EA Sports will not be bringing the controversial VAR to FIFA 19 – but hasn’t ruled it out for future games.
Speaking to Eurogamer, creative director Matt Prior said the game already knows ‘the pinpoint location of everything’, making a VAR system redundant.
Thanks to the way the game is coded, you’ll never be able to score an offside goal or be awarded a penalty for a foul outside of the box, for example.
“We technically have VAR in the game because we know the pinpoint location of everything,” Prior told Eurogamer.
However, Prior didn’t rule out the possibility of VAR coming to the series in the future – should the technology become an essential fabric to the game.
“There’s still a learning process of how ultimately it levels out to how it’s used,” he said.
“There’s a grey area. But it’s definitely something we’ll monitor. If it becomes part of the footballing fabric to the point where it feels weird that it isn’t in a regular game, even if we don’t need it, then it’s something we can look at introducing.
“If there is that anticipation moment in real football that becomes a thing – and if we wanted to create that in our game because of authenticity… if it didn’t happen in our game and it’s happening all the time in the real game, arguably you could say we’re missing a part of the football fabric.”
Elsewhere, EA Sports has taken steps to stop players time-wasting by passing the ball around the back in Ultimate Team.
Speaking to Gamereactor, FIFA 19 gameplay producer Samuel Rivera said gamers will have ‘more tools’ to combat the tactic after an outcry from Ultimate Team fans.
“We knew that some people when they’re winning sometimes just start passing at the back,” he said.
“This year what we’re doing to give you more tools so that you have control and you can defend that. {It’s called} the Team Press.
“You can set it up from your tactics – which by the way all the tactics are new – so the tactics tell you when you want that Team Press to happen.
“When you lose possession, everybody should go put pressure.
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“If you think somebody’s kind of in a bad moment to control the ball going backwards, you can try and sort of surprise with that pressure.”
He went on to add: “Obviously, like any tactic, it has to have a disadvantage.
“So, if you’re doing it and somebody is able to get out of pressure when you’re doing it, then they will have an easier time going against your defenders ’cause all your midfielders were gone trying to put pressure.”
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