The news comes like a thunderbolt. Andreas Thorstensson former pro player of Counter-Strike (Known as BDS) is also an avid fan of football games like FIFA. He announces on Twitter, that from his dissatisfaction with the FIFA game, the idea was born that he will now realize to create a completely new football game Triple-A called Goals.
According to the first statements, the game will be based a lot on Multiplayer and on Esports and will really reward the skills of the players. Among the objectives is to minimize lag and avoid compensations. It is very important to know that this game will be Free to Play and Cross-platform, but it is not yet clear what the financing model will be.
Andreas Thorstensson has already founded his new development studio and at the moment they are looking for staff. Of course, it will take a few years before we see the first results and if this Goals really will be able to unseat the FIFA series from the throne.
What about a very ambitious project and we’ll see if Andreas succeeds in his intent. Here are the official statements:
“I am building my dream company – GOALS! A next-gen football (soccer) game backed by amazing VCs and angel investors. Goals game combines my deep interest in sports, gaming, esports and new technology. After playing more than 5k matches of FIFA (FUT) and observing the esports scene for a long time it became painfully clear how broken it was with no signs of getting better. Here’s the obligatory Steve Jobs reference that summarizes it perfectly. So we decided to fix it ourselves instead. To paraphrase Kevin Jordan on the origins of World of Warcraft: “We are going to make the greatest football game of all time.” GOALS is a AAA football game. Free to play, cross-play, multiplayer first and esports ready. It will use a play to earn model where time spent and skill in the game will be rewarded through digital assets (NFTs) so more people hopefully can make a living playing the game. Free to play opens up the football genre to more gamers and cross-play allows friends to play no matter their platform of choice. We see no reason why the world’s largest sport shouldn’t be the world’s largest game. Multiplayer first means we are going to put a lot of resources into creating a fluid experience online to eliminate lag, latency and button delay, which is a big problem in football games today. Basically taking a page out of the Valorant textbook. Esports ready means we are not going to use catch-up mechanics/rubber band effects/”handicap” etc. The best gamers will win due to their skill and nothing else. We will put a lot of emphasis into a proper MMR system with tournaments and ladders. No more. Here are a lot of misconceptions in terms of play to earn and NFT games (and challenges rightly so). But in essence, it is about giving back power to the gamers. Jihoz_Axie of AxieInfinity say it well. And Cdixon’s essay “The next big thing will start out looking like a toy” from 10+ years ago also encapsulates this new movement in a great way. Many will dismiss it until it all of a sudden is mainstream. And that inflection point is getting closer. We are building this together with the community, a big learning from running SKGaming. Already involving all kinds of players, from pro to casual, to keep it inclusive, on the direction of the game. Game devs from Genshin Impact with a key point. We are a remote first company with HQ in Stockholm, Sweden. Currently hiring people to be part of the founding team. Producers, tech directors, game designers, concept artists, character artists, NFT engineers, system programmers, gameplay programmers, community managers etc. ll that matters in the end is to build a fantastic game. We are an ambitious new company with lofty goals. If you want to be part of shaping the future of gaming please reach out.”
Of course, the first declarations of the most famous streamers such as Kurt, Banned forever by FIFA, for some of his over-the-top behaviours, were not long in coming and therefore he will be able to take advantage of this new game to return to streaming:
“Beyond excited to announce that I’ll be working alongside an absolute super team in the making of a new football game Goals game. The monopoly will be over, the suffering will be over and above all we’ll finally get the game football fans deserve I promise you that.”
