FIFA 10: Ultimate Team in February

EA has announced that a FIFA 10 version of its Ultimate Team downloadable add-on will launch in February 2010 on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Ultimate Team is a card trading game inspired by swapping football stickers in the playground and jumpers for goalposts etc. Last year's effort involved building up a squad by exchanging, buying and selling cards to other players.

You could then take them into tournaments, using various Gameplay Modifier cards to cripple the opposition or advance your own chances.

FIFA 10's equivalent immediately sounds better, not least because it will be cheaper - 400 Microsoft Points (£3.40 / €4.80) on Xbox Live and $4.99 on PlayStation Network - at half the price of last year's effort.

There have also, obviously, been changes, including a redesigned chemistry system. Chemistry - "lackadaisical" was our verdict on this bit last year - determines how players play together based on a variety of factors.

You'll also be able to take your teams into standard tournaments and themed competitions.

Check out our FIFA 09: Ultimate Team review to find out roughly what to expect. We've also got some FIFA 10: Ultimate Team screenshots.

Meanwhile, EA has announced that FIFA 10 itself is the best-selling game in Europe for 2009 so far, and has now sold more than 4.5 million copies worldwide.

Apparently there are an average of three million games played online daily, and over 113 million have been played since the game's launch at the beginning of October - approximately 112.99m of which were contested by either Real Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester "Ryu and Ken" United.