FIFA 12 Smashes Sales Records

Earnest Cavalli

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FIFA 12 Smashes Sales Records



Forget Gears of War 3. Forget Rage and Dark Souls. The biggest game of 2011 is EA Sports' FIFA 12.

FIFA 12 hit retail shelves recently and in its first week of release, the game sold a massive 3.2 million copies worldwide. That's a 23 percent increase over the also-massive sales of last year's FIFA 11.

Oh, but EA's slate of impressive numbers doesn't end there.

The iOS iteration of FIFA 12 likewise smashed sales records. 879,000 copies of the game have been sold so far, and the game topped sales charts in 30 worldwide markets.

As a result, EA is reporting that October 1 alone saw nearly 8 million online games of FIFA 12. That makes the date the busiest in EA Sports' online gaming history.

Regardless of your opinion on soccer -- sorry Euro readers, but here in America, "football" is an entirely different thing -- or EA Sports, this is rather good news for gaming as a whole. FIFA 12 is a genuinely excellent game, and it's nice to see quality game design being recognized via the universal language of comically oversized bags of cash.

Being an American however, I am genuinely surprised that the game is actually this huge. It's no secret that soccer is the world's favorite game, but I did not expect it would prove more of a draw than dudes chainsawing monsters in half with exaggerated phallic metaphors.

Either that says something genuinely heartening about the state of humanity as a whole, or something genuinely terrifying about our collective obsession with kicking balls.

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gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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Well im off to talk myself into believing that EA fudged those numbers. Or ill just cry in a corner, they have the same end effect.

On a more serious note, FIFA12 is the only game ive seen advertised on TV for the last 2 months. Nobody wants to show off a dark fantasy action RPG or... whatever RAGE was supposed to be when they can show off something that the whole of bloody Europe would turn out thier wallets for.

Guess ill go cry in that corner now.
 

Corpse XxX

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Last time i played any Fifa games was back in 1999..

I lost a bit a interest in football, and also when i at random events got to try a newer Fifa game, the controls just became to advanced for me.. Pressing 3 buttons just to shoot the ball with a spin on it..

But all the gander about this new game has somewhat sparked my interest, maybe i should have a look into it..
 

vrbtny

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Earnest Cavalli said:
Being an American however, I am genuinely surprised that the game is actually this huge. It's no secret that soccer is the world's favorite game, but I did not expect it would prove more of a draw than dudes chainsawing monsters in half with exaggerated phallic metaphors.
You massively underestimate the Enlgish's devoted love for this sport. The fine English Football louts, lovely.
 

Giest4life

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Feb 13, 2010
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Here, Escapist, let me fix it for you:

Regardless of your opinion on soccer football...
You are welcome.

OT: Having shelled out 60 bucks for a shitty PC port of the game, I more skeptic about this than usual, especially with the Origin business. I might just be tempted to dust off my 360, but I'm waiting for a friend to get it, first, so that I can try out and see if it's really worth it. I mean, I already know that the changes and the squad updates aren't worth $59.99, but three months into 2012, I'd be the only guy on campus not owning FIFA 12.

EDIT

theriddlen said:
The difference between American and European football is that here in EU we use the foot to kick the ball, while in US you use hands to play the FOOTball.

Also, can't wait to get myself the iPhone 4S so I can actually play FIFA 12.
EU, and everywhere else for that matter. Except, perhaps, South Africa, which is the only country apart from the States to actually have an official "soccer" league.
 

theriddlen

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The difference between American and European football is that here in EU we use the foot to kick the ball, while in US you use hands to play the FOOTball.

Also, can't wait to get myself the iPhone 4S so I can actually play FIFA 12.
 

Jakub324

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Evil Top Hat said:
Ugh, at least another Call of Duty game didn't break the records, I suppose.
Are you the type who only hates it because it's popular? Remember what Yahtzee said: "it's worth remembering that popular things are popular for a reason: because they're good". If CoD hardly changes, FIFA never budges one goddamn inch.
OT: I normally buy FIFA games in sort of July-time when they've come down to about £10, so I don't really care how well it does right now.
 

ThePurpleStuff

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hooray, a game that's gonna cost 2 dollars at your local gamestop in a couple months outsold a really popular game, don't they all though? Honestly, why not just buy your own soccer ball and go outside with it instead? I don't understand the appeal of sports games, unless its hockey or other sports you can't really play in your backyard.
 

Evil Top Hat

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Jakub324 said:
Are you the type who only hates it because it's popular? Remember what Yahtzee said: "it's worth remembering that popular things are popular for a reason: because they're good". If CoD hardly changes, FIFA never budges one goddamn inch.
I don't hate Fifa, I hate the fact that such an unimaginitive and generic type of game manages to break records. Fifa games are fun and all, but video games have so much more potential than that, and it isn't exactly a good reflection of the industry that it's best selling games include Black Ops and now, Fifa 12.

I don't know why I'm moaning though, this sort of stuff happens all the time, not just in video games. Popularity is rarely determined by creative effort and originality.
 

