How Microtransactions KILLED Football Games. 

I wish there was a football game that combined fifa and fm

the original fifa street game deserved a mention imo. The most fun fifa game I’ve ever played

PES is one of my favorite sports games ever, it's tough to accept that it's basically gone. I just felt it always had a more realistic feel than FIFA. I also liked the way that you could create or alter almost everything. FIFA is really the only choice at this point. It's OK, and the presentation is always stellar, but the gameplay never has measured up to PES. Seems like the decline in football games mirrors the decline in all sports games. It just feels like developers don't put a lot of work into sports games. As you alluded to in the video, there are countless features that were available on systems that were much less powerful than today's consoles that are no longer included.

Your timeline is completely accurate. The amount of features we had in those older Manager modes on FIFA compared to the barebones tired existence it is today, it's truly astounding

PES from 2016 onwards were all pretty outstanding in my opinion. The actual football was so rewarding and responsive, but improvements from game-to-game were pretty stagnant. In the last game before eFootball I was still hearing the same commentary lines I'd been hearing for almost a decade.

Best part is it’s on purpose lol

FIFA has a lot of problems similar to other modern online games (such as COD), the drive towards store content and in game transactions rather than providing a quality game and the manipulative matchmaking. Ultimate team transfer market used to be fun as you could occasionally pick up a bargain or make a killing on a sale, now its just very bland. And the Career Mode/Manager Mode just hasn't really developed enough.

Pes 6 is simply the greatest football sim of all time, also the fact you mention how elite ryan babel could get was quite nostalgic for me as he was my star striker of endless goals, assists and appearances in master league for at least 10 seasons

I'm 46 and played them all - you nailed it with the peak being 2006 - 2012. PES 2004-6 (really ISS from '98 to '06) was the best football on console, but Konami couldn't seem to cope with the transition to the PS3 era and shift to online gameplay. FIFA and FUT took over, and probably peaked around FIFA 12/13/14. FUT was still quite innocent then, but the focus shifted to the esport competitive scene around 2016, and the focus now is on "Weekend League" and players having to essentially put in full-time job hours in order to keep up with the market and play matches in a fixed timeframe. Lazyness, a lack of focus on gameplay, awful servers, and greed, caused the decline in FIFA. We are in an interesting time though - there are at least 2 new potential franchises in the works, and the reboot of FIFA next year via EAFC. The gaming industry overall is in a very stale state, however EA's ugly vision of the sport potentially no longer being this football monolith in the industry gives some hope that competition will lead to innovation (as it did back in the mid-to-late 2000s - when EA stole most of what Konami did well and improved on it).

I've been playing FIFA since FIFA 06, starting on the PS2. I've seen features come and go, such as team creation and player creation. When I played for a youth team, I spent hours recreating the team badge and kit colours and creating each one of my teammates to put in the squad, stats and faces. I was never too into online play and FUT wasn't too appealing, I only made a FUT team after increasing peer pressure from my teammates in FIFA 13 on Xbox 360 (even then I only ever played against the AI). But I could see the direction FIFA was heading from there, FUT is essentially legal gambling for minors and I pumped a fair amount of money into it. What I never understood was why people were so excited to buy the new game (which was essentially the old game, often with features removed) and start the entire process again from scratch. Most of my FIFA playing has always been single player, I liked tournaments and career mode or even just kickoff. I play it to relax, playing FIFA is second-nature to me. But some of my favourite features aren't there anymore, single player just doesn't bring in the cash like FUT does. I'm really hoping that the new EA Sports FC game will re-add some of those old features and be more customisable with less pressure to be realistic. I also hope they'll release it and update it rather than making us buy a new game every year but this seems unlikely. Also, shout out to FIFA Manager RIP

Notice that the regress is in not only football simulator games but also in almost every part of our day-to-day life.

When it comes to EA sports, Ultimate Team is what kills the games. There are only two games I know of that don’t have Ultimate Team and is an EA Sports game, F1 and UFC.

really interested in you trying out this new style of content. I think this can take your channel as high as you want.

