Hypermotion: It’s in the game!

You know you’ve made it in the video gaming world when people get worked up about your cover art.

Not a graphics upgrade, or a change in the gameplay, but the thing that the physical copy comes in. Or would come in if people still bought the physical copy. Otherwise, you’ll just have to imagine it as you download it like a normal person. 

However, if you still walk on down to a store to grab your video games and you’re one of the more than 325 million people in the world that play EA Sports (NASDAQ: EA) FIFA franchise then you’ll see French superstar Kylian Mbappe on the front of the box that you bring home this year.

It’s funny that the cover art still gets a bit of buzz among players, but it is undoubtedly something they consider an honour. This generation of player grew up playing the game and it has increasingly impacted the actual game, with them trying “FIFA moves” on the actual pitch during games as a flex. 

We learned of the choice of Mbappe when EA Sports released its newest trailer for the 2022 version of the game, which will be released on October 1. That trailer contained another piece of news that will be far more relevant to the actual gameplay than what the box looks like. 

EA Sports announced that as the first Next Gen version of the game that it will feature what’s called Hypermotion gameplay. 

Hypermotion uses AI technology to combine machine learning with real world motion capture (players go to the EA Sports headquarters and play an actual game while wearing gear designed to capture their body movements). This means that the way that players move during a game will be even more realistic than it was in previous editions of the game. 

FIFA already has a reputation of being incredibly lifelike, so it’s hard to imagine how it will look with this additional technology added. 

This obviously excited gamers and the stock saw a bump as a result. After opening the day at $141.39 USD it shot up to $145.59. A later clarification that the technology would only be available on the console version of the game caused PC gamers to grow sour (EA Sports said that the technology is too advanced for the typical personal computer to run so they are restricting it to the Nex Gen machines) and the stock fell a bit. It is currently trading at $143.25, which isn’t far off it’s top price of the year.

In the video game world sports gaming is the old reliable. Whereas other big name titles can crash and burn based on the hype of a trailer, the sports players are incredibly loyal. They don’t go long with any version of their favourite sports game for FOMO reasons. Without it they won’t have access to the latest players and newest game play that their friends are all talking about.

And, with this it’s going to be doubly the case. Hypermotion appears to be a significant upgrade as FIFA 22 looks like it’s going to not just drive sales for EA Sports, but also likely be the driver for a lot of Sony (TYO: 6758) Playstation and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) XBox players to upgrade to the Next Gen systems this fall.