDDcT
— AS Roma Esports (@ASRomaEsports) September 15, 2017
To our knowledge, this is the first time that a FIFA title has included non footballing team kits in its game. The kits will be available in FIFA 18’s Ultimate Team mode, and the full game is due out on September 29th.
We’ll be interested to see what else EA Sports has planned in esports teams for this year’s FIFA title, as rumour has it there will be some serious push on this side. We expect there’ll be a number more pro football clubs signing up players, especially in the Premier League, and more tournaments and leagues to boot.
Last year’s FIFA Interactive World Cup saw its prize pool increased 100% from the year prior, which is testament to EA looking to progress the game’s somewhat nascent esports scene. This year could well prove a turning point for FIFA esports, though getting strong viewership numbers for pro matches and tournaments will remain a significant challenge.
Esports Insider says: FIFA 17 sold an estimated 6.91m copies in its first week of retail. FIFA 18 is likely to be similarly huge. In terms of getting the word of esports out there, and moreover publicising some of the teams in the space, this is a major move to bring it to a massive new audience.