Zetsubou-Sama

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Pro Evolution Soccer is becoming increasingly shittier with each new installment, so more people are migrating to Fifa who keeps becoming slightly better. At least that's how i see the game getting such high sales numbers.
 

Jakub324

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Evil Top Hat said:
Jakub324 said:
Are you the type who only hates it because it's popular? Remember what Yahtzee said: "it's worth remembering that popular things are popular for a reason: because they're good". If CoD hardly changes, FIFA never budges one goddamn inch.
I don't hate Fifa, I hate the fact that such an unimaginitive and generic type of game manages to break records. Fifa games are fun and all, but video games have so much more potential than that, and it isn't exactly a good reflection of the industry that it's best selling games include Black Ops and now, Fifa 12.

I don't know why I'm moaning though, this sort of stuff happens all the time, not just in video games. Popularity is rarely determined by creative effort and originality.
I don't think the people who hate the industry as a whole know enough to credibly argue that CoD and FIFA are shit because they never budge an inch. Games can still be so much more than that, because gamers don't only buy one game a year. Just because they might buy CoD first, doesn't mean they won't swipe something else later.
Can you realy see the anti-fun brigade arguing that:
"The only new thing in FIFA 12 was the realistic tackling simulator..." Can you? Nah, they're saying:
"Video games are the devil! All developers of these monstrosities must die and all gamers must be brainwashed back into our fold!"
 

Puddleknock

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I had to make a decision between Dark Souls and Fifa 12, I went with dark souls and now I feel I should of gone with fifa 12. Everything I've heard about Fifa 12 is good, even enjoyed the demo. Hopefully pick it up in a few months when the price comes down and I can justify buying another game (about the time when dark souls has beaten my mind, body and spirit). Cheltenham Town isn't going to win the FA cup by itself!

I actual quite like it that fifa is selling well, the fifa games have been simply fantastic the last few years (tho didn't like 11 as much as 10) and I hope that continues for a long time to come.

On a side note I never understood why some are bothered by the sport being called soccer, I'm English and call it football but will refer to it as soccer if I'm talking to an American (or aussie).
 

C117

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I don't really have anything against FIFA, or sports games in particular. But my question is this: what is the bloody point, of releasing a new one of these every darn year? I mean, how much can you really improve the formula? It's not like with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and it's runty children, where you could potentially convince yourself to play it just to see the new maps and stuff, because when you play a FIFA game, you're gonna spend 99% of the time staring at a big rectangular lawn, complete with its own garden gnomes running around.

And besides, I think they try to cram WAAAY too much stuff into FIFA nowadays, most of which get in the way of the fun. I played the demo which my little brother had downloaded, with a feeling of dread. And I got my ass handed to me, partly because I was spending all my brainpower trying to figure out the godawful control scheme, partly because the game had this nasty habit of switching which chump I was controlling entirely on its own whims, partly because the steering overall felt incredibly clunky and unneccessarily realistic, and partly because my brother didn't care to inform me that his players were faster, stronger and better at everything because he picked a higher ranked team.

Compare that to something like International Superstar Soccer Deluxe for the SNES, and I can tell you which I'd rather be playing. Sure, it doesn't contain any specific teams from any country. Sure, the graphics may be a bit date. Sure, the computer-player always manages to squash me with 5-0. But still, it's funnier, simpler, smoother, easier to understand and overall a better experience.
 

Jordi

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Giest4life said:
OT: Having shelled out 60 bucks for a shitty PC port of the game, I more skeptic about this than usual, especially with the Origin business. I might just be tempted to dust off my 360, but I'm waiting for a friend to get it, first, so that I can try out and see if it's really worth it. I mean, I already know that the changes and the squad updates aren't worth $59.99, but three months into 2012, I'd be the only guy on campus not owning FIFA 12.
I heard that contrary to the last couple of years the PC version of Fifa 12 will actually be the same version as the consoles are getting. For instance, Fifa 11 for the PC was basically Fifa 10 for Xbox, except they changed the menu skins and stuff like that to make it look like 11.

I'm very curious to see how much the PC version improved this year.
 

wooty

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Aug 1, 2009
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Bought it, loving it, actually enjoying the challenge of the game. Then again, im a footy nut, so I often do enjoy the FIFA series, its nice to get my mates round for a few cans and have some games. Much better than playing games online really.
 

Dogstile

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Evil Top Hat said:
Jakub324 said:
Are you the type who only hates it because it's popular? Remember what Yahtzee said: "it's worth remembering that popular things are popular for a reason: because they're good". If CoD hardly changes, FIFA never budges one goddamn inch.
I don't hate Fifa, I hate the fact that such an unimaginitive and generic type of game manages to break records. Fifa games are fun and all, but video games have so much more potential than that, and it isn't exactly a good reflection of the industry that it's best selling games include Black Ops and now, Fifa 12.

I don't know why I'm moaning though, this sort of stuff happens all the time, not just in video games. Popularity is rarely determined by creative effort and originality.
Unimaginative and generic can describe most of the industry today mate. The reason its so high is because its polished quite well and does exactly what it needs to. In other words, its a marvel of programming.

Any programmer worth their salt would agree.