During Electronic Arts’ investor call yesterday, the company’s CEO Andrew Wilson announced that the studio is currently working on a FIFA World Cup 2014 expansion to tie in with next year’s global footie tournament. Not only that, CFO Blake Jorgensen further confirmed that the title, which is set tentatively for release next June, will also appear on Microsoft and Sony’s next-gen consoles.
Wilson brought up the news when discussing what EA’s plans were in regards to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One:
“In the last two weeks, you’ve also seen several announcements about our product slate for the remainder of this year and into FY15. We are refining our focus on our biggest brands and great new IP in development, including The Sims 4, EA Sports UFC, FIFA World Cup and Dragon Age: Inquisition.”
If you are a fan of the FIFA franchise, you are probably already well aware of EA’s tendency to release multiple versions of the franchise in a single year. We’ve had games covering both the World Cup and UEFA Euro tournament in the past generation of consoles, so this news is not terribly surprising. FIFA is arguably EA’s biggest franchise going at the moment, so it’s logical for the stalwart developer to capitalise with a stop-gap release in the build up to the inevitable FIFA 15.
What makes FIFA World Cup 2014 intriguing, however, is that it will have most likely been developed longer on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One than its immediate predecessor FIFA 14 — which will be available upon launch for both systems. As such, it’ll be interesting to see whether the game takes advantage of the some of the new features of Sony and Microsoft’s hardware; the share functionality, for example.
At this time, EA hasn’t outlined a specific release date for FIFA World Cup 2014; although its expected to launch in tandem with the titular tournament, which kicks off on June 12th. In the meantime, though, gamers who want to get their next-gen football on can look forward to FIFA 14, which launches with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 upon their respective launch dates.
