Aug 22, 2007

FIFA 08 is getting a 10-player online mode as a downloadable extra on Xbox 360 and PS3. Great news, certainly, but it's come as quite a surprise to us at GR. You see, EA's 'Be a Pro' and 'Be a Pro Co-op' modes are so new, even EA developers we spoke to recently reckoned that the mode would be 2 v 2 for the year's sports titles, before being taken to its logical conclusion of 11 v 11 at some point in the series' future. But it seems that the full-team ideal is closer than we realised.

The mode will offer up to five players on each team and will be offered throgh PS Network and Xbox Live, some six to eight weeks after the game hits stores. Better still, it'll be offered for free. That's the kind of price we like. The mode will let you play with player switching or as a single, unswitchable player as in the standard Be a Pro mode.

We'd be surprised if FIFA 08 itself ever gets the full 11 v 11 treatment, as that feature would obviously make for a great reason to upgrade to FIFA 09 when the time comes, assuming the team can get the tech working in a year. However, Sony should take note of EA's multiplayer booster pack - we're still waiting for a 2-player split-screen mode for MotorStorm, y'know.