EA Sports is keeping a close watch on what Konami are up to with the only real competitor in the football simulation market.
David Rutter, the man behind FIFA’s change in fortunes in recent years, has begun his annual hyping up of the next game in the series. Rutter once mocked Konami, saying that he would love to help them get to the levels FIFA had reached in recent years.
In fact, there was a time following the release of PES 2012 that FIFA 12 was outselling its competitor by a ratio of 25 copies to one, a figure that EA will be looking to emulate once again this year.
However, having said that, Rutter admits that the lack of huge gameplay changes in FIFA 13 means that Konami have a chance to catch up with the leading game in the football simulation series.
Rutter said, "There are other things out there. We're still worried about what Konami is going to do with Pro Evolution Soccer and naturally they're our closest sports competitor."
There was a time when Konami dominated the football simulation scene however, under Rutter all that changed and he explained how one of the reasons for the games being as good as they were was down to the fact that their studio in Canada was isolated and provided a conducive atmosphere.
He said, "I think actually being in Canada is a bit of an advantage as well because we're away from all the, 'woohoo! Look how amazing we are!'"
Rutter went on to explain that the isolation from the hustle and bustle of the commercial aspects of the games actually kept the pressure off the development team. He said, “We don't see the shops with tonnes of FIFA copies in them, or see the launch or hear about it on the news. We're far enough away that we're this little isolated pod of negative nerds all working on FIFA."
It seems Konami have an opportunity to gain some valuable ground on the FIFA series and one will have to wait and see whether or not it takes advantage of it or not.
http://www.senore.com/FIFA-13-dev-has-ripped-tonnes-if-the-game-out-again-FIFA-13-News-Round-Up-3-a154622 4 5
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