While the threat of the new coronavirus continues to impact major events across the globe, video games remain just as safe and fun as ever, and real sports team are using this to their advantage in rather wonderful ways.
With all major English football leagues enforcing a temporary ceasefire until 3rd April, teams up and down the country have been using video games to simulate the matches that would have been taking place. Premier League side Watford, who should have played the mighty Leicester City over the weekend (we're not biased, we promise), shared a full match of Football Manager for fans to watch online. It ended up a 1-1 draw, and the video has racked up more than 700,000 views.
Jumping down a league to the Championship, Leeds United took things one step further. A full match of FIFA 20 was used to see how the team might have fared in their postponed match against Cardiff, with fans reacting in real-time on Facebook. The Leeds United Twitter account even posted highlights in real-time, just like it would during a real game.
Southampton got in on the act, too, hosting another FIFA 20 match to play out their game against Norwich, and Gillingham managed to win a whopping 16-0 in their postponed FIFA match. We're not sure the real game would have played out quite like that.
Of course, it's not just football teams who have been playing more and more games while being stuck at home. Steam reportedly hit the 20 million concurrent players mark over the weekend, and last week brought the news that online gaming has caused an internet data spike in Italy.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 21
We all know the first one is fake as Leicester wouldn't draw with Watford.
Never thought I would see the day where Fifa proved to be usefull.
The football Twitter accounts are literally roleplaying, oh my days.
Leeds United being top with 9 games to go and facing the season being declared null and void probably had to be the most Leeds United thing ever.
And I'm a Leeds fan 😔
So disappointed with the title. I thought you meant "real football", not soccer. There's plenty of soccer games on Switch, where's the "real football" games? There are better"real football" games on my smartphone. I would be happy if even "Backyard Football" came to the Switch, it would be the best "real football" available on the Switch.
Bet the government isnt paying them 90 quid a week for sitting on their arses
Got to love it.
Spent Sunday playing F12019 (first 3 F1 races canceled) with other racing fans online and The Division 2 Online Co-op with family
Can't wait for The Show 20 tomorrow.
Gamers will have an easier time with the need to stay at home.
@biglittlejake So you imagine a sport where the ball is held in the hand 99.9% of the time to be the "real" football, right? It's the sort of classless remark that only an ignorant American who thinks America is the world would make
@biglittlejake it is real football, handegg doesn't deserve to be called football
@biglittlejake
You mean hand egg or padded rugby.
Real footbal is a game where they kick the ball around with their feet.
but hey who cares if only three quarters of the world calls that game footbal eh ?
@Alztru
Not too mention that this site is UK based.
So off course this site would cite real football.
@Alztru this comment 👌. Nuff said!
Definitely won’t have been the disgraceful Switch version of fifa
@Alztru @ChineseJames @KitsuneNight It is never not the right time to point out that "soccer" is a British term that developed because historically "football" was ambiguous between association football and Rugby football, and it would be used to specify which variety one was talking about.
Feel free to tell any Rugby players you know that their sport isn't real.
I'm more upset that it gives EA free publicity...
I wonder if Manchester United is going to jump in on this...
@PanurgeJr I'm sorry but I don't get the point of your argument. Are you arguing for or against American Football being the real football?
@Alztru There's no such thing as "real" football. Only whatever sport the local community refers to by that word; which differs from place to place.
I fear that the 2020 Summer Olympics is going to end up something like this 1936 old cartoon of the Olympics be like in the year 2000:
EA is probably loving this.
Eww
@Alztru @PanurgeJR his post didn't say anything about American football, only that "soccer" is also a valid term. One that redcoats like to give Yanks a hard time about despite being a British word in the first place.
@PanurgeJr @konbinilife I never argued that soccer isn't a valid term or that the word didn't originate from the UK. My issue was simply with calling American Football "real football". I don't even look at American Football as some sort of inferior "football". If I ever see an American talking about football, I always just assume they are talking about American Football. But as I said before, it is classless, ignorant, and frankly, insulting to then call it the "real football" when in reality the ball is hardly ever touched by the foot and it isn't even really a "ball" to begin with.
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