''FIFA 09'' (titled ''FIFA Soccer 09'' in North America) is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

video game developed by

EA Canada EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest a ...

and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

under the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

label. It was released in October 2008 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

and

Zeebo The Zeebo is a discontinued home entertainment and education system from Zeebo Inc. It enabled users to play video games, and also connect to the Internet using its 3G modem, communicate online and run educational applications. The Zeebo was t ...

. It was later in November 2008 released for the

N-Gage 2.0 N-Gage, also referred to as N-Gage 2.0, was a mobile game, mobile gaming digital distribution platform from Nokia that was available for several Nokia smartphones running on S60 platform, S60 (Symbian). The successor to the original N-Gage (devi ...

and mobile phones. The demo was released on 10 September 2008 for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and on 11 September 2008 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The PS3 and Xbox 360 demos were identical with the exception of the stadium used with the PS3 featuring the FIWC Stadium and the Xbox 360 version using the new

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. The tagline for the game is "Let's FIFA 09".

Improvements

It has been stated in an interview with game producer David Rutter that there are over 250 improvements in the game. Among the improvements in the new FIFA are improved responsiveness that allows for quicker release of the ball, greater urgency in off-the-ball running, a new jostle system that takes into account the strength of the players when going shoulder-to-shoulder, and subtle animations that enable players to take first-time shots. Another of the edition's biggest changes is a completely revamped collision system, which calculates speed, weight, and power when the players collide, as each player will have their own individual strength and power statistics depending on their body characteristics. New goalkeeper technology has also been added which allows for better positioning, better reactions to saves, and faster recovery after a save has been made. A further improvement from ''

FIFA 08 ''FIFA 08'' (titled ''FIFA Soccer 08'' in North America) is a Association football, football Simulation video game, simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released on all po ...

'' is the weather and time. Rain and snow matches can be played from Kick-off mode, however there are no weather effects in Manager Mode. Games can be played at either day, dusk or night, depending on the stadium choice. ''FIFA 09'' includes a "10 vs. 10" "Be a Pro" online game. The game also features user-controlled player celebrations, like in ''

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

'', in the

and

versions. The " Be A Pro" mode of the game has also been improved. On the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 version, the user can now play four seasons as a single player. The PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles also allow the player to change clubs, and play for his national team, depending on their performance. This feature is not present in the PC version.

Adidas Live Season

On 20 August 2008, EA unveiled the new Adidas Live Season feature that will dynamically update player form and attributes each week, in-game, based on the player's last game to reflect real-world ups and downs. Live Season is a premium service that will be available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC and covers six leagues: the Barclays Premier League, the Liga BBVA, the

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

, the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

, the

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

, and the

Primera División de México Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divi ...

. Gamers have access to one league of their choice as a free trial that runs from the moment they activate the service to the end of the 2008–09 season, while purchasing extra leagues will cost £4.99 (US$7.99) each, or all six leagues can be purchased for £12.99 (US$20.00).

User-controlled celebration

User-controlled

goal celebration In sports, a goal celebration is the practice of celebrating the scoring of a goal. The celebration is normally performed by the goalscorer, and may involve their teammates, the manager or coaching staff or the supporters of the team. Whilst ...

s are also featured for the first time in the FIFA series, having been trialled in the official video game of

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

. The player can choose from a variety of pre-loaded celebrations. This feature is on seventh generation consoles only (excludes PC and

) due to capacity limits.

Update

''FIFA 09'' was updated to correspond with the transfers made in the January 2009

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

. This update was added onto the game via an online squad download on 9 February 2009. On 19 March 2009, ''FIFA 09'' was updated to version 13.02 that added the Ultimate Team mode and also Trophies for the PlayStation 3. On 6 June, version 13.03 was released. It fixed various bugs that were caused from the previous patch.

Ultimate Team mode

'' Ultimate Team'' is a downloadable game mode expansion for ''FIFA 09'' available only on

and

. A similar game mode was featured in a previous EA Sports football game, UEFA Champions League 2006–2007. It lets users create their own teams by buying, selling, trading, and auctioning off their players with thousands of other users. Gamers earn points by playing their teams online or offline or by using Microsoft Points to buy card packs, or you can use coins which you gain from playing matches. Card packs are categorized as Gold (5,000 pts), Silver (2,500 pts), or Bronze (500 pts). Card pack contain random cards, so the user does not know exactly what they will get in them. Essentially, Ultimate Team is geared toward letting the user have full, customizable control over their teams. "You can also compete with your squad against others across the world

Commentators

Martin Tyler Martin Tyler (born 14 September 1945) is an English Association football, football commentator. He worked as a commentator for Sky Sports from 1990 to 2023, covering the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as other domestic and inte ...

and Andy Gray provide the English-language commentary for the game, although Tyler is replaced by

Clive Tyldesley Clive Tyldesley (born 21 August 1954) is an English television sports broadcaster. He was ITV's senior football commentator from 1998 until 2020. In that role, he led the ITV commentary team at five World Cups and five European Championships an ...

for the PC, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii versions. Users can also download free alternative commentators in 13 different languages from the

PlayStation Store PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital distribution service for users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via PlayStation Network. The store offers a range of downloadable content both ...

