14 DAY TRIAL // What we know: The team inside EA Sports handling the development of the FIFA series has not yet offered any sort of detail on the version of the game that will be launched during 2013.
Traditionally, the official announcement comes during spring and more information is delivered at the E3 trade show and during summer. But given the speculation about the next generation of consoles, it might mean that there’s a slight delay this year.
FIFA 14 needs to walk a fine line: expanding on the ideas and the gameplay mechanics that were introduced in the two previous games in the series, uncertainty and the Player Impact Engine, while also adding its own twist on simulated football that will drive long-term fans to pick up the title.
Even if no official information has been offered on FIFA 14, the game will most likely be launched towards the end of September, at the same time in all territories.
Why it matters: FIFA is the kind of series that will be left standing as the edifice of other franchises like Halo, Call of Duty, Diablo and Gears of War crumbles around it.
Football shows no signs of losing popularity and as technology progresses, more and more gamers will want to recreate or rewrite history using a controller and a screen.
The next generation of consoles will likely become a success as long as enough football fans can be convinced that its worth paying for a new piece of hardware because FIFA does something on it that it’s impossible on the PC or current consoles.
And the innovation to drive the series forward can only come from the development team at EA Sports, who can either impress or disappoint a lot of players when their official announcement finally comes.
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