As promised, EA Sports has unveiled FIFA 22, with a trailer that intersperses real world footage with bits and pieces of gameplay from the upcoming game. As gameplay reveals go, it’s a pretty sparse one, and it doesn’t really tell us a whole deal much about the game- but thankfully, EA itself has revealed some details.
The big flagship new feature that FIFA 22 is built around is HyperMotion Techology, which, it seems, is EA Sports’ catch-all term for a nuanced new animations system they’ve put in place. Essentially, they’ve recorded authentic motion capture from 11 vs 11 matches and used “a cutting-edge proprietary machine learning algorithm”. This algorith uses machine learning, and EA says it “learns from over 8.7 million frames of advanced match capture, then writes new animations in real time to create organic football realism across a variety of interactions on the pitch.”
According to EA, HyperMotion Technology records “every touch, tackle, sprint and duel from all 22 players playing at high intensity for the first time ever, capturing data that powers over 4000 new animations in FIFA 22 to raise the footballing intensity, responsiveness, and physicality of every player in the game.”
These improved animations will lead to more dynamic aerial duels, better ball control, and “player humanization.” About the latter, EA says on its website, “Powered by Advanced 11v11 Match Capture, new off-ball player animations and ambient behaviour help bring on-pitch characters to life. See opponents talk, point, and direct each other based on the action, while updated locomotion matches players’ urgency on the pitch to make FIFA more realistic and immersive than ever.” Meanwhile, offensive and defensive AI improvements are also touted.
FIFA 22 will launch on October 1 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. HyperMotion, it seems, is only going to be in the game on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Stadia. The apparent lack of support on PC is surprising, especially seeing as this will be the second year running that PC players will be getting the inferior FIFA experience.