FIFA 18 brings back The Journey with Season 2
Hazard pay.
It turns out FIFA's story experiment was a success - The Journey will return for FIFA 18.
The Journey was a slightly odd, surprisingly good story mode for FIFA 17 that saw players assume the role of Alex Hunter, a rising star footballer who ends up breaking into the first-team of a Premier League club. I played it and thought it was quite good, for a football game story mode.
Last night, EA boss Andrew Wilson said more than 10 million people had played The Journey. While that phrase doesn't clarify exactly how many people played it for more than a couple of minutes, it's clear The Journey was popular enough for EA to stick with it for this year's game.
So, FIFA 18 will "bring players back to The Journey with Season 2," Wilson said. Season 2 features new characters and new storylines, he added.
Now, I'm not sure if this means Alex Hunter's story is done and dusted. SPOILERS FOR THE JOURNEY ARE BELOW.
At the end of The Journey, Hunter has won the FA Cup, earned a call-up to the England squad, put his best friend in his place and told his dad to do one. The story is set up so that you could quite easily see Hunter's career evolve in Season 2, but equally it works as a standalone, so I wouldn't be surprised if the story stars a new footballer.
Meanwhile, EA said FIFA 17 was the top-selling console title in the world for 2016, which means it outsold the likes of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Grand Theft Auto 5 - no mean feat. FIFA Ultimate Team players are up nearly 10 per cent year-on-year.
Is there no stopping the FIFA juggernaut?