With few exceptions, sports genres in video games are dominated by triple-A franchises from major publishers. Whether it’s 2K’s NBA and NHL series, Sony’s MLB: The Show, or EA Sports’ dreaded lineup, when most individuals need to play a sports video game, they typically turn to one of those games – which are all the time premium titles , normally with annual iterations. So how can a free-to-play game compete in the same space? Maximum Entertainment believes it has found a solution to this with its upcoming Maximum Football title.
At this point it’s practically meme in the gaming industry that sports games come out every 12 months, command a princely price, and yet don’t change much or add much recent content each 12 months. This hasn’t stopped player demand for football games – in July alone, EA Sports College Football 25 was the best-selling game in America (and second best-selling because of the MVP Bundle). Maximum, nonetheless, takes a different approach: it launches the game in free-to-play mode and then iterates over it using fan feedback.
GamesBeat spoke with Micah Brown, the game’s director, about developing a free-to-play soccer game. Brown told us: “We’re attempting to jump into the space occupied by the best game studio that has ever existed on planet Earth, and this is one of their biggest games. So it’s quite a difficult fight. and at this point we have been working on it for almost three years… We attempt to take heed to our fans and try to present them what they didn’t get from other football games, and also address various features that they feel are missing in some other football games. “
Maximum Football might be released on Steam Early Access on November 7, and Maximum says in a statement that it plans to “collect feedback directly from you, the community, so that we can create the most realistic, physics-based soccer simulation game yet.” At the launch of Early Access, an exhibition mode with ready-made teams might be available; College Dynasty, a customizable mode in which you run a college football team; online multiplayer mode and the “Maximum Football Customization Suite”, where players can personalize their very own teams.
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According to Brown, personalization is one of the most significant features of Maximum Football. “You can customize absolutely everything. If you want to create a team of geniuses and have Albert Einstein as your quarterback, feel free to do so. If you want to create a Barbie team and put Ken as the setter, you can do that too. Thanks to this, the game is fully customizable. Everything about players is customizable. Everything about teams is customizable.”
Brown adds that Maximum made its football title free-to-play to distinguish itself from other sports games on the market: “The obstacle we face is that we don’t have a license to use any NFL or college players or whatever fans are looking for. Fans are also very tired of other sports games. They really only trust two studios when it comes to making a sports game: 2K and then EA Sports. Plus, most fans are like, “Oh, this game won’t last, you know.” That’s why they’re not even going to give it a chance. If we initially, you know, launched this game and said, “Okay, this game costs $40 so you may play it before you even know if you want the gameplay.” Most people would not even try. We knew that.”
Instead, Brown says Maximum plans to make the game free at launch and offer all the features fans need to play, and plans to monetize it in the future once they’ve won players’ hearts with solid gameplay. “What everyone questions the most is, ‘Can you play?’ Because other games can do dynasty or adapt. They have appeared before but did not capture the gameplay. And gameplay in a football simulator. You win or lose depending on the game. So we said, OK, let’s release this game as free-to-play… There might be a lot of opportunities to play for free, a lot of opportunities to play dynasty and franchise, all for free.
Currently, Brown says the team is working to enhance gameplay and fix any bugs in the online game to make sure users get the best early access experience possible. “As soon as every little thing is clarified, we’ll return to the game. We’re just going to maintain working on the mechanics we have already been working on.”