''Goals'' (stylized as ''GOALS'') is an upcoming

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 ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed & published by Goals AB. Conceptualized by Andreas Thorstensson, ''Goals'' will follow a free-to-play business model with a focus on

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

viability. First announced on July 22, 2021, the game is intended to compete with the ''

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

'' & ''

eFootball ''eFootball'' is a free-to-play online association football video game developed and published by Konami. It has been completely rebranded from the original ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' series (known as ''Winning Eleven'' in Japan). The game's fi ...

'' series of video games, with a focus on responsiveness over fidelity. The game will feature

cross-platform play In video games with online gaming functionality, also called cross-compatible play, cross-platform play, crossplay, or cross-play describes the ability of Gamer, players using different video game hardware to play with each other simultaneously. ...

, 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 ...

MacOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

and

Xbox Series X and Series S The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the fourth generation of consoles in the Xbox series, succeeding the previous generation's Xbox One. Released on November 10, 2020, the higher-end Xbox Series X and lower-end Xbox Series S are part o ...

platforms.

Gameplay

''Goals'' places players on

football pitch A football pitch or soccer field is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". The pitch is ty ...

es at different arenas, with game modes of 1v1 & 5v5. A practice mode called "The Arena" may be accessed, allowing for testing player avatars & features.

Development

Swedish gamer & programmer Andreas Thorstensson was one of the earliest professional ''

Counter-Strike ''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games, in which opposing teams attempt to complete various objectives. The series began on Windows in 1999 with the release of the first game, '' Counte ...

'' players, with his career beginning shortly after the release of the game in 1999. As a player, executive and owner of the German & Swedish organization Schroet Kommando, which became

SK Gaming SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in '' Counter-Strike'' (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian ''CS'' team won ...

, he led it to become one of the most prolific in the scene, before retiring in 2009. After several web development & entrepreneurship ventures over the subsequent decade, Thorstensson teased ''Goals'' as his new venture, before formally announcing it as a football video game on August 18, 2021. Thorstensson detailed his intention to develop an

-ready

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming * AAA (video game industry) - a category of high budget video games *'' TripleA'', an open source wargame Mu ...

cross-platform multiplayer game that would reward players. The game would be built using

Unreal Engine 5 Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) is the latest version of Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. It was revealed in May 2020 and officially released in April 2022. Unreal Engine 5 includes multiple upgrades and new features, including Nanite, a system that ...

. An objective outlined by Thorstensson from the onset was to give audiences access to ''Goals'' during its early days, allowing for the team to gauge feedback and combat bugs before release.

Early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release Software release life cycle, developm ...

testing for ''Goals'' began with a single-player demo called the "Arena" in September 2022, with rudimentary functionality implemented. The following February, multiplayer access on a

setting began. In April 2022, Goals AB was announced to have raised $15 million in

seed funding Seed money, also known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor puts capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' suggests ...

, led by

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

firm Northzone. In April 2023, ''Goals'' received an additional $20 million in funding - led by

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

founder

Alexis Ohanian Alexis Kerry Ohanian (; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and former executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz. He also ...

’s venture capital firm Seven Seven Six and supported by Northzone, Moonfire, Cassius and angel investors Peter Sellis, Wayne Mackey, Riqui Puig and

Clément Lenglet Clément Nicolas Laurent Lenglet (born 17 June 1995) is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Atlético Madrid and the France national team. Lenglet began his career with Nancy, making 85 appearances from his de ...

- bringing the total funding to $39 million. In July 2023, GOALS AB's board was bolstered by the arrivals of Ebba Ljungerud and Oskar Gabrielson, the former chief executive officers of

Paradox Interactive Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an independ ...

& and

DICE A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...

, respectively.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Association football video games Early access video games Esports games Free-to-play video games Indie games MacOS games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Unreal Engine 5 games Upcoming video games Video games developed in Sweden Video games with cross-platform play Windows games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games