Welcome to Idea Studios

For millions of fans across the world, video games — primarily the record-high-selling FIFA series from Electronic Arts, but also its rival series Pro Evolution Soccer and the more cerebral Football Manager — act as both a gateway drug to football and, later, another way of satisfying an established addiction. Players rank among the most ardent devotees of all three. Andrea Pirlo has proclaimed that “after the wheel, the PlayStation is the best invention of all time.” Zlatan Ibrahimovic wrote in his autobiography that he “could go 10 hours at a stretch” playing football video games early in his career. John Terry used to host Pro Evolution Soccer get-togethers for... Read More »

New research in Spain has found that playing video games can be good for children’s brains, if they play no more than two hours a week. Playing more than two-hours of games increases the likelihood that children would get into trouble at school and was likely to reduce the social skills. However, by controlling their weekly hourly gaming, children aged 7-11 improved their scores at school. More than 2,400 children aged 7-11 were studied and the results were published on the journal Annals of Neurology. Findings pointed to the fact that playing video games for one hour per week was associated with better motor skills and higher school achievement scores.... Read More »

EA Sports annual release of Fifa 17 will see “The Journey,” an interactive narrative in which you play as the young footballer Alex Hunter trying to earn his first Premier League contract. Through dialogue decisions, on-pitch performances (in which you control only Hunter), and lavishly created cutscenes his story is told, influenced by what you choose to say and how well you play on the pitch. It’s not known how many hours The Journey will demand of players, but it would be wise for EA to stick to a shorter running time. Most FIFA players prefer to play with others, either in person or online, whereas The Journey is a... Read More »

Shadow of the Beast on PS4 will come packed with the Amiga original, rejoice retro gamers! But you’ll have to unlock it first, because the emulation of the Amiga classic is burrowed away somewhere in the main campaign. “As fans of the original, we wanted to offer new players to chance to experience first-hand the game that inspired us and offer fellow fans of the original a chance to re-live it. To that end, we’ve included a full emulation of the original Amiga game (we think this might be the first time an Amiga emulation has been published on a Sony console!) as an unlockable bonus in the main game – that means... Read More »

Not only has there been a brand new Hitman game release already in March, but some of the older ones are coming to Xbox One through backwards compatibility, with developer IO Interactive confirming, it all begins with Hitman Absolution. IO studio head Hannes Seifert told ‘WorthPlaying’ that the timings would be decided by Microsoft, and that all of the studio’s games were being considered for backwards compatibility. Meaning fans could eventually get their hands on Blood Money and the Hitman HD Trilogy. PS4 and PC pre-order customers can check out the prologue from the new Hitman game as part of a beta this coming weekend. The beta ​takes place in the ICA training facility, where a... Read More »