Initially teased during the reveal of FIFA 21 and detailed yesterday as part of the FUT 21 breakdown, co-op is one of the biggest features to come to Ultimate Team this year. It’s a feature that fans have been asking for for years but, once again, EA Sports left out some vital details about it in the reveal information.
Co-op is a great addition, potentially adding the social element that FIFA has been needing for a while. By focusing on a rewards based system, where playing on your own is your only option, a toxic atmosphere was created around the community and any reason to play was removed once you obtained the top level team you were working towards.
FIFA has needed a fun factor, a mode that makes you want to just hang out with friends, like the hit battle royales do. Co-op should be that, and it somewhat could be still by letting you play with one friend, but there’s one huge omission that severely diminishes its potential.
Following the break down of FUT 21’s new features, EA Sports held a Q and A session on their Communication Twitter account. They answered questions about Draft and Rivals, but it was their reply to one question in particular that prompted a reaction from the FIFA community.
In response to a question from ChuBoi, an FIFA esports commentator, which asked if you’d be able to invite friends to a co-op match to play two friends vs. two friends in FUT, EA had a disappointing reply.
They said that FUT co-op will not support game invites in any mode. So while you can invite a friend to play 1v1 in Friendlies, you cannot invite friends to play 2v2, or even 2v1, which is a huge oversight or omission.
The co-op feature is limited to you playing with a friend in Rivals, Squad Battles and Friendlies, that’s as far as it goes. Why would EA Sports introduce a social aspect to their game – one that has been requested for years – only to leave out a huge part of it?
It makes FIFA 21 so much less social and, unless it’s been left out for technological reasons, is a baffling decision.
I’m worried that EA Sports is limiting the new features to make it the big thing for FIFA 22. FUT 21 Co-op was supposed to be the big new feature for this year’s game, beyond gameplay changes, and for it to be underwhelming isn’t a good sign.
It’s also disappointing that EA Sports decided to leave this out of the initial information, relegating it to a quote tweet on an account with less than 1/30th of the followers that the main FIFA account does. It’s bad news being buried again, which is disappointing.
In the run-up to FIFA 20, EA Sports made a big deal about Season Objectives and Milestones, showing off potential content in Pitch Notes, which never materialised in-game.
The reactions from prominent members of the FIFA community make it clear that fans aren’t happy. Below are just a few of the replies from content creators and pros that FIFA players might know.
It’s unlikely that EA Sports will make a u-turn on this addition before the release of FIFA 21 since we’re so close to release, so it looks like 2v2 co-op will have to be something we hope for from FIFA 22. Fingers crossed that this is the end of the bad news for FIFA 21, too.
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