14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore has confirmed that EA is already working on FIFA 16 and FIFA 17, even before FIFA 15 is ready to ship.
EA's yearly release schedule for the popular football franchise requires teams to approach development in a staggered manner, as video games take way longer than one year to complete.
Even though an iterative series such as FIFA can undergo certain shortcuts, as the base technology involved and core gameplay mechanics don't change from year to year, Peter Moore still likes to be on top of things, for one very important reason:
"There's probably nothing bigger than FIFA year-in and year-out, in terms of bringing people into the EA family," he shares during an interview with CVG.
Consequently, EA always has to think ahead and have the next FIFA game ready in time for its fans to enjoy.
"There are two phases to it. There's the core game itself. We have several hundred people working on that and it's a staggered development process, so there are already people working on FIFA 16."
"You have parallel development that goes on where you have frontrunners that are thinking about what the next FIFA is and in some instances FIFA 17, because there are development and engineering and tech decisions that need to be made," Moore points out.
The biggest contender to FIFA's crown as the king of virtual sports is Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer. Although Moore remembers a time when EA's game used to be number two, due to some solid decision making, it secured its leading position.
Konami didn't release a new PES game for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 last year, and the company also founded a new UK-based studio to work alongside the original Japanese development team, in order to deliver Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 to the current-generation of consoles.
"Konami is a fine competitor and we'll take them on. I think their challenge is working out how they can develop a real meaningful online multiplayer element to PES that will compete with Ultimate Team. I think the core loves Ultimate Team. It's 24 hours a day and it captures what's going on in football around the world," Moore explains.
FIFA 15 is currently scheduled to come out on September 23 in North America, September 25 in Europe, and September 26 in the United Kingdom, coming to the Windows PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, with a legacy edition getting launched for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita platforms.