EA makes lots of money in first quarter
FIFA, B:BC2 and… Scrabble do the biz.
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Scrabble on the Apple iPad helped EA make tons of money during its first quarter ended 30th June.
2010 FIFA World Cup
Spotlight
Video2010 World Cup - Brammers v Marto!
Editor (Por) takes on EG designer (Spa).
Video2010 World Cup - Champo v Brammers!
Podcast host (Bra) takes on editor (Arg).
Video2010 World Cup - Argentina Peru qualy
Can Maradona's side score to stay in it?
Video2010 World Cup - Ireland Italy scenario
Can Italy score in the dying moments?
Key events
23rd April 2010
8th March 2010
26th January 2010
EA predicts Spain World Cup win
Uses FIFA to simulate entire tournament.
EA Sports has predicted that Spain will win the real-life football World Cup this summer.
FIFA World Cup makes Japan chart
Sony's PS3 is best-selling console.
EA's 2010 FIFA World Cup has made a fleeting appearance in the Japanese software chart this week.
UK charts: FIFA World Cup remains top
Sin and Punishment 2 falters.
A poor week for new releases sees few new entries in the UK all-formats chart, but then displacing EA's 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa this close to the real-life sporting event was always going to be a tall task, and the EA game remains number one.
UK chart: 2010 FIFA World Cup is top
SSFIV in second, GOW Collection 10th.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa game has raced to the top of the UK all-formats chart. PS3 sales were greater than on Xbox 360 by one per cent (48 to 47).
Video2010 World Cup - Brammers v Marto!
Editor (Por) takes on EG designer (Spa).
Editor (Por) takes on EG designer (Spa).
Video2010 World Cup - Champo v Brammers!
Podcast host (Bra) takes on editor (Arg).
Podcast host (Bra) takes on editor (Arg).
Video2010 World Cup - Argentina Peru qualy
Can Maradona's side score to stay in it?
Can Maradona's side score to stay in it?
Video2010 World Cup - Ireland Italy scenario
Can Italy score in the dying moments?
Can Italy score in the dying moments?
Video2010 World Cup - Saving penalties
Keeping goal the new way.
Keeping goal the new way.
Video2010 World Cup - Penalties vs. Germany
England... don't do so well.
England... don't do so well.
Video2010 World Cup - Advanced penalties
Special techniques for shootout glory.
Special techniques for shootout glory.
Video2010 World Cup - Basic penalties
A walkthrough of the new system.
A walkthrough of the new system.
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
It's up for grabs now.
The World Cup may only come around once every four years, but when it comes to the associated videogame there's usually a sense of over-familiarity. EA Sports' FIFA games are the best football titles out there at the moment, but with updates already arriving annually, spin-off games specific to international tournaments are a bit like the Premier League's aborted "39th game" plan - an idea that seems to suit the stakeholders primarily, with only token concern for the fans.
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa hopes to change that. As a World Cup game, it's defined to some extent by what it doesn't have (300 domestic clubs, most obviously), but EA Sports has compensated by drawing up several interesting and varied game modes, and uses the legendary status of World Cup shoot-outs as an excuse to rethink penalties.
Most importantly, it tweaks things on the pitch. Goalkeepers stand their ground rather than charging suicidally out of goal, and there are myriad interesting deflections to contend with, so it's harder to pass your way through midfield. Passing may prove divisive - there seems to be more "error" than before - but then aerial passing is now a practical aspect of attack, which is welcome. The referees have also calmed down, rarely blowing for harmless shoulder barges as they did in FIFA 10.
EA/Capcom games dodge volcano delays
FIFA World Cup, SSFIV, LP2 on time.
VOLCANO WATCH: EA and Capcom have assured Eurogamer that their imminent releases are not buried under tons of death-ash spouted from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano.
FIFA World Cup demo on PS3 Store
Plus: Home, Comics Store updated.
EA's 2010 FIFA World Cup demo is today's star attraction on the PS3 Store.
2010 FIFA World Cup demo tomorrow
Spain versus Italy, or vice versa.
A demo of EA's new FIFA World Cup game will be released tomorrow on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live.
Form is temporary, class is permanent.
With the world's biggest football tournament approaching like a juggernaut, it's comforting to know that, in the likelihood our national team fails to hold aloft the trophy, we can always play out our World Cup fantasies with EA's inevitable pre-tournament footy release. We caught up with 2010 FIFA World Cup's line producer Simon Humber to find out all the details he couldn't tell us last month and to get our hands on all-but-finished PS3 and Xbox 360 code.
VideoEGTV: Theo Walcott talks FIFA
He doesn't play with himself.
He doesn't play with himself.
Video2010 FIFA World Cup - Sizzle trailer
What are we up to? 44 years of hurt?
EA Sports reveals "Ten Dollar"-like plans
Moore keen to "monetise", "digitise".
Peter Moore has spoken of digitising and monetising Madden and EA Sports games, suggesting that his department be the next to employ "Project Ten Dollar" measures.
VideoThe EGTV Show: FIFA special
South Africa beckons.
South Africa beckons.
World Cup producer on tackling quitters
Could incentivise people for staying course.
Update: Simon Humber has contacted Eurogamer to clarify the quotes below. "What I believe I said to Mr Minkley, when asked about quitting, was that there is another way to think about the problem," he wrote in an email.
Terry and June.
Everyone's wrong about John Terry. It wasn't shagging a team-mate's former missus that cost him the England captaincy. It was the Curse of FIFA.
EA's 2010 FIFA World Cup in April
Full online tournament! Altitude effects!
As expected, EA has this morning lifted the lid on the 2010 FIFA World Cup videogame.
EA's 2010 FIFA World Cup confirmed
First screenshot tomorrow.
EA's lifted the lid on the official 2010 FIFA World Cup videogame and promises to release the first screenshot tomorrow.
"The first screenshot of 2010 FIFA World Cup will be posted live at www.facebook.com/EASPORTSFIFA," Tweeted EA Sports.
The existence of the game is as unsurprising as a yearly update to the core FIFA series, but nevertheless, this is the first EA has publicly spoken of it.