It’s no doubt that FIFA 13 is an amazing game. But who’s out there that’s going to push it to it’s limits? In a year that could see us move into the next generation of gaming we look to see if FIFA really does have any competitors out there to take it to the next level?
The Dominance Of FIFA
In it’s first week after release FIFA 13 broke all the records selling 4.5 million games across all platforms worldwide making it the biggest video game launch of 2012 and biggest sports video game launch of all-time.
It boasted 66 million online game sessions in that week alone. (That’s on top of all of the offline gameplay).
It’s Ultimate Team game mode raked in $108 million alone in digital sales last year and that figure’s expected to rise with FUT 13.
Right up until the release of Black Ops 2, FIFA 13 was still perched proudly at the top of the gaming charts seeing off huge titles like Dishonored and XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
Andrew Wilson, Executive Vice President of EA SPORTS said,
‘Every minute of every day millions of fans around the world are experiencing what the critics have already said – FIFA 13 is the biggest and best sports game we have ever created.’
So what keeps EA SPORTS going? What drives them to push the limits of sports simulation year after year and most importantly, what protects us, the loyal fans, and ensures we’re at the forefront of developer and producers thoughts when planning the next iteration of the FIFA Series?
Competition…!
Why Is Competition Important?
Competition promotes innovation, and a constant need to make games better in a way that we, the consumers, want.
Without competition there’s no race to produce the best games or keep prices low and the consumer suffers.
To be successful in a competitive market you have to win the customer over with either your low price or high quality. Either way, the consumer wins.
So do EA SPORTS and the FIFA series have any competitors to pit their wares against to win us over? The answer is unfortunately, no…
PES vs FIFA
FIFA has had its ups and downs in the 16 year rivalry with their number 1 rival, Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), with momentum constantly shifting one way and the other.
6 years ago PES was outselling FIFA in the UK but over the last few years FIFA has been dominating the sales figures with FIFA 12 outselling PES by a whopping 25 to 1 in its first weekend!
I know PES has its staunch fans but the sales figures suggest it’s falling further and further behind in the race to provide the best football simulation game.
I’d even go as far to suggest that long term they’re in danger of falling out of the competition altogether.
Other Games Titles Provide No Competition Either
There are some that argue that FIFA will be challenged by video games from other sports or even games from other genres but the truth is that Football (or Soccer) is a way of life for so many people across the UK and Europe and the tide’s shifting that way in the US and Asia too.
That being the case “football” isn’t something that people can just substitute out of their lives for something else. (It would be if my wife had her way but fortunately for me she doesn’t!)
Therefore football fanatics are always going to look for a football game, just as basketball fanatics or American Football fanatics will always specifically sought after basketball or American Football games respectively.
Your passion for your sport isn’t something that just comes and goes and on that note I argue that FIFA isn’t challenged by games from other sports or genres.
So What Does That Mean For Me?
A lack of competition in any industry is a bad thing. Companies that hold a monopoly can rest on their laurels, manipulate pricing and perceived value and become driven by profits over striving to provide the best possible product or service to their customers.
EA have turned into one of the giants in the gaming scene, eating up companies that get in their way and have a marketing powerhouse hell bent on sales and making money. (Ok, to be fair, what marketing team isn’t?)
One eye opener was the recent release of the Team Of The Year in Ultimate Team packs. One minute EA Sports are advocating that Team Of The Year forwards would be available for one day only until 6pm, Saturday 12th January knowing that these would be the most sought after players in FIFA 13 Ultimate Team only for them to be included in packs again straight after along with the rest of the Team of the Year.
I understand the concept and necessity of up selling but I felt that this tactic to tempt people to spend more than they were originally planning to was clever but also misleading and slightly underhand and one example of a “profits ahead of customer” mentality that I hope we’re not seeing a shift towards.
Our Saving Grace
One salvation for us as fans of the FIFA series is having had the chance to visit EA, Guildford and talk to some of the developers I can say that they’re genuinely passionate about the quality of the game they produce. Listening to them you could tell that FIFA is their baby and any criticism cuts on a personal level. It’s obvious that they care a hell of a lot about the game and positive feedback is worth more to them than profit.
I just hope that the developers’ passion can stave off the commercial strain of the corporate heavyweights and they’re not put under pressure to deliver profit driven features and forced into unrealistic, money making timescales at the detriment to producing what FIFA really is and should remain… The world’s greatest and most innovative football game.
So what do you think? Is FIFA losing its values in the absence of competition or are EA more in touch with the community than ever before?
Let us know you thoughts in the comments below.
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In my opinion, although FIFA as a whole has moved forward in recent years, it’s remained stagnant or in some cases fell behind in a few areas.
