David Rutter Interview

Our friends at Fench community site, FIFAGamersBlog.com got the chance to interview FIFA 12 Lead Producer, David Rutter, recently, several weeks after the hugely successful launch of FIFA 12.

They were kind enough to share this interview with us so we ran it by UltimateFIFA’s team of highly trained, expert linguists, err, Google Translate and have the pleasure of bringing the interview to you in English.

The following is the translated David Rutter interview by FIFAGamersblog:

Having had the pleasure of interviewing the master of skills, Kantcho Doskov, then producer, Sebastian Enrique, and Nigel Nunn, the specialist in modeling, I had the chance to ask some questions to lead producer of FIFA 12, Mr David Rutter.

FGB:  Hello Mr. Rutter, how are you after the record breaking launch?

DR:  I’m fine, thank you for asking. I’m really proud of the team here in Vancouver and what we were able to accomplish in FIFA 12. And really, really happy about how much our fans enjoy playing the game.

FGB:  You’ve been the lead producer of the saga FIFA in recent years. Did FIFA 12 call for more work than other years?

DR:  I would say of course.  The revolutionary changes we made to the gameplay were very important. In particular, the Impact Engine, which has been developing for two years?  It was the biggest technological change we made to the game since coming to this generation of consoles.

Each year, it’s a challenge to innovate and bring new features to our fans, but this year was a great effort by the team, and they did an incredible job in bringing our new gameplay changes to this game mode.

FGB:  Between the demo and the final version, which part was working first?

DR:  The demo is a chance for us to see the reaction and feedback from our fans and make the final changes based on millions of games played on the demo.

But now, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the game after launch. We just deployed a massive patch 45 days after the release which set straight a number of problems and improved the experience, based largely on feedback from our fans.

FGB:  The career mode has not needed much time to be one of the preferred games modes of the players. Do the developers FIFA MANAGER participate to achieve this result?

DR:  Not at this time. Our team is here at the studio in Vancouver led by producer Simon Humber, who led the development of our new career mode which has improved a lot this year.

FGB:  The new Tactical Defending has many strengths, but it is difficult for some players to make the transition from FIFA 11. How do you think it was received?

DR:  The Tactical Defending is a game changer for FIFA 12. We wanted to make defending as rewarding as attacking, and build a new mechanism that mimics the way it is on the pitch in the real world.

This is an adjustment, but we find that the vast majority of players use the new Tactical Defending.

FGB:  The new option to control the keeper was one of the most commented since the release of the game since it was deleted, why?

DR:  We anticipated that there may be some exploiting the system, but unfortunately it was much more widespread, and we decided to remove the feature for online ranked matches to ensure a fair balance for our players.

FGB:  Ultimate Team was highly anticipated by fans.  In a podcast, Romily Broad, Community Manager, announced a future patch. Can we learn more? (Asked before the release of patch)

DR:  We made a number of improvements to FUT in our patch, particularly in terms of the flow of new elements, auctions, and new players.

FGB:  Mr Rutter thank you for this interview. It may be you want a good holiday after this year of development or is it back to work on FIFA 13?

DR:  We have already made good progress on our plans for FIFA 13… The team enjoys the challenge of coming up with new ideas and get feedback from our fans.

FGB:  I thank once again Mr. Rutter and also the Director of Public Relations at EA SPORTS for his kindness, his responses to my emails and for allowing me this interview.

Love Football, Play Football, Play FIFA 12. (and read FGB)

You can read the interview on FIFAGamersBlog here and whilst your there take a look around for more great information.

One Comment
  1. mak November 28, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    why are real questions not put to this man such as momentum posts are filling forum boards can you explain the problem people are having with momentum or if as mentioned it doesnt exist, then what is it people are experiencing, as it is fast destroying a good game online

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