Rivalry with Pro Evolution Soccer Central to FIFA Success

The FIFA video game series from EA Sports has become in the last few years the most important football simulation franchise, performing better than its main rival, the Konami made Pro Evolution Soccer series, but at least one leading developer working on it says that having a capable rival is important to the quality of his own games.

Speaking to CVG David Rutter, who is a senior producer working on the FIFA series, has stated, “I think that anyone that would underestimate the quality of a passionate game developer who really wants to make the best game in a battle like the one we have would be somewhat short-sighted.”

He also praised his own development team, saying, “We're all mad football fans and gamers so I think those two things plus the fact that we're good and moved overseas makes us naturally competitive regardless of what the competition is; be it Konami or Call of Duty or watching TV, we want to be the thing that more people in the whole world want to do than anything else. I don't think you'll see that motivation drop because everyone here is super-competitive.”

Rutter has identified complacency as being one of the main enemies of any successful video game franchise and the existence of PES in its 2010 and 2011 incarnations has meant that the Vancouver studio of EA Sports was well motivated to do their best with the yearly FIFA launches.

FIFA 12 is set to launch during September and will focus on delivering a more physical experience, with a host of new systems designed to make the game more life like by making both attacker and defenders better able to use their bodies to control the ball.

Konami has also announced that it planned to make PES 2012 more focused on team play and on delivering an Artificial Intelligence that can support the player controlled character both on attack and defense.