EA (Electronics Arts) just released its newest edition of their most popular video game franchise “FIFA”, named after the international soccer governing body. This game, for those unfamiliar, allows players to control computer copies of real professional soccer players from around the world in soccer matches against other teams. The new game, “FIFA 20”, came out last Friday with better graphics, an improved line up, and a new mode that changes the setting from sports arenas to common areas like city streets. While the release was much anticipated, it reintroduces the concept of sports games and how they never fail to sell copies.

Video games that fall under the sports genre have become the highest selling video games of the year consistently. “FIFA” has been the number one sports game globally while “Madden” tops the chart in the US every year. In addition, “FIFA” has been responsible for 14% of EA’s profit every year, making it the reason EA is able to stay in business.

Obviously, the story itself isn’t all that groundbreaking, but I find the sports video game genre so interesting. Personally, I don’t see the appeal of buying the same version of a game annually, but every year the games become the highest selling games. One person in the article commented saying, “New players, new roster, new rules team and stadiums all encourage the annual release timing.” In addition to that, the Reddit related to FIFA has 260,000 subscribers with daily traffic and 2 million-page views a day, so obviously the momentum is not stopping any time soon. The biggest competitor for “FIFA” is “NBA 2K”, but none has topped “FIFA” for the past couple of years.

Article: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/tech/fifa-20/index.html