FIFA 20 is fast approaching and the video game franchise is determined to make a splash when it releases on September 27, 2019.
Along with the usual tweaks and upgrades, the return of street football looms as the biggest addition for FIFA 20.
Seven years on from the release of the last FIFA Street game, EA Sports will return to the pavement this year but have adopted a new name and approach to the small-sided game.
What does 'Volta' mean?
The name Volta is Portuguese and translates to 'return' - something EA is finally doing when it comes to street football.
"We’ve focused on the 11-side form of the game for many years successfully - well there’s a whole other world of football out there and that’s the street scene," FIFA 20 creative director Matt Prior told Goal.
"The idea is we’re bringing the other half of the football world to the game."
Fans have been demanding a return of small-sided football to FIFA for many years now with EA deciding the time was right to bring it back.
"When we hit out on the road every single year one of the top requests is bring back street football," FIFA 20 executive producer Aaron McHardy said.
"Bringing it back now has a lot to do with the technological innovations we’ve had over the past few years, particularly with the frostbite engine. It’s allowed us to do this in a way that we wouldn't have been able to do it justice in the past."
Why has FIFA Street been renamed?
While
EA are bringing street football back, they are looking to distance themselves from FIFA Street by adopting a new name and approach to gameplay.
Though some people that were involved in FIFA Street have helped out on Volta, the new mode is aiming to be more realistic.
"We travelled the globe to do our research and look at the street football game to understand the culture of it," McHardy said.
"FIFA Street we built many years ago was fantastical, over the top and probably not authentic, we wanted to root (Volta) in authenticity.
"The FIFA family at EA is quite large and there was a ton of experience from people that did work of FIFA Street.
"But we weren’t looking back intentionally trying to recreate this experience because we wanted to make something more authentic and more befitting of the culture of street football."
Volta will also take place on more than just streets with the game set to include a variety of locations from a rooftop in Tokyo to a classic futsal court.