I've been trying Football Life 23 which is essentially PES 2021 but free and without online, just singleplayer for us purists. And the game is good! It's far from perfection but there are gameplay mods that make it so much better, plus I have installed like 500+ stadiums for maximum immersion. I'd recommend it to anyone who's a bit tired of FIFA's shit.

The golden age of fifa will always be fifa World Cup 2006-fifa World Cup 2014

The statistical data in those older PES games were so much more detailed than in the modern equivalents. Konami has been steadily cutting the budget to their games since the 2010's, while adding too many new moves and complicating the control system. Madness

With the last Development Update seems that FM is ready for another big improvement in 25, at least on the graphic side. Switching to Unity seems great news, but the update that blowed my mind is the possibility, from FM24, to carry your save games from one FM to the next one! There is hope in FM, much more than in FIFA (where it seems more and more FUT related: the trailer of the next EA SPORTS FC 24 seems a trailer for ONLY that game mode) and e-Football...

Crazy to not mention pes 2011, 2012, and 2013 phenomenal titles that I feel still really play well. Also champions league presentation in these was great.

Man, I loved to play Fifa 99 on PC. The opening is something so magical. And the playgame it's obvious less accurate than today's games, but it was something so different, evolved, compared to the Fifa 96 for example. And now the games lost some of the simplicity that push backs potential new gamers.

My introduction to football games was PES 2008. I truly enjoyed it, I've played PES 11, FIFA 18 and 19. Nothing comes close to how PES 2008 made me feel.

Nothing beats CM 01/02..Football manager 2005/06 and PES 3 4 5 6. Those days were the best. Im 37 will never forget those days. God bless u all !!

I disagree FM did not have a huge improvement. If you compare FM 2010 and 2023 you will see they are totally different games. The tactical part (that is the main one) changed a lot.

I agree with all the points in this video - my fondest memories of football games were local multiplayer PES 3 - 6, and online clubs FIFA 2009. Granted there's probably some nostalgia bias but the modern games just aren't gripping anymore, and it's a real shame what happened with PES.

I dont think it's just football game I think it's sports game in general I even think it's... video game, in general Just to begin with : when I bought a game on my PS2, it was a finished one The community ? It was chatting with your friends IRL and/or go to their house to play, to discuss about how to progress, about secret easter eggs maybe

I miss the days of FIFA 13 and PES 2013 on my PSP, good times. I still have the games, the PSP is just finished.

Amazing no one ever mentions LMA Manager. A short series in the end, but some unique features and a small hardcore fanbase. You could build a new stadium using so many different existing stands and stadia as well as some game created blueprints.

It's also worth noting that your earliest football game simulation experiences are most likely your most memorable. For me, it was championship manager, ea's world cup 98 and PES6. Also, football in those years was much more enjoyable to watch; more technical, more balanced etc, thus creating a greater drive to video game in the same genre.

Football Manager is fine, you just have to accept that you’re either paying for updated data (players, competition tweaks, Brexit, etc) each year; or you simply only buy a new version every four or five years.

One of the biggest things that killed PES was when they stopped you saving your developed Master League team's stats to a memory card so you could play your mates. Instead it would save the original stats so all that hard work on the pitch was for nothing. PES 21 did bring this back (without the memory cards) and it is a decent game, sadly for Konami I think they sorted this too late

One of my all time favourite football games was TIF2004. What a game. Simple, fun, silly and replayable. I genuinely think that developers really need to go back to the drawing and create just a fun experience. Make video games, and make them work well.

PES 6 and PES 08 were immense thanks to Random Select mode. My friends and I would literally play that mode all day and all night. Getting two Ronaldos, two Henrys, two Ronaldinhos... best game mode ever!

Catering to the pace and skill move junkies ruined Fifa. I want to be able to think about how my team is setup and how I can get the best of them (like real football right?), but instead I just have to strive for players with high pace and spend hours learning skill moves that only a handful of real players can actually do. It's mind numbing now.

