14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that FIFA 11, the football simulation game from EA Sports, could be launched in North America on September 28, if dates offered by the sites of GameStop and Amazon are to be believed. Another retailer, Best Buy, lists the date as October 19. EA Sports has not offered an official release date for the title yet but the FIFA series usually launched in North America sometime in mid-October, the European release taking place towards the beginning of the month.
FIFA 11 is one of the biggest franchises that Electronic Arts has in the world of sports and the increasing popularity of football (some might say soccer) in North America makes the launch date for the territory more important than ever. It seems that the change in date might be motivated by the introduction of a new series, EA Sports' MMA, which also needs to find a place in an already overcrowded market.
The publisher has to find a way to work around the fact that its NBA game, which has been renamed Elite this year, is coming out on October 5 because of the way the deal with the license holders is structured so MMA gets an October launch slot and FIFA moves to late September.
FIFA 11 is set to change the way players experience the football simulation. The game will, of course, look prettier than ever and the stats for all the players will be updated to take into account the last season and the ongoing World Cup but the main star of the new title will be a system called Personality+ aiming to render the entire experience more realistic than ever.
EA Sports’ objective is to make virtual Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney behave as close as possible as their real-life counterparts, forcing gamers to adapt their style to the players they are using.