EA says more FIFA games likely for Switch, talk about missing story mode in FIFA 18 and single Joy-Con play
You may recall that FIFA’s appearance on Wii U was very short-lived. After FIFA 13, that was pretty much it for the console. With FIFA and Switch, however, things are likely to be different.
FIFA supervising producer Andrei Lazarescu told GameSpot, “I think we are going to see more FIFA on Switch in the future.” He also feels that FIFA 18 on Switch is “the best portable FIFA we’ve ever done”.
In terms of content, FIFA 18 on Switch matches up well to its PlayStation 4 and Xbox One counterparts. However, it’s lacking The Journey, which is apparently only possible with Frostbite. Switch could get the mode in the future, but only if the game was running on that engine.
Lazarescu explained:
“The Journey is a mode powered by Frostbite [the engine that current-gen versions of the game run on], it only exists because of Frostbite–they are not separate. You can’t just [put it on Switch] without taking the whole Frostbite engine. So because this doesn’t have Frostbite, it doesn’t have The Journey.”
“If we moved the [Switch] game over to Frostbite, then yes it could happen. But I don’t know if that’s going to happen. Frostbite is a very different beast.”
Lazarescu also touched on single Joy-Con play:
“[When playing with one Joy-Con,] obviously you don’t have the [right] stick. You don’t have as many buttons, [and] you only have the two bumpers, instead of triggers and bumpers. We created a custom scheme for this, called Four Button Mode. The advantage of it, is that with just one console, you can play FIFA 1v1, without buying anything else.
“You can knock the ball ahead of you by double tapping the sprint button. [For chipped shots and finesse shots,] you can use modifiers–[but] you can’t use skill moves.
“Is this the ideal way to play the game? No. It’s just a way for people to play the game.”
