''FIFA 2000'' (titled ''FIFA 2000: Major League Soccer'' in North America) is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

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 and ...

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 Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

. It was the seventh game in the main ''

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

'' series. The game was released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

and

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

. A version was also released for the

Game Boy Color The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...

, developed by

Tiertex Design Studios Tiertex Design Studios Limited was a British software development company and former video game developer based in Macclesfield, England; it was founded in 1986, focusing on porting games to home computers and handheld platforms. As a video gam ...

and published by THQ.

Game features

Among the innovations for this edition of the series was the ability to play over consecutive seasons, giving the possibility of competing for promotion or relegation and qualification for European Cup competition. The US

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

was officially licensed for the first time, and was used as a subtitle for the North American release.

Sound

Commentary in the UK English release is provided by BBC television commentators

John Motson John Walker Motson (10 July 1945 – 23 February 2023) was an English football commentator. Beginning as a television commentator with the BBC in 1971, he commentated on over 2000 games on television and radio. From the late 1970s to 2008, Mot ...

Mark Lawrenson Mark Thomas Lawrenson (born 2 June 1957) is a former professional footballer who played as a defender for Liverpool, among others, during the 1970s and 1980s. After a short career as a manager, he then became a radio, television and internet pun ...

and

Chris Waddle Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. He currently works as a commentator. Nicknamed "Magic Chris", football journalist Luke Ginnell wrote that Waddle was "widely ackn ...

. The commentary was recorded in a London studio, however for the first time in the series Motson visited the games developers in Vancouver, Canada to provide insights into the intricacies of the real-life game. The US English release features commentary from Phil Schoen and

Julie Foudy Julie Maurine Foudy ( ; born January 23, 1971) is an American retired Association football, soccer midfielder, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist. She played for the United States women's national soccer ...

. Localised commentary exists for the German, Spanish, French, Italian, Hebrew, Japanese, Greek and Brazilian Portuguese releases.

Soundtrack

The game's theme music was

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...

' "

It's Only Us "It's Only Us" is a song by British singer Robbie Williams, released as a double A-side with a cover of " She's the One" on 8 November 1999. Unlike "She's the One", "It's Only Us" was a brand new recording made for the '' FIFA 2000'' soundtrack ...

". As part of the agreement to license the track EA Sports included

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley of ...

, the club Robbie Williams supports, in the game, despite only being in the third tier of the English football league system, which wasn't included as part of this game.

Reception

The game was met with positive reception, with the exception of the Game Boy Color version, which currently has a score of 47% on

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

; the site also gave the PlayStation version 87%, and the PC version 85%. In Japan, where the PlayStation version was ported for release under the name on 30 March 2000, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'' gave it a score of 28 out of 40. ''PlayStation Max'' awarded a gold rating to the PlayStation version, praising its looks, sound and longevity, although they did criticise the ease with which it was possible to score goals. '' Official UK PlayStation Magazine'' went further with their criticism of the gameplay, believing the passing to be "too precise" and it being unrealistically easy to beat defenders. They did praise the level of detail in the game's graphics and the commentary and awarded the game a score of 7/10. In one ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally ...

'' review, The Freshman said of the PlayStation version, "EA Sports knows football, both American and otherwise. Soccer fans would have to go a long way to find a better soccer sim on the PlayStation. Lace up those cleats and go for the goal!" Air Hendrix said of the same PlayStation version, "If you're into soccer, ''FIFA'' ranks as an automatic purchase. Plus, sports fans in general will find that–despite the game's minor flaws–''FIFA''s polished performance makes for exciting, rewarding fun that'll glue you to the screen." Nash Werner said that the PC version "has what I've always wanted: good single-player AI and the MLS. But players that look like cartoons, the absence of key offensive plays and jukes, and limited MLS playability, offset these additions. In the end, I like ''

FIFA 99 ''FIFA 99'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It is the sixth game in the '' FIFA'' series and was released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation and ...

'' better." By 2000, it had sold 500,000 units. The PlayStation version received a "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 originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

(ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 units in the UK. The PC version won 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 presentatio ...

' 1999 "Sports Game of the Year" award.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Football video games by Electronic Arts 1999 video games Electronic Arts games EA Sports games Association football video games 2 Game Boy Color games PlayStation (console) games THQ games Tiertex Design Studios games Video games developed in Canada Windows games Video games scored by Rom Di Prisco Video games set in 1999 Video games set in 2000 D.I.C.E. Award for Sports Game of the Year winners Multiplayer and single-player video games