It's true football games hit a zenith in the early 2000s pre-online gaming. From that point onwards the on field gaming has remained relatively unchanged apart from very gradual graphical improvements. It's absolutely unacceptable that certain things STILL remain absent from football games. Why can I still not decide where my players stand at corner kicks, free kicks etc. Why can I not change my throw in taker, I don't want my centre forward taking the throw just because he was nearest to the ball. Why is there a countdown on dead balls so if I haven't kicked it in that time the AI just kicks it for me? Why, after I've changed my corner kick or free kick taker does it STILL not remember my selection and every time I get a corner I have to manually change it! Why can't I edit real players, some are the wrong skin colour, or the wrong height, or just look like shrek, why can't I edit that when there's a full fat edit mode in the game with pretty decent player creation tools. Why is the control scheme still the same? There should be an option to have defensive and attacking controls, I'm sick to shit of clicking X to tackle but the game bizarrely registers the X input as a pass and boots it out of play even though I didnt have the ball when I clicked X! Absolute piss take lazy programming and this upcoming EAFC24 will be exactly as shite. Online gaming really has killed off innovation in pretty much every genre of game, including football games. People playing each other online gave the developers a lightbulb moment that rather than spend millions developing the offline simulation of football, it was far more profitable to sell ultimate team nonsense to people who really should know better. The feedback loop of earning coins and buying "packs" hit that pleasure centre of the game that is also tickled by people addicted to gambling. I never understood it, I tried it and found it incredibly counter-productive. From 1996 to the early 2000s we all bought football games for a simulation, i.e realism. We played with real squads and got enjoyment from this. So I have no idea why everybody migrated to some daft online mode where you invent a team name in a league of infinite teams with unrealistic lineups. I don't know why EA didn't just go full steam ahead and set the games on the moon and throw in mario kart style power ups into the matches, it was already a deeply unrealistic mode so why not just keep going and give us unlockable 'DKmode' big heads like in Goldeneye. I could rant for hours. But in a nutshell, any easily pleased gibbon that bought into ultimate team has contributed to the death of football games. If online matches hadn't taken off, right now we'd have had 15 years of progress. We'd have a career mode where Bellingham moves to a European heavyweight, rather than moving to West Ham or Villa.

I wish there was a football game that allows you to casually create team where you add players from other teams like moving files to another folder and have them play with your other custom team. At least, you wouldn't have to spend too much fifa coins for just one player and the players will stay forever. It should be called "Sandbox Mode".

One thing that is horrible about older football games is it their gameplay doesnt hold up and they've aged poorly. Ofc the games looked spectacular for their time, but playing any older FIFA than 14 in 2023 is a disaster

It's what happens when greedy corporations care more about the money then the product they put out and its customers who make them that money. Ea is notorious for this and it's disappointing

It also comes with getting older..I remember fifa on the mega drive, then I was massively into PES throughout ps1/ps2 era. Also Champ Manager then Football Manager. Im sure a lot of us just want a solid sim that is suited to playing one player, against the cpu. The best was obviously Pes5/6 on ps2. Also liked the first Pes on ps2 and all the ps1 versions. Amazing that those games are still better than what we have today.

For me the best football game with regime and gameplay was PES 2012. It's a pity that there wasn't an option to play manager of a national team.

I think the difficult thing with FM is its played across multiple platforms but is best on laptop or pc, I think most people don't have a good enough laptop to play FM with good graphics, meaning they could ostracise a big part of their community if they massively updated the graphics

The reason Fifa sucks, is because it's become too skill based with randomness taken out. In pes 6, you can cross the ball into the area and pray for a goal, and you might score. In fifa, you can only score that way if you use that exact technique and sweet spot that some fifa-youtuber taught you, which means all the goals you score look the same (trivela shots, german (early) cross, sprint down sideline and score by tap-in etc). Pes 4-6 is still lightyears ahead in gameplay because of the extreme amount of nuances the newer football games dont come close to.

You've nailed it about PES. It was the pinnacle. Looking at that Master League made me so nostalgic. I spent WAY too much time building players and teams. I'm glad I gave up around 2008/9, as it had indeed peaked. The sort-of-precursor ISS on the N64 was a classic before that too. Actua on PS1. Super Soccer on SNES. And was it World Cup '90, the arcade vintage? 20p a pop. Showin' my age there. Good times.

