Hey FIFA fans,

We wanted to provide an update on the continued investigations into gameplay responsiveness, and consistency in that responsiveness when playing online. Following on from the changes outlined in the Pitch Notes Title Update #6 we wanted to talk about what the team has been working on as well as some of the changes that we have been making in an effort to improve your experience when playing FIFA 19 online.

Below we go over 3 key topics:

• An overview of an advanced telemetry tool that we have been using to help identify potential gameplay responsiveness issues.
• What changes we have been working on since our last update in Pitch Notes Title Update #6.
• How we are planning to deliver changes for the remainder of FIFA 19.

Investigating Using Advanced Telemetry

Before we dive into some explanation of the changes, we first want to provide some details around a specialized tool that we have been using to help investigate the community reports of issues around gameplay responsiveness.

One of the challenges in investigating these types of issues is that each person has a unique network configuration, due to factors such as their physical location, connection type and ISP (Internet Service Provider). In order to identify and solve any problems that are within EA’s direct control, we needed to be able to look at advanced telemetry from players reporting issues. The depth of data needed to carry out these investigations required us to develop a specialized telemetry tool, that enables our team to perform deep dive analysis as a result of its findings.

What makes this tool so critical to our ability to investigate and identify potential issues is the scale of information that we can review about a single match after it has been played with this tool active when compared to the information we normally get from a match.

In order to use the information we are getting about a specific match effectively, it needs to be paired with direct feedback on that matches’ gameplay responsiveness from the player of the match. Therefore, we have been working directly with a select number of players located around the world in order to conduct our investigations.

Changes We Have Made So Far

Using the information gathered from our investigations our team has been able to make a number of changes to the networking infrastructure that is used in the following modes on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC:

• FUT Champions
• FUT Division Rivals
• FUT Online Draft
• FIFA Pro Clubs
• FIFA Co-Op Seasons

Here is a brief summary of some of the changes that were made over the past few months as a result of these investigations:

• Network and data center configuration changes that have improved efficiency and capacity, with a primary focus on our European server locations.
• Changed our data center provider for one of our European server locations.
• Multiple individual hardware changes due to specific hardware issues in various server locations around the world.
• Established more detailed operational metrics and monitoring for gameplay responsiveness based on the learnings from our investigations.
  • This is enabling our team to be more effective and efficient when monitoring the status of our servers in each server location and in identifying issues that may be impacting the gameplay responsiveness for players.

Looking To The Future

From the changes that we have made, and the feedback we have been receiving from the players that we have been working with, we believe that we are making meaningful improvements to gameplay responsiveness and consistency in that responsiveness when playing online for many players. That being said, we know that we still have work to do in this space.

Moving forward, the team will continue to focus on bringing improvements around gameplay responsiveness.
Working off the changes that have already been made, here are some of the areas that the team is focused on:

• Network and data center configuration changes to improved efficiency and capacity.
  • As mentioned in the previous section, we have already made a number of changes in this space in our European server locations, but we are working through the remaining server locations around the world and making changes there if and when they are identified.
• Resolving any identified specific hardware issues in all server locations around the world.
  • This is an ongoing operational effort.

It’s important to know that due to the number of variables that make up a players connection, not all updates are going to have an impact on all players. Some updates will only have an impact on players in certain locations in the world, while others may only impact players with certain network setups. Our goal is for the combined impact of these changes over time to continue to move the needle on gameplay responsiveness for the FIFA community as a whole.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the effort of key community members who have been working hand-in-hand with us through the investigations mentioned above, as well as the continued feedback we’ve been receiving from the community, as a whole, since the launch of FIFA 19.

Our investigations and work on this will continue, as we remain dedicated to improving the experience for our community when playing online. We will continue to provide updates when possible and available.

We deeply appreciate your support,

Thanks,
The FIFA Dev Team


For more deep dives on FIFA 19 from members of the game team, check out the Pitch Notes Page.

FIFA 19 is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC .

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