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For a growing number of people, myself included, EA Sports' goal of forcing FIFA into every gap in our lives has already been achieved. When I wake up I set player auctions on my phone. When I get to work I use the web app to check their progress. At lunchtime I play 2v2 with the guys from sales. When I get home I play a few online tournament games. On slow weekends I throw down some micro-transactions and build a new team. When I'm not doing that, I'm watching YouTubers. (I'm a particular fan of Itani's Five Pack Challenge.)Ultimate Team is the key - a mode so good that it has become FIFA's most prominent, and so successful that it has propelled EA Sports' Andrew Wilson to CEO of the whole company. For anyone who has never tried it, Ultimate Team involves buying blind packs of cards, which represent players and consumables, and assembling a fantasy team with them. You then take part in tournaments and trade items with other players either in-game or using companion apps. Packs can be bought using in-game currency earned from trades and games played or by spending real money on micro-transactions. All the right licences and slick, gratifying gameplay keep it interesting for months.
Years, in fact. It's often said that people play football games all year round, but I played Ultimate Team in FIFA 13 pretty much until FIFA 14 arrived for review. EA introduces regular new tournaments that coax you into trying new players and team concepts, while special packs are released for sale during happy hour events and the contents of packs are refreshed with upgraded Team of the Week players, nicknamed 'in-forms', throughout the year that follows the game's release. They're rare to come by in packs and expensive on the transfer market, but even if I can't have the card myself, I can still enjoy the likes of IF Aubameyang vicariously through YouTube videos.
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