There was this one mode in PES where you select a few teams and the game randomise and generates players from those teams to become one team and you can play on the field with their custom kits and badges. Good times ❤

This is a great video. My issue with PES/eFootball is that it's been forever since they've had the Bundesliga (which is the European league that I most follow) and that I don't think they've ever had a camera comparable to the End to End camera they have in FIFA. In regards to FIFA it pisses me off that they got rid of the creation centre as I want the Canadian Premier League in the game.

The problem is the consumer. Sports gamers are different to mainstream gamers. A lot of fifa players, play fifa exclusively and are not into others. This creates a market condition where regardless of output, they will repeat purchase every year. The game publishers realised this and this is why all sports games are copy and paste fests with fancy buzz words sprinkled in every year. They quality won’t change until the consumer does.

Tbh these games just don't hit the same anymore, I quit on them and when something huge comes out I may come back

What I love from FIFA is its slider settings. Each series EA constantly changes its early release gameplay into faster gameplay later, and slider setting really helpful for players who dont like faster gameplay. While on PES peoples can do player and teams customization in easy ways, even without mod. Each have its pros and cons. I love to see football games with PES physic combine with FIFA visual. Impossible right?

I miss the Winning Eleven / PES days, now its just frustrating to play, back in the day you needed to be more skilled in the use of the joypad to win and it was also more fun, but also generations change and have to accept that now I´m just an Old School gamer who miss the old days.

Great video, I'm a massive FM player and I gave up with the 3d engine about a week after it came out in FM09.

I think the reason the cash grab has unfortunately been so successful is because there's practically an ingrained tradition among football fans to buy the new game every single autumn. And forget all the money they spent on packs the year prior, that game may as well be ancient history as far as they're concerned. The only fightback is to vote with their wallets but they won't.

You summed up everything I think about football games in one video, congrats. FIFA killed PES and changed its target audience, it just doesn't care about those who want good gameplay, they just want the money from brats who love to play running with Mbappe and Vini Jr. FM is an excellent game, I'm still playing it today, but it hasn't added anything new for years, it could be so much better.

I'm just glad I enjoyed the golden era as a teenager and young adult. I had tons of great fun in the 4 legends (fifa, pes, fifa manager, fm), it just makes me sad to think that these titles are in decline.

I've been a very active football manager player since the 2008-2009 season. The graphics are poor, but that's not a point that players want specificaly to see changed. There's been a recent announcement explaining that the game will change a lot in version 25 and that version 24 will be a transitional version. FM works with big changes every 10/15 years and small improvements every year.

PES6 was my favourite. as friends we use to meet up and set up a custom league, around 8-10 teams, and literally play a whole day. We would take turns to pick players to put into your custom team. Eventually we had to ban anyone picking Inter’s Adriano. he was too OP

I loved Pes 2 Master League on the PS1 and I was shocked how badly it declined. I still play FIFA 17 on PS4 for the fun compared to any of the titles that have come later (haven't played 23)

Sir....this is masterful. You did the thing i couldnt be bothered to do and express with words half a lifetime of feelings.

Pro Evo 2 was the greatest. Great memories holding tournaments down the pub with our Sunday league club.

Greed ruined gaming in general

FM still great, not a downfall like the other two.

Great vid so well articulated. Been playing fifa and pes since FIFA 08 and I think it died when ultimate team was released. And as FIFA have no competition, they have no reason to innovate. SBMM, packs, no new modes, tiny changes to gameplay. It’s not worth playing now as it’s not fun

I remember when you had the possibility to create your own free kick running routes. The amount of time I spent creating new tactics for them to work maybe once in game was worth the struggle of perfecting them. It also was fun to see free kick variations in real life and then putting them in the game to try. This feature was heavily underrated and I still miss it to this day

The thing that made Fifa be fun was that they actually had competition earlier in their company and that motivated them to make better fifa games such as Fifa 13 and 14

All games got worse when they added the online feature look at single player games what gems they are no online game comes even close to something like red dead 2 last of us witchers 3 and so on the have one thing in common they don't shove down competitive and online play down ur troath and those games are so much better.

Ngl my favourite FM is FM07, but that's just because of the nostalgia of it being my first ever FM game. It's improved leaps and bounds, but I sometimes go back to my liverpool save on FM07 in 2034!

