EA FC 26, the latest edition of the world's largest console game franchise, will be released on September 26th with an Irishman playing an important role in its production, writes Eamon Donoghue.
For over 30 years, EA's football franchise - formerly known as FIFA - has been a cornerstone of global football fan culture. Each year, it brings hundreds of millions of fans closer to the game, helping them learn players, clubs, and tactics through an increasingly lifelike simulation of the beautiful game and the world's best teams, players and stadiums.
Carlow native Eoin Lúc Ó Ceallaigh has been a producer with the EA FC team in Vancouver since the start of 2023, having previously worked as a video journalist with The Journal in Dublin, and creating digital content for World Rugby in London.
"Like many kids in Ireland," explains the master's graduate from DCU, "I remember when I was 11 or 12 playing all those early games. Bohemians or Liverpool, they were my two teams. And that's where a lot of my football knowledge started, and where I got the love of it.
"But by the time I moved to Vancouver I hadn't been playing it as religiously, so working with EA it is just like being a kid in a sweet shop again. Having the chance to work on something that has so much nostalgia for me, and now to be able to see behind the curtain of how it's all made, and the changes that are upcoming - it's dream job territory."
For FC 26, Eoin Lúc produced the gameplay reveal trailer, working with Chelsea and England star Cole Palmer, while for FC25 he worked with Liverpool's Premier League winning captain Virgil van Dijk, as well as Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham for other shoots.
"We've got a strong production team of six or seven people, and each person would be on a few different shoots a year," he says. "The last couple of years I've produced our gameplay reveal trailer for the new title, which is essentially the world's first look at the new game. So that's always a big moment. "My team gets told what's new in the game, and then we bring that to life through a marketing campaign. A lot of it can be very technical, like developer-language in terms of what gameplay improvements are coming. And I guess a big part of our job is distilling that down into what this is actually going to look like for our players.
"We try to make subtle nods to small details that will change, then maybe some more overt nods. So we would work very closely with the creative team on the initial concept. Then once we get that concept, the production team brings it to life. We work very closely with our partnerships teams all around the world, the likes of Liverpool, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich.
"Personally, I've also been lucky enough to work with ambassadors like Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham. I'm a massive fan of Virgil van Dijk, so working with him was phenomenal. And he's such a nice man as well - always meets your heroes!"
One of Eoin Lúc's favourite features in FC 26 is the new split between authentic and competitive modes. Competitive mode reduces randomness with more predictable rebounds and tackles, making gameplay feel fairer and more responsive, while authentic mode keeps the realism and unpredictability of real football.
"Generally, we'd only have a player for a couple of hours for our shoot day and the majority of stuff we do with them is building live sets (physical structures, props, and backgrounds built and used on set for filming)," he says. "So for example with Cole Palmer, we'd have everything prepped, all the pre-production done. We would be set up and ready to go, cameras rolling then as soon as he got on set so we can maximize our time with him. Once they leave, we'll do whatever pick-up shots and other shots that the players aren't needed for. Then we compliment that with action we are able to recreate in the game.
"Knowing what looks realistic and what looks true to real world football is a massive bonus in this job. For example if we have game capture of a player running down the line, cutting in and scoring a screamer with their left foot, but I know from watching football, this player does not have a good left foot, or it's Trent Alexander Arnold and yes obviously that could happen but it's not the kind of thing that they would do as he's very much a right footed player."
EA uses advanced 3D scanning to create highly detailed player likenesses, with top players captured in photogrammetry rigs for near one-to-one accuracy. This facial data is refined and brought into the game engine to create lifelike models. EA also works with selected players in full-body motion capture suits to record unique celebrations, skills, and movement styles. While not every player is scanned individually, these sessions, combined with real match data and machine learning, help deliver realistic animations and on-pitch behavior.
As well as shooting live action with EA's ambassadors and partner clubs, and utilising game capture and cinematics to produce trailers and other marketing content, the 31 year-old is also involved in the production of the Ultimate Team feature which is updated throughout the year. This means keeping a close eye on the transfer windows.
"As a producer, part of my role is to make sure everyone's showing up correctly in these assets and these marketing assets," he says. "This is a football simulation game we're creating, so we have to make sure it's all accurate. So coming through the summer, there's lots of movement in the football world, and we have to be ahead of that with a finger on the pulse. Making sure no player or team that we're focusing heavily on is going to transfer, which would ruin our asset before it gets out into the world.
"I love the job. It's not quite sitting around playing the game all day, every day. Not quite as glamorous as maybe when I was 14, thinking, 'oh yeah, I want to work on EA'. There are still a lot of spreadsheets! We have our original office in Burnaby and one I work mainly out of in Vancouver and it's a really nice atmosphere. We have people from all over the world, a bunch of different cultures. But the common ground with everyone that you're working with is football.
"Looking from the outside I would have thought there must be some really smart people running the show in there. And now I can definitely confirm that! "You couldn't really walk too far around either of the offices without running into a couple of Irish accents too, there's people high up in our brand marketing team, and in the cinematic screenshot team, the video capture team, the development team. Yeah, we're literally everywhere."
EA Sports FC 26 is released on September 26
