The new iteration of the football simulation game is released on Friday. The developers placed emphasis on player modeling. For franceinfo, Warren Zaire-Emery, Selma Bacha and Lieke Martens recounted their experience.
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How do you recognize when a player changes dimension? To his note and the modeling of his avatar in the best-selling game around the world, EA Sports FC (ex-FIFA), the new edition of which is released on Friday September 26. Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery has seen the change. The 18-year-old is now the ambassador for France of the famous virtual football simulation. The Blues midfielder recounts this experience to franceinfo.
If it already appeared in previous versions, he admits: “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t my head!” Warren Zaire-Emery did not in fact have the right to faithful modeling. For the 2025 version, EA Sports pulled out all the stops by scanning his face using cutting-edge technology.
“We set up in a sort of bubble where there were lots of cameras capturing all the details of the face.”
Warren Zaire-Emery, PSG midfielderat franceinfo
“I was asked to look everywhere, to the right, to the left, a little up in the air, down, to smile, to shout. All this allows us to make small details on the faces which make the game fascinating, the players and players made to perfection”, tells WZE.
For a more than conclusive result: “Frankly, the modeling is great, it’s really very well done. I’m happy to be in the game, so well done. It’s got everything! The day of the scan with the club, I wasn’t cut. And there, it’s the same thing, I have the same head. I’m very happy, I hope that it will continue with bigger cards.“
Because the player is monitoring his rating, which went from 77 last year to the symbolic bar of 80 for this season. “It suits me, it’s only the second time I’ve been in the game. Except my rating for shots, but I would have to shoot more in real life for it to be better. It’s fair That, otherwise the card is perfect I was able to test it, I’m good at the game and it suits me.“
The player, trained at PSG, is in any case the delight of his brothers, big fans of EA FC. “It’s great, it’s very well done, even if on some small details on the face, it could be better, but it’s light“, admits Wesley Zaire-Emery.
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Warren Zaire-Emery was not the only player to benefit from this modeling. EA Sports repeated the operation in most Ligue 1 clubs, but also in the French Premier League, the top division of women’s football. “It’s crazy“, enthuses the defender of Olympique Lyonnais and the French team, Selma Bacha, for franceinfo. “The scan was quite incredible. There are a lot of cameras. We are taken in profile, from above, below, we are asked to smile, to lift our hair, to lower our heads, to shout. There has all the details!”
“I often play with a strap – a strip – on my right forearm. In the game, it’s there. The way I run, my head when I score and celebrate, it’s really me. It’s It’s just strong what they did, it really looks like reality.”
Selma Bacha, defender of OL and Les Bleuesat franceinfo
“Everything is taken into account, the ponytail or even the fact that you are wearing a headband or not. I used to have one when I was younger, now I don’t.“, details PSG Dutch winger Lieke Martens. “It’s really very similar, it’s cool to see that and especially for women’s football, it’s really what we need. We want to improve it and these kinds of things contribute to that.”
In total, 19,000 players were modeled, some using the capsule, others – particularly for the lower divisions – with simple photos, thanks to the use of artificial intelligence. EA FC 25 has also faithfully reproduced 120 stadiums – including the Bollaert stadium in Lens – to try to attract new players, after slightly declining sales last season.