Earlier this year, it was initially rumored that 2K and Microsoft were teaming up to make a football game for Xbox One and PC. It was hoped that Joe Montana Football would be that game and that, for the first time in a long time, EA would have some real competition in the professional football video game space.
Sadly, that doesn't appear to be the case, as Joe Montana Football was officially revealed today and it doesn't look like it'll provide much competition to EA's Madden franchise. Much to our disappointment, Joe Montana Football is a mobile game. Womp, womp.
Joe Montana Football is running on Unreal Engine 4, and in an interview with the official Unreal Engine YouTube channel, it was revealed that the game will be coming first to iOS. It'll then release on Android in the second phase, followed by PC in its final phase.
"We took a look at the market and we said how can we get this out quickly, but also at the same time we wanted to push things. Most times people thought of mobile as just an afterthought, a place for casual minigames. But when you take AAA developers and you actually put time in it — again Infinity Blade broke all records — and we wanted to be that moment for sports," explained Superstar Games CEO Damon Grow.
I guess it'll be cool to have a legit football game to play on my phone — the graphics do look good — but competition is always a good thing, and the idea that we could have that in the football genre on consoles was intriguing. However, with no officially licensed NFL teams (EA currently has the exclusive license for the NFL brand) it would've been near impossible for Joe Montana Football to compete. It would've had to have some really, really amazing gameplay for gamers and sports fans to sacrifice playing as their favorite team. For now, though, it looks like Joe Montana Football will exist as a fantasy/ultimate-type game where you build your own team from scratch.
On the bright side, a console release for the game wasn't completely ruled out. Grow did say that if Joe Montana Football does well on its intended platforms, it could be released on additional platforms.
