There’s quite a bit more to Volta Football, FIFA 20’s new street-style small-sided mode, than we’ve been shown so far.
After EA’s initial reveal on Saturday, I sat down with Matt Prior, FIFA 20’s Creative Director at EA Sports, as well as Lead Producer Sam Rivera, lead Volta Producer Jeff Antwi, and Executive Producer Aaron McHardy, for a more in-depth look at both Volta mode and the 11-versus-11 sides of the game. There was also the chance to put some question to them about both – and plenty inbetween, including FIFA’s business model, the persistence (and EA Sports’ defence) of pay-to-win mechanics and loot boxes in Ultimate Team, and why it takes a full year for what feel like pretty critical updates to the flow of the game.
But first! Before all that, the things we actually learned about Volta mode and those eleven aside updates themselves.
Volta, I’m told, is “additive”. By that EA Sports means that developers haven’t been taken off any other parts of the game to make it. More people have been brought in and Volta goes on top of everything else in FIFA like some kind of nice street-cherry on the footballing cake (apart from the Nintendo Switch cake, that is, which is now a “Legacy” title and shall remain Volta-less).