(

) and

Xbox Live Marketplace Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) was a digital distribution platform previously used by Microsoft's Xbox 360 and formerly by the Xbox One. The service allowed users to download or purchase video games (including both Xbox Live Ar ...

(

). Another option for the English language is

and

Andy Townsend Andrew David Townsend (born 23 July 1963) is a former professional footballer and sports co-commentator for Premier League Productions and CBS Sports. As a player he was a midfielder who notably played in the Premier League for Chelsea, Ast ...

Platform-specific information

Wii

The

version of the game is titled ''FIFA 09 All-Play'' (''FIFA Soccer 09 All-Play'' in NA) and was launched under EA Sports' new ''All-Play'' brand exclusive to the platform. Even though it features the normal 11 vs 11 football match like the other consoles, a new, exclusive feature was introduced called 'Footii Match', which is an 8 vs 8 football match where your Mii plays against other Mii's. The object of this feature is to beat certain teams from around the world and unlock their "superstar team captain". For the first time, ''FIFA 09'' on this platform features "Manager Mode" as found on other platforms. Also for the first time ever, users can now use GameCube and Classic Controller along with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. There are two methods of playing. Firstly, All-Play is for players less experienced, as it has basic controls and the players move themselves unless a nunchuk is connected. The other method of playing is advanced play, which involves moving the player with the nunchuk and pointing the remote to the player the user wants to pass to.

DS & PSP

The

and

versions include a "Be a Pro" mode for the first time.

PS3

The

exclusive game mode is a built-in FIFA Interactive World Cup. This will enable gamers to track their progress and play games through the game rather than relying on the website. FIFA 09 for the PS3 also supports rumble with the DualShock 3. In addition, like previous FIFA games, the PS3 version has support for seven players on the same screen. In the 1.02 update, Trophies were also included.

Windows and PlayStation 2

The

and

versions feature a special Tournament Mode, in which there are a total of 61 tournaments, including 42 officially licensed ones. The user can also create their own tournaments. Moreover, the PC version of the game contains mouse controls in addition to keyboard controls, by which the player can draw the trick moves using the middle mouse button.

Covers

There are different covers for the regional versions of ''FIFA 09''. All covers feature

Ronaldinho Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born 21 March 1980), commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho () or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian former professional Association football, footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or left winger. Widely reg ...

with different players for each region except for the cover in Spain: the UK and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n covers feature

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player who was most recently the head coach of EFL Championship club Plymouth Argyle F.C., Pl ...

; the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

cover features Kevin Kurányi; the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

cover features Daniele De Rossi; the Irish cover features

Richard Dunne Richard Patrick Dunne (born 21 September 1979) is an Irish former professional footballer and current television pundit for TNT Sports, who played as a centre-back. He made 431 Premier League appearances, including 253 for Manchester City. Du ...

; the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

cover features

Petr Čech Petr Čech (; born 20 May 1982) is a Czech former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper and current ice hockey player who plays as a goaltender for Oxford City Stars. He has ...

; the French cover features Franck Ribéry and

Karim Benzema Karim Mostafa Benzema (born 19 December 1987) is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for and Captain (association football), captains Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad Clu ...

; the Hungarian cover features

Balázs Dzsudzsák Balázs Dzsudzsák (; born 23 December 1986) is a Hungarian professional association football, footballer who plays as a winger (association football), winger for Nemzeti Bajnokság I club Debreceni VSC. Dzsudzsák began his career at his home ...

; the Portuguese cover features Ricardo Quaresma; the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

cover features Gonzalo Higuaín; the Swiss cover features Tranquillo Barnetta; and the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n version features

Guillermo Ochoa Francisco Guillermo Ochoa Magaña (; born 13 July 1985), commonly known as "Memo Ochoa", is a Mexican professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Primeira Liga club AVS Futebol ...

and Maurice Edu. Edu signed for

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

team Rangers, which caused the cover to be altered to feature Edu in a US national team shirt and Ronaldinho appeared in a

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

shirt, so that a club shirt was featured.

Leagues and teams

There are over 500 teams and 30 leagues in the game, as well as 41 national teams. ''FIFA 09'' has 41 teams in its international division. The most notable exclusion is

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(who made it into the round of 16 in the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

and the

2010 World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

, but whose licensing rights currently belong to

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

). The following international teams are playable in the current generation consoles. But not all the teams are fully licensed e.g. Netherlands and Russia.

Stadia

There are 48 stadia in FIFA 09 (17 of which are fictional), with the majority being in England or Germany. There are also stadiums in France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Wales, with the national stadia of each of these countries also included.

Soundtrack

The complete ''FIFA 09'' soundtrack was announced by EA Sports on 14 August 2008. It features 42 songs from 22 different countries.

Reception

''FIFA 09'' was given an ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' rating of 8.6 out of 10 and received the Editor's Choice Award. It was also a nominee for Best Sports Game for the

by ''IGN'' for their 2008 video game awards. In addition, ''FIFA 09'' got a ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' rating of 8.5 out of 10. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of ''FIFA 09'' each received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the

Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was founded in 1989 as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), then chang ...

(ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies per version in the United Kingdom. During the

12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards The ''12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards'' was the 12th edition of the Interactive Achievement Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 2008. The awards were arranged by the Academy of ...

, the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

nominated ''FIFA 09'' for " Sports Game of the Year".

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control 2008 video games

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

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