FIFA 12 Smashes Sales Records

[StriderShinryu]

At least in the world of videogames, the ones that make the money usually have quality behind them. FIFA, Madden, CoD, etc. are all solid games whether you happen to personally like them or not.

Look at the other forms of entertainment media and you'll pretty quickly see how good gamers have it. Top selling books include things like Twilight and an endless parade of Harelequin romance novels. Top grossing movies include things like the Transformers, Tyler Perry movies and the Pirates movies. Top grossing music includes things like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.

 

[northeast rower]

Please don't let this become the new Madden...

It's already the new madden everywhere but the U.S. And even here, it's starting to see a much greater following than one would expect from a soccer (football, whatever you want to call it) game.

I mean in terms of "shovel one out every year, value steadily decreases" though Madden '11 is somewhat better.

 

[EvilPicnic]

FIFA 12 Smashes Sales Records
Being an American however, I am genuinely surprised that the game is actually this huge. It's no secret that soccer is the world's favorite game, but I did not expect it would prove more of a draw than dudes chainsawing monsters in half with exaggerated phallic metaphors.
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I know the Escapist is US-centric, but there is no need to stress the fact... FIFA has always been massive and sold loads. It really shouldn't be news.

I won't be buying FIFA12 though; I already have FIFA11 and I refuse to buy a new iteration every year. It's a racket.

 

[mysecondlife]

I actually have a mild interest in getting this game. Perhaps its Steve Nash and Landon Donovan advertising it.

Maybe I'll buy it used down the future

 

[Kuroji]

I won't be buying FIFA12 though; I already have FIFA11 and I refuse to buy a new iteration every year. It's a racket.

Good choice. The small additions to manager mode are nice, but not worth a new game. Besides, you'd just have to start your Pro from scratch anyway.

 

[razer17]

Sorry, I kind of went overboard here with all the quoting, so you'll have to excuse me and just find your post, if you even care what someone else has to say.

I want it, so damn much. Gonna get it tomorrow or something. I NEED IT! The new manager mode and player impact engine have me drooling.

Inb4 masses of butthurt douchebags complaining about people liking sports. I mean, seriously! You have to move and shit! And people play games of this stuff! Huh! Im going back to my night elf chick, thanks.

(I have nothing against night elf chicks but the FIFA haters are assholes 99% of the time. STOP LIKING WHAT I DONT LIKE!)

EDIT: Heres one for you haters. Guess where the Frostbite 2 (thats BF3s engine in case you dont know) got its player animations from? You guessed it. FIFA.

Oh thank God I'm not the only one. I bloody love football, and Fifa. Last year I played at least a 100 hours of Fifa 11. Fifa is such a good game, but people, especially on sites like this, dislike because they dislike sports in general. I imagine a big reason is because half the people on this site were always picked last at sports in school... (including me, by the way, I suck at sports, but I still love watching them, just though I'd clarify before someone jumps me.)

Who the hell keeps buying this game? Is it really that much better and different from the other ~10 previous versions? In my opinion, this is terrible news at it will encourage devs to be less creative and just churn the same game out annually with a different colour on the box.

Clearyly someone who hasn't actually played the game. Fifa 12 is massiveley different to 11. And 11 was really different to 10. These titles are actually developed in 2 or 3 year cycles, meaning that new features are added to the game every year, but each feature has usually been developed in the preceding years, but wasn't ready to be put in full release till now.

Fifa 12 is incredibly different to 11. If you have a lot of experience in both games, you would know that the difference between 11 and 12 is much bigger than the difference between, say Mass Effect 1 and 2 (both games I also love).

Feh, I can't really justify tossing down £60 on an expansion pack for Fifa 2011 (that's really all Fifa 2010 is after all). But then if you like sports games then you probably don't really sympathise with me spending the same amount of money on New Vegas .

One of the more reasonable responses I have seen, but again I will point out that 10/11 or 11/12 are incredibly different.

I don't really have anything against FIFA, or sports games in particular. But my question is this: what is the bloody point, of releasing a new one of these every darn year? I mean, how much can you really improve the formula?

Er same reason football shirts are released every day (or whatever it is, season?) because its easy money and the formula can always be improved upon even if only slightly as it will be being released so regularly but it dosent have to make massive strides just be competent enough it is aimed at fans of the sport

This could be applied to anything. Firstly, you reference football tops. Fashion changes every season, so there's that, although in fairness there is also the guaranteed money. But also you could say the same for CoD, or TV's or RTS's. Pretty much everything has been done, so all of the things I just mentioned, which are released constantly, are just slight differentitations on an older formula.

Please don't let this become the new Madden...

EDIT: I mean in terms of higher sales=lower quality. I enjoy both Madden and FIFA, though Madden has gone way downhill in the last few years (with the exception of '11).

Well for the last several years Fifa has outsold the last iteration every time, but (in my opinion) the quality has gone up everytime.

Bought it, loving it, actually enjoying the challenge of the game. Then again, im a footy nut, so I often do enjoy the FIFA series, its nice to get my mates round for a few cans and have some games. Much better than playing games online really.

This is so true. Playing this game with friends is so much fun. That has always been the draw of Fifa games for me, is in the multiplayer aspect. Career mode is all well and good, but in reality the the depth comes from playing another human.

However, the main reason I quoted you there is because the first thing I though was "I wouldn't expect someone with an avatar like that to like this sort of thing", then I realised that I used to have a Clannad avatar, and am a nerd but still likes this sort of thing, proving myself to be a muppet.

