FIFA 20 is an association football simulation video game published by Electronic Arts as part of the FIFA series. It is the 27th installment in the FIFA series, and was released on 27 September 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Real Madrid winger Eden Hazard was named the new cover star of the Regular Edition, with Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk on the cover of the Champions Edition. Former Juventus and Real Madrid midfielder Zinedine Zidane was later named as the cover star for the Ultimate Edition.
The game features VOLTA Football for the first time, a new mode that provides a variance on the traditional 11v11 gameplay and focuses on small-sided street and futsal games. The mode is believed to be focused on the former FIFA Street series.
Plot[]
The game is based on the 2019–2020 international soccer season.
Gameplay[]
Gameplay changes to FIFA 20 focus primarily on a new feature titled VOLTA Football. The mode, which translates to 'return' in Portuguese, focuses on street football rather than the traditional matches associated with the FIFA series. It includes several options to play in three versus three, four versus four and five versus five matches, as well as with professional futsal rules. The mode will incorporate the same engine, but places emphasis on skill and independent play rather than tactical or team play.
Additionally, players have the option to customise their player by gender, clothing, shoes, hats and tattoos. Following the completion of the three-part series "The Journey" in FIFA 19, players can now have a similar storyline mode in VOLTA Football, which would be played with the player's own character.
Changes were also made to the traditional 11 versus 11 mode to encourage more one-on-ones and off-the-ball space creation. New penalty and free-kick mechanics were implemented and updates were made to the ball physics.
VOLTA Football includes 17 locations, with each providing a unique experience. As well as a generic warehouse and parking lot, players can also compete in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Lagos, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, New York City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Tokyo.
Commentary is once again provided by Martin Tyler and Alan Smith and alternating with Derek Rae and Lee Dixon for all competitions, with Alan McInally providing in-game score updates.
Pro Clubs[]
Pro clubs is a game mode in FIFA 20 where players can create personalised pros and compete in a squad against other squads online. The objective is to rise up the Divisions, starting in Division 10 and climbing to compete for the Division 1 title.
Ultimate Team[]
Ultimate Team features 88 icon players, including 15 new names. Carlos Alberto, John Barnes, Kenny Dalglish, Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Garrincha, Pep Guardiola, Kaká, Ronald Koeman, Andrea Pirlo, Ian Rush, Hugo Sánchez, Ian Wright, Gianluca Zambrotta and Zinedine Zidane all feature as icons for the first time.[15]
Two new game modes – King of the Hill and Mystery Ball – are also incorporated in Ultimate Team following their previous inclusion in kick-off mode. Mystery Ball gives the attacking side boosts to passing, shooting, dribbling, speed or all attributes, adding unpredictability to every match. King of the Hill sees players fight for possession in a randomly generated zone on the pitch to boost the amount the next goal is worth. Ultimate Team also includes a new dedicated kit supporting Premier League's no room for racism campaign.
Career Mode[]
Career Mode, following feedback from the community, saw some major updates - mainly to the manager mode. New additions include fully interactive press conferences and player conversations, an improved player morale system which can affect the team or individual players stats, performance levels and stance with the manager. The ability to fully customise the manager’s appearance and gender, a new dynamic player potential system, live news screenshots, league oriented UI and new negotiation environments.
Licenses[]
The game will feature more than 30 official leagues, over 700 clubs and over 17,000 players. Included for the first time is the Romanian Liga I and its 14 teams, as well as Emirati club Al Ain, who were added following extensive requests from the fans in the region.
Juventus, Boca Juniors and River Plate are not featured after they signed exclusive partnership deals with eFootball PES 2020, and instead are known as Piemonte Calcio, Buenos Aires and Núñez. The game would retain the players' likenesses, but the official badge and kits will be unavailable and instead feature custom designs produced by EA Sports and also lose their stadium licenses like the Juventus Stadium, La Bombonera and El Monumental. Bayern Munich is featured in the game with their licensed players and kits but without their home stadium the Allianz Arena.
FIFA 20 will retain the exclusive licenses to the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Super Cup first seen in FIFA 19. The deal includes authentic broadcast packages, branding, and custom commentary. Additionally, the Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and the Recopa Sudamericana is featured in the game via an update released on 13 March 2020.