5:08 Etori and Ordaz were my favourite starter attackers, damn the nostalgia is real 😂

I must say, I retired from FIFA after 2002, 2003. I could never master PES, so I have always played Football Manager, from PC Football, Championship Manager and the first named. My favorite versions are the ones from 2007 and 2008. I liked 2010, though, not as much as 2008. 2012, 2014 nah. This year I bought the game again and I really like how it is. Although even when I can, I keep playing FM 2008...

Whilst I agree with most of what you’ve said here, I’m actually think the gameplay in the latest PES is actually pretty good and allows for so much flexibility and creativity in terms of tactics and the way you play. I do totally agree that it is completely lacking a soul or any kind of real identity. It all feels so forced and like it’s trying too hard to be cool. Just give me master league with that engine, some bug fixes here and there, and I’ll play that all year.

Simple reason for me: Large market, little competition. No new competitors allowed these companies to stop trying as hard and it's hard to get into the market as EA and Konami own most of the rights to clubs.

Good video!! I remember playing Fifa 99 at my friends pc which was fun, but not even close to how good was basically PES1 and PES2 on ps1. Later pes4,5,6 were crushing it and it seemed it was gonna be better every year. From 2008 it was dropping while Fifa was actually trying to be better. 2011/2012 were really realistic and since I've tried ultimate team in Fifa 2014 i never went back. Most of those years u hated the game and the stress but u play it because u are addicted. Now at FIFA 23 in middle of TOTS decided to block it for at least a year, to improve my life and lower the stress. For past few years didn't open any other mode besides ultimate-team. When it comes to manager mode, remember playing FIFA MANAGER 06 it was very fun. Football manager 06 was kind of boring without 3d, but 09 was very fun. Later it seemed that it was too much of a time waster...

For me, pes 12, 13 & fifa 12, 13 were the pinnacle of gaming. Pes dropped the ball badly with pes 14... I remember my friends and I using patches until pes 16, which was manageable.

FM is still a good game. Pes between 03-06 is untouchable, no version of fifa comes close.

I feel a good balance is between FM23 and FIFA not as complex as FM but not as simple as FIFA. It would also help if there is an in-game editor for FIFA like there is FM so I can sim FIFA without constantly getting sacked.

I have to agree, PES 6 was the King of Football and i played it for years. I never really came back to FIFA after getting PES 5. I got disappointed by PES 08 and 09 so i stopped buying new football games all together. But now i have a modded PES 2021 career going that is 13 years in. Its fun to see old players coming back super young and thus shifting the power levels and teams around. PES always had the better and more varied gameplay than Fifa, thats why i havent bought a FIFA since 03 to this day.

FM has not got worse though. The older games are unplayable now compared to the newer ones

Awesome video man! I have a question though, what would make the ultime football video game experience? Like which features could we take from each franchise to make the ultimate football video game? I think that's an interesting idea for a video and would spark the debate.

I've played bunch of them.. starting from FIFA98, PES2, PES5, FIFA09, FIFA13, and then PES from 2013 to 2021, I've also tried new eFootball, and FIFA from 21 to 23... Regarding the FM, I played FM 2005 and FM 2015.. I tried FM23 but it's too complicated nowadays... I would just like to be a manager.. not a coach.. I hate the 3d match in FM.. I miss those dots from way back...

My two favorite games were World Cup 2010 and 2014. From the presentation to the soundtracks to the gameplay, it was an emersion that i wish would come back.

FiFA 06 was by far the greatest ...

Dont think fm got worse, from the 2012 fm there were some bad versions for sure but I am having a great time playing fm 23, it is not worse just different. Just like FIFA 17, it was a great game and I had lots of fun personally

Football manager did have a rival years prior and wouldn't you know it, it also came from EA, it was called Fifa Manager and it was an amazing project that rivaled football manager for quite some time but they stopped making them after Fifa Manager 14 because their sale numbers was so low. And it also still gets updated for each new season by a dedicated fanbase ... I feel like EA figured out that fans of the series didn't need to buy their games anymore to update the database entirely including player portraits, stadiums, emblems and so on and so forth themselves and stopped making it.