I don't really have anything against FIFA, or sports games in particular. But my question is this: what is the bloody point, of releasing a new one of these every darn year? I mean, how much can you really improve the formula? It's not like with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and it's runty children, where you could potentially convince yourself to play it just to see the new maps and stuff, because when you play a FIFA game, you're gonna spend 99% of the time staring at a big rectangular lawn, complete with its own garden gnomes running around.

And besides, I think they try to cram WAAAY too much stuff into FIFA nowadays, most of which get in the way of the fun. I played the demo which my little brother had downloaded, with a feeling of dread. And I got my ass handed to me, partly because I was spending all my brainpower trying to figure out the godawful control scheme, partly because the game had this nasty habit of switching which chump I was controlling entirely on its own whims, partly because the steering overall felt incredibly clunky and unneccessarily realistic, and partly because my brother didn't care to inform me that his players were faster, stronger and better at everything because he picked a higher ranked team.
e.

Well Call of Duty might have different maps, but the gameplay is almost identical. Fifa might have the same "maps" but the gameplay between iterations, especially recently, is pretty radically different. It's all about preference.

 

[The Random One]

I don't get it. Even if I put aside the silliness of eleven grown men being paid as much as a thousand doctors to kick a ball around, why this? There isn't a World Cup this year or any other great tournament (except for the ones that happen every year, of course), so why is FIFA 11 so bit when the last FIFA's were just normal?

The difference between American and European football is that here in EU we use the foot to kick the ball, while in US you use hands to play the FOOTball.

No, you're doing it wrong.

Outside of US, football is a game in which you move a ball with your feet.
In the US, football is a game in which you move an almond-shaped projectile with your hands. They call our football something different because otherwise there'd be understandable confusion.

 

[RA92]

... sorry Euro readers rest of the world, but here in America, "football" is an entirely different thing...

Fix'd it there for ya.

*shakes head*

'Muricans...

 

[Riobux]

Well done to EA Sports for creating a glorified expansion pack and selling it at full price, you are fully deserving of such a large amount of sales.

 

[Cgull]

It's almost painful to see the usual assumptions being pulled out by some posters about those of us that play sports games.

Yes, I buy FIFA every year, yes there are only so many differences you can make to a football game each year but, believe it or not, even a small change such as the passing mechanic or, as in this years iteration, the defending system can make a huge overall difference to how the game is played. Of course, that can't be appreciated by someone who doesn't play the game themselves, nor would I expect it to.

It's a similar (though not the same, hold back the angry quotes) to the difference in levelling systems between Oblivion and Skyrim. As I understand, it's been overhauled so that acrobatics no longer requires you to jump everywhere (or, in fact, doesn't exist anymore full stop). To someone that doesn't play the games (for the record, I do) this wouldn't seem a big deal, however, anyone who's eagerly waiting for the release date to FINALLY get here will appreciate the difference this could make on overall gameplay.

Final note; those that play sports games aren't always drooling morons, in the same way that WoW players aren't all basement-dwelling virgins, Halo players don't all crush beer cans on their foreheads and EVE Online players aren't always frustrated accountants. We all share a broader passion for the same hobby, let's appreciate that similarity rather than mock the differences.

 

[dimensional]

At least in the world of videogames, the ones that make the money usually have quality behind them. FIFA, Madden, CoD, etc. are all solid games whether you happen to personally like them or not.

Look at the other forms of entertainment media and you'll pretty quickly see how good gamers have it. Top selling books include things like Twilight and an endless parade of Harelequin romance novels. Top grossing movies include things like the Transformers, Tyler Perry movies and the Pirates movies. Top grossing music includes things like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift.

I agree the games are solid as in not broken and unplayable like some were back in the `good ol days` but that is to be expected now a game would get slated (and rightly so) if it needed a load of patches to run properly. However(and this is assumption as I have never read any twilight books) I would assume twilight is readable and solid as well i.e text is legible and in correct order punctuation fairly good same with film is it clear and watchable can you hear whats going on yeah well then its pretty solid as well you would understandably be annoyed if the film kept flickering or going to static or a book had random pages missing.

Actually games are one of the least solid pieces of media. Whether you like the product or not then comes down to preference twilight is not any better or worse than Fifa or Cod or Ocarina of time sure we could argue worth of literature worth of games blah blah blah its not quality that sells but mass appeal to a broad and hopefully fervent fanbase with money to burn although this dosent mean the absence of quality.

Just saying all the things you mentioned are solid whether you like them or not. While quality is a highly subjective matter each person judges from different internal standards and requirements. For example Football ill admit the game itself (the sport) is solid but I would not call it a quality game as I see nothing of worth in it at all yeah some of the players have pretty good skills but they have skills geared towards what I consider to be a low quality game.

Music wise I always find pointless so many varied tastes out there it is impossible to comment on mostly I dislike music but if I can hear a song I suppose it has done what its medium requires although im sure there are some silent `arty` songs out there that probably run for 92 min 47 sec or some made up number. Music also tends to market people as brands which gets a bit weird imo suppose they have to have solid imagery to market off.

I am not saying Fifa 12 is bad (from what I hear it isnt) but well its selling on the power of a brand off the back of a highly brand orientated sport it is almost impossible to mess that up it dosent even need to innovate much just update the rosters adjust a few modes character models etc this kind of thing is impossible for most games look at Capcom they release 3 different versions of street fighter 4 (or indeed almost any fighter they have) refining each one adding a few new characters each time and people go mental (well some do) even when it is released at reduced price and street fighter is a strong gaming brand it just pales in comparison to football/soccer.

Ok I am going to shut up.........now.