There are no transfer fees in Rematch, a new soccer game from independent French development studio Sloclap; no salary caps, sponsor negotiations or even player ratings to buff. Instead, it’s a soccer game that basks in the basics. And it’s drawing millions of converts.
The online offering takes cues from third-person shooter games and arcade fare such as Rocket League, then combines it with a stripped-down version of soccer reminiscent of old FIFA Street games. You won’t find offsides calls or red cards here, and there are no automated controls or AI players in the trio of game play modes: five-a-side, four-a-side and three-a-side. Everything is human in every direction, each user controlling a single, equally gifted athlete.
Creative director Pierre Tarno said the Rematch team purposely steered away from the big business of the global game in favor of replicating the universal experience “of playing football with your friends.” Developers also amped up the benefits of team play—short passes, sound defensive positioning—over the potential of heroic, individual runs up the pitch. Ranked mode progression is tied to wins, not personal stats.
“It’s really more about the team than about an individual player,” Tarno said.
Rematch has sold more than 1.5 million games across PlayStation and computer platforms, at $30 each, with another 2.5 million-plus gamers logging on via Xbox’s Game Pass service since its June 19 release.
The game is also reaching rare air on the Amazon-owned live streaming service Twitch, a platform often used by analysts as a gauge of cultural penetration. Twitch streams of people playing Rematch surpassed 40,000 concurrent viewers Monday night with the help of popular European content creator eliasn97, who accounted for three-quarters of those spectators. The viewer count made Rematch the top-streamed sports game in the world for a brief time Monday—more than doubling the attention EA Sports FC 25 received. However, it is worth noting the Electronic Arts title is in the latter stages of its annual content cycle and averaged 54,000 viewers last September, peaking at more than 200,000, according to TwitchTracker data.
Rematch‘s success follows other retro sports offerings, such as Backyard Baseball’s popular return and Tony Hawk Pro Skater’s resurrection. And its ability to survive without pricy player and team licenses mirrors indie classic Basketball GM.
It probably won’t be unseating EA Sports FC (nee FIFA) atop the football pyramid, but it is satisfied to play a role as a differentiated alternative, just like the Football Manager series appeals to a niche of fans looking to dive deeper into everything happening off the pitch.
“What we wanted to sort of convey is the essence of football,” Tarno said. “It’s a simple game that’s always the same, but always different.”
Going forward, the team is considering developing more authentic, tactics-driven modes, as well as offline modes that allow players to take on computers. Sloclap is also working on cross-play functionality for friends on different devices, improved in-game functionality, and competitive play options, including the ability to create a club.
So far, Tarno said the game has connected with many non-sports gamers, the type who are more likely to be monitoring new Steam releases or recognize Sloclap from their previous game, Sifu, a martial arts beat ‘em up entrant.
“I’m very happy that a lot of our players say, ‘I don’t care about football at all, but I love your game,’” Tarno said.
Video games are an immensely competitive field, where there are few shortcuts to the top. Gamers have a near infinite number of options to decide between. The success of Rematch offers an example of how a sports game beyond an annually released blockbuster can still break through to an audience.
“We wanted to remove the fluff and the rules and the big business and just focus on the core elements that make football such an amazing game,” Tarno said.
Sometimes, a game speaks for itself.
