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EA has reassured PC-owning football fans that the FIFA series is safe from the PC platform chop suffered by the likes of Madden and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com in an interview, FIFA 09 PC producer (and Liverpool fan) Paul Hossack said that many of the problems that have led to EA canning some of the PC versions of its sports titles “don’t apply” to the long-running football series.
In a July 1 blog post EA Sports chief Peter Moore said the company’s decision to not release PC versions of Madden, NCAA Football, NASCAR, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR and NBA LIVE this year was down to a combination of factors including piracy and a poor return on investment.
But Hossack this week reassured PC-owning FIFA fans that they need not worry that their beloved game will suffer from a similar fate.
He said: “In general a lot of what Peter’s talking about is about North American sports. In North America when people play sports video games they play them on consoles and the trend has been to get more and more towards console as the platform of choice for sports gaming. For football, the real football, FIFA, we actually have quite a healthy market for FIFA PC. If that wasn’t the case I don’t think I would have spent as much time and my team would have spent as many hours and investment on making the PC game that much better this year, putting in a lot of PC specific things. So there’s a distinct difference between football and the North American sports in terms of people’s outlook and people’s desire to play it on the PC. Germany, UK, a lot of the Eastern European markets, PC is a very important platform for them for playing games and playing FIFA.”
“I see no reason to worry. I’ve come over on this press tour specifically to promote FIFA on the PC. That’s the only reason why I’m here. We’re investing in it,” he added.
Hossack did, however, warn that EA is ready to tweak certain aspects of FIFA on PC in future titles, including changes in presentation and business model.
“Buying a box product in a shop is a great way to get games to people but there’s a lot of other ways people play their PC games and that’s something we should probably look at,” he said. “Is there a better way for us to get them that football entertainment experience? If there’s a better way then we’ll be looking into it.”
Be sure to check out the rest of our giant interview with FIFA 09 PC producer Paul Hossack right here.