The peak of football games were late 90. FIFA 98 and CM3. I could play both today for hours and have incredible fun.

Fifa 09 was my all time fave fifa but 23 is better in everywat other than the missing features so nostalgia is deffo a part of it. Fifa needs an online career mode big time. Making a private career with up to lets say 6 friends woth all of em being any team in the game not already chosen by another player would be amazing, pretty much career like it is now but online, could make it interesting with online player career too. Problem is they wont do that cause people wont be playing FuT as much so less money

I still play EAs Football Manager from 2013.

I was always a fan of Champ manager & later football manager. At some point, the transfers just got ridiculous. Anyone I wanted to buy were wildly expensive, and I can’t sell anyone I want to sell. Stopped playing after this

pes 2006 - 2009 and especially pes 2013 the goat 🐐 lot of players agree it was the best pes created 💙 we still play it to this day with patches 2023 😁

Fifa 09 was such a good game

For football manager I can't agree, I mean they made the game available for the largest number of fans. If they improved the graphics the game wouldn't be playable for those who don't have a great computer to run it. To be honest I don't care about the graphics, I prefer managing, finding great players and winning trophies. The only change that I want is the press conference and its impact on the players, the other coaches and the club. Football manager is the only game that you mentioned that hasn't got worse over the years.

Have to agree with most of your opinions here mate. I find FM has too much detail for me but totally understand why people love it. The fun definitely went some years ago but I managed to get mine back with Pes 21. I learned to play Full Manual and now play on Superstar where it is an excellent interpretation of football with a lot of thought having to go in to not just the game but tactics also.

I believe the big thing missing from fifa career mode is the culture of football, the same bland commentators, no podcasts, no transfer rumors, no inside training antics, no off-pitch drama, no real interviews, the same cup-lifting animation, the same signing animation, no loan with option to buy. It's something that i think the NBA 2k games do better than FIFA, yes they release the same product with better graphics, but at least there's a pregame show and courtside interviews, shoe deals where they give you a presentation on what your shoe would look like, and college ball, you feel more in touch with basketball in career mode. Also, there are no international competitions, which means all you really have is club football, literally the additions of the various continental cups and the world cup would make career mode feel fresh. Also there is no way to feel connected with your teammates, which is something that exists in NBA 2k

i think a lot of changes in football manager are in the background like the AI, etc. graphics, set pieces and training i agree with, and to be honest the game is already so advanced there is not much to improve on imo

Pes 6 is the ultimate football game then came pes 13

my favorite one was total club manager 2003 I loved the star system, and the player training attributes was just better less complicated and not as many attributes, but you could combine them to increase a players stats.

Peak for me was the late 80's and 90's. There used to be so many football games, all of which were fun to play. Now it's monopolised by the same brands and the fun has gone out of it.

How could you not talk about minanda! I would imagine he was my zidane, figo or rui costa. I would still leave him on my squad and give him a random game or two or sub him in from time to time 😂

I agree with the decay of FIFA and PES. But in my opinion FM its getting better and better making it the most complete and accurate football experience in videogames.

During career mode there should be options to choose if you want to turn on chairman and sporting director. These options determine if you want to handle money and/or transfers.

I know I sound antique, but my favourite games are Fifa 2005, PES 2006 and Football Manager 2006 😅 Great video!

I think personally the other gamemodes on fifa are so much better than fut but like the graphic difference is unbelievable

FM has kept it's graphic design to a minimum to maintain its accessibility to lots of users. Improving in this area would mean FM players would need to upgrade their computers to keep the game running smoothly and thus alienate casual gamers.

The target audience of FIFA and PES were always kids and teens, I think they realized over the years that going for the arcadey gameplay was more profitable. My 11-year-old nephew is obsessed with Ultimate Team, now they even have cards of players dressed up as superheroes.

Best gaming days of my life we’re having football on the radio, playing PES/FIFA all Saturday afternoon. It was bliss. Nowadays everything is geared towards online competition. And when you get online competition, you get META. And when you get META, you get stuck or bored unless you’re into online competition.