FIFA, also known as FIFA Football or FIFA Soccer, is a series of association football video games or football simulator, released annually by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. While there was no major competition when EA released the first titles in their Madden NFL and NHL series, football video games such as Sensible Soccer, Kick Off and Match Day had been developed since the late 1980s and already competitive in the games market when EA Sports announced a football game as the next addition to their EA Sports label.
The voices calling for an EA football title were numerous. In the US, EA Sports Network (or ESN, as it was called back then before ESPN asked them to change it) was a sales juggernaut thanks to the likes of NHL and Madden. Over in Europe, however, these games were non-entities. “We did some research and found that 90 per cent of C&VG magazine readers loved football,” says David Gardner, the sales and marketing boss for EA Europe at the time. “So we realised that if we wanted to bring the EA Sports brand to Europe we needed a football game.”
After the FIFA'94 success, EA developed the FIFA'95 exclusively for Sega's 16-bit console (Mega Drive, to be accurate). New version had the same engine with only minor retouches and the most essential change was the first time adding about 200 club teams to the series. Players could then play England, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, United States, Spain and Brazil leagues, tournaments and playoffs. Also new, a battery backup allowed to save up to four competitions in the cartridge, replacing passwords. And, of course, a football lottery was brought to the FIFA. The Penalty Shootout training mode was added.
So how did this soccer phenomenon arise in America? There are many contributing factors, but one that has undeniably been very significant is the rise in popularity of the FIFA video game series in America. The first FIFA game was released on July 15, 1993 and was notable for being the first video game to have an official license from FIFA (the world governing body of soccer). An EA official later conceded that at the time, EA assumed that the company would have no success selling the game in America. There clearly have been visible improvements in gameplay with every new release; almost every single club and national team has come to be featured, and the graphics are so good that one game reviewer was quoted as saying that FIFA '15 "has the greatest presentation in sports game history".
In 2014, FIFA scored 87-90.5 out of 100 points from game critics, becoming the highest rated sports video game by U.S. gaming experts. FIFA also updates its squads throughout each year to account for injuries and trades among different clubs and even among different leagues. Through the years, the video game has featured football's greatest figures including Thierry Henry, Edgar Davids, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldinho. Since FIFA 13, Messi has been a regular feature on the front cover after replacing Wayne Rooney who starred from FIFA 06 to FIFA 12.
In 2012, EA Sports signed Lionel Messi to the FIFA franchise, luring him away from the competitor Pro Evolution Soccer. Messi's likeness was then immediately placed on the cover of FIFA Street. In 2013, the Spanish professional women's footballer Vero Boquete started a petition on Change.org, which called upon Electronic Arts to introduce female players in the FIFA series. The petition attracted 20,000 signatures in 24 hours. On 28 May 2015, EA announced that female national teams will be included in FIFA 16, which is set to be released on 25 September 2015.
