How EA FC 25’s biggest new feature was inspired by Clubs

EA FC 25‘s biggest new feature, Rush, is set to take the community by storm and in an exclusive interview with Dexerto the developers gushed about how players’ feedback helped them get there.

The new installment of EA Sports FC is set to release on September 27, 2024, but those who pre-purchased the Ultimate Edition will be able to access the game a week earlier.

During my time discovering everything new that EA FC 25 has to offer, I was able to sit down and talk with Tim Abel (Associate Producer) and Kantcho Doskov (Game Designer), who explained to me why this new installment is so focused on connecting its players with each other.

RUSH

Even though the EA FC games have always allowed players to interact online or locally in co-op, the team behind the game knew that it could go further, and after evaluating the feedback from their community, they decided to create Rush.

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“Football is a social experience at its core, so this year we went further into that”, says Tim Abel, the mastermind behind the Clubs game mode – which also obtained many new features and improvements. While Doskov added, “What we really wanted to do was create a super engaging and exciting social experience because we know people wanna work with their friends”.

Rush has been defined as a “tailor-made experience for friends” since it is a 5v5 that takes place on a shorter field, where 4 players take control of a team while the goalkeeper is managed by the AI.

“It’s something that we’ve been working on for over two years now and when we first prototyped it, just on the pure gameplay side, we found it was so much fun,” Doskov said. “We just thought if we can create a small-sided gameplay experience that has all the benefits of our normal 11v11 game and super
polished mechanics, if we can condense that into a 5v5 where you can quickly find your friends and just play together and have fun, that was our ultimate vision”, he continued.

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While a smaller pitch creates a more dynamic match in which each player has the ball for more time, what makes Rush fun and different from a classic 11v11 co-op is that the users – at least in Clubs and Ultimate Team – are locked to a single player, which means they cannot rotate among themselves.

Those who have played 11v11 know that when they release control of one player to pass to another, the one they were using automatically returns to its usual position. In Rush, by being locked to a single player, the place where your character stands on the pitch will depend on you and that is where communication and, above all, coordination between players becomes crucial.

RUSH in every mode

Unlike VOLTA, which was a game mode, Rush is a feature and as such it is implemented in all the game modes offered by EA FC 25. The interesting thing is that – in each of them – it works differently and has a specific purpose.

“While Volta was more of an individuality skilled base kinda gameplay, we wanted Rush to ensure that all of the good parts of 11v11 gameplay that focused around social play like teamwork, build up, passes, and crossing, were still present on this small-sided experience “, Doskov shared.

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In Career Mode, you compete in 5v5 matches using Youth Academy players to help them develop and raise their stats throughout the season. However, in Clubs, the purpose is to compete to earn points and move up in the ranking, while in Ultimate Team you can choose your dream players to compete for juicy rewards.

“We know that millions of people play EA FC differently, so we just wanted to create a specific experience for each of those that would be interesting for those members of the community. Just because the core gameplay was so much fun for us, we just ran with it and we tried to make it as interesting as possible in Ultimate Team, Clubs, and Career Mode”, Doskov continued. “It was so much fun that we just had to go big. I can’t wait over the next week to hear the feedback so we can incorporate it into our future plans.”

Going full-on social

The change of direction comes from an analysis of what players were asking from the EA FC team.

“Sometimes FC can be very competitive and it’s 1v1, and we hear from the community that they just want to relax a little, play with their friends and have fun,” Doskov said. “There was Clubs 11v11 but sometimes it is hard to find so many people to fill the team and you have to rely on AI. So with Rush, you can find your friends and you can just have fun in a much faster way”.

EA SPORTS/DEXERTO

Abel chipped in, saying: “We have an understanding of where our players want to spend their time. So from a Clubs perspective, being able to integrate Rush into the Clubs experience allows players to continue to level up or offer an alternative if they want to take a break from the standard 11v11 gameplay experience.

“I think Clubs is the most authentic football gaming experience and we know from our community that Clubs is at its best. And now it’s as social as possible with more humans working together to unlock the opposition and there’s little AI involvement as possible, but that does take a lot of friends takes a lot of coordination”.

EA FC 25 will maintain its competitive spirits, but all the new features added will definitely change the way players interact with each other, giving them the opportunity to simply have a good time by putting themselves in the shoes of their favorite football stars.

If you can’t wait to start playing, make sure you’re up to date with the new ICONS and heroes coming to EA FC 25, as well as all the top 50 players and the biggest upgrades and downgrades.