In a recent interview with MCV, EA Sports head honcho Peter Moore alluded to the future of the Fifa franchise and a change in the way we recieve content.
“We need to provide that persistent world, maybe sometimes powered by discs, maybe on social networks, or the cloud or whatever. That’s’ the team’s vision, that no matter where you are or what you’re using, there’s a FIFA experience to be had, it all links together, it lifts your level up and identifies your status.”
With the integration between Fifa Superstars and the Fifa demo unlockables, we saw a small glimpse of these plans and how we might start to see Fifa popping up in more than one place.
“What you are now starting to see is some linkage between FIFA Superstars and unlocking some features in FIFA 11. It’s baby steps towards persistence and presence for a full FIFA eco system. And that, obviously, is where the franchise, just like the sport, is heading”
Eco system? I like that idea a lot, the possibilities are pretty exciting. Imagine using an app on your phone to view stats and bid for players on your way to work, log into your browser to tinker with your formations and finalise the deals at lunch, then pull everything down to your console when you get home. It sounds far fetched, but it’s a direction i’d love to see EA move towards. It’s not for everyone of course, but if designed and implemented properly, it would allow those that want to completely immerse themselves to do so without harming the player who like the yearly update system that’s in place at the moment.
How long it will take to move away from physical media to a completely digital delivery service is unknown and although they are clearly thinking about it, it doesn’t look like EA have made a concrete descision about what the future holds.
“Personally I still think there’ll be discs five years from now. One of the great things about FIFA is that it does permeate pretty much every corner of the world and there will be countries that don’t have the broadband infrastructure that we’re used to.”
“But generally yes, of course, I think there will come a time when FIFA is less a disc that you wait for in late September/early October, and more something that we provide 365 days a year.”
Read the full MCV interview with Peter Moore here, then head over to the forums to discuss.