Firstly, the servers. EA charge around 40 pounds per game worldwide, assuming even a very modest sales figure of 20million units then they make 800 million pounds on the game. Say they have shifted that many for FIFA’s 10,11,12 and 13 then that’s 3.2 billion pounds just from one title in 4 years. Yet the servers have got consistently worse since FIFA 11. On FIFA 10 and 11 the servers were, on the whole, very good from my own experience with only the odd occasion where I suffered with lag. FIFA 12 was worse, though not massively, there were just, say, double the occasions where I suffered from bad lag in a game. FIFA 13 though … wow! Ultimate Team (no surprise) I get very little lag and a 3 Green Bar connection, but if I go onto Clubs it is constantly at 1 red bar, no matter what, and the games are always very laggy. This would suggest to me that EA have put all their eggs in one profitable basket when it comes to the servers and have neglected one of the most popular game modes in Pro Clubs. This needs to be rectified as soon as possible.
Secondly is the scripting. Now I know that EA say that there are no scripts etc. but, i’m sorry, it’s bulls**t! I’ve benefited from these scripts as well as been on the end of a few of them. I’ve played against people who were dominating me 10 shots to 1 with 70% possession and were 3-0 up at half time, only for me to suddenly get awarded penalties that really weren’t penalties and have extremely fortunate deflected goals from long range and that sort of thing. I feel guilty to win or draw like that when the other player is obviously playing better than me but the game screws him over. I always send an apologetic message that EA have messed the game up.
Thirdly, back to Clubs – they have made the achievements far too difficult in alot of cases to get your Virtual Pro up. Some of the Defensive achievements in particular are horrendous! 1000 standing tackles as a Defender. The average successful tackles per game on Clubs is between 6 and 10. Assuming the most at 10, then it’s 100 games playing as a Defender and on clubs that is one of the most boring positions you can play. Why not 1000 tackles – full stop. No particular positional requirements? It’s something they really need to look into
Fourth – animations. There are some animations creeping into the game that are entirely unnecessary. For instance in FIFA 12 there was the animation where a player berated and shouted at the ref for a perceived injustice, but 9/10 that player would have been in a better position if that animation hadn’t kicked in and he could have won the ball straight back! In FIFA 13 the worst ones are the “Crab Walking” where you are sprinting to chase a player who has the ball in order to tackle him and suddenly he starts side stepping really slowly for no reason, and the one where they stick their leg out to try and control a ball that is nowhere near them. With that particular animation 9/10 if the player DOESN’T stick it’s leg out and takes the extra couple of steps it can bring the ball down without breaking stride. These 2 animations, along with a few others, the user has absolutely no control over and it spoils the game.
Fifth – Defending. Defending in FIFA has got both better and worse over the years. Better in that you can’t just hold B as you could in FIFA 10 and 11 and the CPU will do the work for you but worse in as much that Tackling is alot less consistent, Positioning of user defenders has gotten worse making it much easier to find space while CPU Positioning has gotten better, Shirt Pulling is massively Overpowered in FIFA 13 and there is FAR too much Pace Compensation in the game. For instance John Terry who has about 60 Pace overall managing to keep up with Cristiano Ronaldo who has about 90 Pace overall – this isn’t realistic. If Cristiano Ronaldo were to knock the ball past John Terry, first of all he would have about 6 yards on him before Terry had even managed to turn from facing Ronaldo and begin his sprint – that’s just logic – but also Ronaldo would be pulling away from Terry until he slowed to line up his shot. On FIFA 13 Ronaldo knocks the ball past and Terry is instantly turned and keeping pace shoulder to shoulder. It’s just not realistic.
I’ll leave it at those points for now but more can be added i’m sure
theres nothing too unrealistic about terry catching up to ronaldo, in the past it would have made me mad, but i have learnt a lot about mechanics and momentum in school, if acceleration is the same, they move at similar speeds
@Temitope except for the fact that Ronaldo can cover 100m in around 10 seconds and John Terry can’t – seriously are you telling me that John Terry is as quick over 100m as Ronaldo? Pull the other one kidda
We need competition for Pro Clubs!
regarding your last column -our saving grace – there is no doubt at all that the developers are under pressure from corporate dinosaurs to focus as the main factor of the game – profit driven features – especially in UT – in my opinion the most addictive game on the planet. You also talk of – disturbingly accurately – of monopolisation in the industry and the ” eating up of competition” . One simple or not so simple thing to create a more level playing field for electronic soccer games would be availability of FIFA or FIFpro licenses – im suspicious that EA may have an exclusive on this. The real truth of the story is that EA have totally dominated the market more so from the fact they have FIFA license rather than from actual gameplay – i quote your line – “A lack of competition in any industry is a bad thing” .
in a small way its just another part of the globalisation that is tearing this world apart – i just hope that some oft the guys in FIFA development split from EA and set up a rival game – as you say – healthy competition will be our saving grace