TITLE
Even FIFA, One Of The World’s Biggest Series, Had To Start Somewhere
AUTHOR
Richard Moss
PUBLICATION
Aftermath
YEAR
2024
ARTICLE TYPE
Book Excerpt
FROM THE ARTICLE
One of the most popular video game franchises in the world started here, with fake players (EA didn’t realise a FIFA licence only granted use of the FIFA name) who all looked the same, 48 international teams (but no club sides) and a side-scrolling isometric perspective (technically it’s a dimetric projection, which means that the viewing angle is the same on two axes but different on the third axis of space, giving a perspective that seems both flat and elevated at the same time).Those humble beginnings are hardly surprising, given the project’s development. It started in EA’s new UK office, dreamed up as a high-tech rival to the genre’s leading lights and prototyped with three different camera angles – one of which was isometric – before upper management shunted development off to EA’s Canadian studio Extended Play. Its small, Vancouver-based dev team lived in constant fear of cancellation, knowing how bluntly apathetic EA’s senior execs felt about soccer, but they managed to get it done and out the door in time for the Christmas 1993 shopping window – whereupon they blew past the UK office’s lofty predictions of 300,000 sales to net more than half a million worldwide and top spot on the UK all-format games charts.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
EA Sports
GAMES MENTIONED
FIFA International Soccer
EXCERPTED FROM
A Tale of Two Halves: The History of Football Video Games