Matchday debuted its new soccer digital card game Matchday Champions in early access today on iOS and Android.
Today, the game is in early access globally, and it is celebrating with the limited-time “Copa Alexia x Céline,” a unique in-game tournament hosted by Spanish football World Cup Champion Alexia Putellas, and the popular Belgian influencer Celine Dept.
Backed by Lionel Messi’s Play Time fund, Alexia Putellas, and other industry legends in sports and games, Matchday Champions said it has a one-of-its-kind experience. The game allows players to collect, craftand manage their own dream squad made up of both men’s and women’s players.
Sebastien de Halleux, Matchday chief gaming officer, said in a press briefing that the company is going after five billion soccer (or, rather, “football”) fans in the world. It sounds ambitious, but in a previous life, de Halleux and his previous cofounder Kristian Segerstrale sold their social gaming company Playfish to Electronic Arts for up to $400 million back in 2009.
“Why are we doing this? Well, football, or soccer, is a force that’s bringing more people together than ever before. It is really something that is absolutely universal,” de Halleux said. It’s mind boggling. It’s actually one billion more than the number two sport, which is Cricket. And the best part of this is that it is the growing the football audience is estimated to have grown to five billion.”
De Halleux said, “Of course, video games is also growing and there are about 2.5 billion people playing. What is the commonality between football and video games? Both football and video games are fueled by emotions, and that is really the genesis of Matchday.”
“Football is an emotional experience for its five billion fans worldwide, and now they will be able to experience the drama of the sport in a video game that can seamlessly simulate games based on real players, real stats, and more,” said de Halleux. “Few players have experienced the emotional highs of football like Alexia Putellas, winning a World Cup, three UEFA Women’s Champion Leagues, and 21 domestic trophies, along with all of her incredible individual accolades, so we’re honored that she has joined us not only as a Matchday ambassador but as the host of our first global in-game tournament.”
He said it delivers the excitement of football using a cutting edge narrative creation engine, ensuring no two matches are ever the same. More than two million people have already pre-registered ahead of launch. Matchday Champions is now available in early access globally for iOS and Android phones.
The goal was also to make a single game for men and women, so one of the characteristics is you can put men or women athletes on the same team. Licensed by FIFA, the game includes 65,000 men and women athletes.
Players who download the game can sign up to participate in the Copa Alexia x Céline, beginning on September 20. Hosted by World Cup champion, two-time Ballon d’Or winner and UEFA Women’s Playerof the Year Alexia Putellas and influencer Celine Dept, a football mega-fan with more than 50 millionfollowers on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, Copa Alexia x Céline challenges players to join Team Alexiaor Team Celine, squaring off in a virtual tournament for bragging rights and prizes.
“Matchday is elevating two things I am very passionate about: women’s football and inclusivity,” said Putellas, in a statement. “Women’s football has been on the rise for the last decade and Matchday’s co-gender football squads represent this reality in a fun and novel way for fans. I am honored to be a part of and shape a (virtual) football world that gives men and women truly equal footing. I hope the sort of representation we see in Matchday’s games will inspire the women’s football stars and all football fans of tomorrow, and help to drive forward conversations around equality.”
Licensed by FIFA and FIFPRO, Matchday offers fans the ability to collect digital player cards from tens ofthousands of soccer athletes, and to combine both men’s and women’s players into their ideal squad togo head-to-head with other players’ teams. The FIFA license is interesting considering Electronic Arts dropped the license in favor of its EA Sports FC brand instead.
How to play
Matchday players begin by assembling their squad, which they can start upgrading immediately. They then send their starting 11 onto the pitch, and Matchday Champions’ proprietary simulation engine renders exciting in-game narratives.
You can play against rivals and friends while earning resources and recruiting footballers to improve their squad. Matchday Champions authentically captures the euphoria and heartbreak of real life football, and every match unfolds in a unique way.
The game lets you craft your Dream Squad. Your are the manager of your fantasy squad, and you get to choose who goes onto your team. You can put men and women on the same squad. The cards evolve over time as you accummulate more XP in the matches. Real-life stats influence how well a player does in the card game. If that player gets injured, you will see the impact in the game. You can put players on the squad that will complement each other and the strategy is fairly easy to grasp.
This game has an AI-powered engine, and it dissects the game into 10 or so moments which are narrated and in your local language, with a lot of passion. And then each action is actually displayed using the cards themselves. Each card has special tricks.
“We try to take users through the reality of football, which is to the highs and the lows, and try to really connect your choices as you are building your squad to what’s happening on the pitch with some recommendation in the post match report,” de Halleux said.
Your goal is to lead your club to glory. You can play a game in two to five minutes. The game also has a lot of social elements. There’s a store that enables you to buy more cards, more packs, and a transfer window that highlights certain players during a week based on different events that are happening in the football season.
An accessible game
In Matchday Champions, players build and strengthen their squad, competing against others to move up through divisions and grow their club, competing with friends and Matchday’s vibrant global community,already numbering in the millions.
Custom squads can be set up with ease through Matchday Champions’ intuitive and accessible interface, allowing players to experiment with their team formation, as well as buy, sell and share cards with friends. Players hone their team in single player mode, then step on the pitch for a friendly match or an epic league competition with fans from all over the world. They can also join fans on the official Discord in discussing everything football, participate in weekly contests, participate in AMAs with football celebrities and follow real-world football matches.
Matchday continues to push the boundaries of digital ownership with Matchday Champions, which is partof a new category of sports games wherein fans build virtual squads by collecting digital cards of theirfavorite footballers. Players have true ownership of their cards and other digital items within MatchdayChampions as they collect, trade and grow their dream team. These officially licensed cards can beutilized in all games within the Matchday ecosystem as it continues to grow.
Matchday previously launched the trivia and match prediction game Matchday Challenge: FIFA Women’sWorld Cup AU∙NZ∙2023 Edition, which ran during FIFA Women’s World Cup and was played by millionsof players all over the world.
Matchday is incubated by Leo Messi’s Play Time and backed by leading investors, with teams in San Francisco and Barcelona.
De Halleux said that the company’s values including building distinctive soccer games, driven by people who are passionate about video games and soccer. They also focused on making the game “charmingly playful.” It’s not a hardcore game.
“We wanted to bring this joy back into the adult game. It’s about fantasy. It’s about having fun. We wanted the love of football, the love of game, to really shine through the experience. We wanted authenticity, which is really important.”
In addition to using licensed FIFA player likenesses, the team also used modern AI tools. The entire game engine is infused with AI. It’s also embracing Web3.
“We wanted to treat our gamers as true fans, and when they get to match the card, we wanted to put forward the concept of ownership, that all players own their cards forever,” he said.
He showed a demo of the gameplay where players like Messi square off against a goalie on a penalty kick. There’s some dramatic cheering and then the result of the penalty kick shows. There are animated scenes but it’s not a 3D or 2D action game.
“The esthetic is delightfully crafted and charmingly playful. And we are very, very proud about how this game looks and feel. We think it’s a completely different experience for football fans, one that they have not been able to experience before,” de Halleux said.
Messi incubated the idea and became an early investor and ambassador for the game through his fund called Playtime. The team is split across 22 countries.
Compared to rival hardcore soccer games, de Halleux said the “difference is that we are trying to address an audience that is not playing those games. We are trying to address an audience who is already passionate about football but isn’t hasn’t found the right casual football game that they can connect with.”
The company is a FIFA official licensed partner. The company previously launched a game that was available only for two weeks during the Women’s World Cup, and it was played by over two million people. It was called Matchday Challenge.
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