Stadiums[]
There are 92 fully licensed stadiums from 15 countries in FIFA 20, as well as 29 generic stadiums. Bramall Lane has been included following Sheffield United's promotion, ensuring that all Premier League teams have their respective stadiums. Three new Spanish stadiums have also been added – Estadio El Alcoraz (home of SD Huesca), Estadio De Vallecas (home of Rayo Vallecano) and Estadio José Zorrilla (home of Real Valladolid).
As part of an extensive new licensing deal, 13 new stadiums across the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga will be included. These include BayArena (home of Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Mercedes-Benz Arena (home of VfB Stuttgart), Red Bull Arena (home of RB Leipzig) and Volkswagen Arena (home of VfL Wolfsburg). Also added into the game is the Groupama Stadium, home of Olympique Lyonnais in Ligue 1; Red Bull Arena, home of New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer; as well as the 2020 UEFA Champions League Final venue Atatürk Olympic Stadium. 2 new stadiums were added in 2020 when the Copa Libertadores was released in March. The stadium Estadio Libertadores de América of the Argentinian club Club Atlético Independiente is now available, as well as the stadium Estadio Presidente Juan Domingo Perón of the Argentinian club Racing Club de Avellaneda.
Release[]
Demo/EA Access[]
The FIFA 20 demo was released on 10 September 2019 and includes 6 playable teams which can be played on the UEFA Champions League kick-off mode – Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid and a demo of the new VOLTA Football mode. The demo is available for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
The game was released through the EA Access subscription on 24 September 2019, which also offers a free 10 hour trial.
Covers[]
FIFA 20 features three cover stars across all regional editions. Real Madrid winger Eden Hazard was named the new cover star of the Regular Edition, with Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk on the cover of the Champions Edition. Former Real Madrid and midfielder Zinedine Zidane was later named as the cover star for the Ultimate Edition.
Legacy Edition[]
Whilst the Xbox One, PS4 and PC versions will have all of the new features, the Nintendo Switch version will instead be a Legacy Edition, with updated kits, rosters and minor updates, but without the new VOLTA Football mode or any of the other new features. FIFA 20 was not released on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, making FIFA 19 the final game in the series to be released on those platforms.
Development[]
Reception[]
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FIFA 20 received "generally favourable" reviews for the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game from critics, while the Nintendo Switch version received "generally unfavorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.
Despite changing some of the mode's features, upon release, the game's Career Mode was criticised for being riddled with bugs including computer-controlled opposition managers picking unusually weak teams, players changing positions seemingly at random, and unexplained ratings changes. The criticism has been described as "issues that either turn its take on realism into a bit of a joke or break the game entirely", with claims that EA is attempting to cover up or downplay the game's flaws. The "#FixCareerMode" hashtag trended for several days on Twitter in the United Kingdom, with fans hoping to draw attention to the issues in the mode. On 16 October 2019, EA responded by releasing a new patch for the game which fixed various issues that were reported to be present. In a re-review of the game by the Bleacher Report, (it originally awarded the game a 7.5/10 rating), it was described as a 'defensive borefest', going on to criticise the game as frustrating and unbalanced; citing server issues, frustrating game mechanics such as the slow communication between players and the overpowering of AI defending mechanic (a criticism shared by various players online), as well as a general lack of 'fun challenges and rewards' in the popular 'Ultimate Team' mode. Bleacher Report then gave an updated score of 6/10. This view was even shared by former world No. 1 FIFA player 'Fnatic Tekzz', who said a pro event, "Nobody enjoys playing it." Many professional players online have widely FIFA 20 as one of the most frustrating editions in the history of the franchise, citing the clunky gameplay and balancing issues. In early October 2019, it was reported that some players' personal information was exposed to other gamers. Some players' that signed up to the Fifa 20 Global Series found a completed registration form with other people's information. The error exposed email addresses and birth dates of players. According to EA the problem affected about 1,600 people.
Awards[]
| Year | Award | Category | Result | 2019 | Gamescom | Best Sports Game | Nominated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 Golden Joystick Awards | Best Multiplayer Game | Nominated | |||||
| Titanium Awards | Best Sports/Racing Game | Nominated | |||||
| The Game Awards 2019 | Nominated | ||||||
| 2020 | Guild of Music Supervisors Awards | Best Music Supervision in a Video Game | Won | ||||
| 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards | Sports Game of the Year | Won | |||||
| NAVGTR Awards | Game, Franchise Sports | Nominated |