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FIFA 15's global cover star just lost the World Cup
FIFA 15's cover athlete is Barcelona's Lionel Messi, marking the Argentinian footballer's third consecutive year on the series' box (his fourth being 2012's FIFA Street). Messi will be the lone global star on the game's cover, though EA says regional editions will include local heroes alongside him. Messi's cover spot follows Argentina's loss to Germany in the 2014 World Cup final match yesterday. Joystiq's own Sinan Kubba could be heard across the globe shouting, "I told you so!" to yours truly about the championship results - meaning I must now must pay my side of the bet with an unfortunate selfie in a Messi jersey. Check out large versions of the next-gen and PC cover art in the gallery below and join us after the break for that selfie and some hearty pointing and laughing. FIFA 15 will launch September 23 in North America, September 25 in Europe and one day later in the UK for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. [Image: EA Sports]
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil announced for Xbox 360, PS3 in April [Update: Not next-gen]
EA announced a new game to accompany this summer's World Cup soccer event: 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. The game will arrive on April 15 in North America and April 17 in Europe for Xbox 360 and PS3. Pre-order bonuses for the game include special All-Star and Classic XI teams, though no price was given for the game and its four editions. The next entry in EA's World Cup series will uses licenses that span 203 national teams, 7,469 athletes, 19 officially-licensed managers and 21 new stadiums, which will include all 12 stadiums from Brazil in which the global event will take place. EA said that 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will improve on the excellent FIFA 14 with one hundred new animations and other buzzword-like locomotion features such as Explosive Movement and World Class Control. It will also include an offline tournament mode, Road to the FIFA World Cup, as well as the new online mode Road to Rio de Janeiro, which has players "win their way across a map of Brazil's 12 host cities in licensed and authentic stadiums." EA CFO Blake Jorgensen was pretty clear in including the next FIFA World Cup game in the publisher's list of games upcoming next-gen games during its Q2 2014 earnings call in late October 2013. We've asked EA if 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil will come to PS4 and Xbox One, and will update as we learn more. Update: An EA representative tells Joystiq that the game is "coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PS3 as a fully featured console game. There will not be a World Cup full console game for the new generation of consoles." To make up for it, the publisher plans to issue "a range of engaging content within FIFA Ultimate Team so that fans on the new generation of consoles can experience the World Cup in fun and unique ways."
New FIFA World Cup game in development for Xbox One and PS4
During yesterday's investor call to discuss EA's second quarter of fiscal 2014 financial results, CEO Andrew Wilson noted that the publisher is working on a new FIFA World Cup expansion game. Additionally, CFO Blake Jorgensen brought up FIFA World Cup again when asked about next-gen games in development, indicating that the game will appear on Xbox One and PS4. It is unknown if the game will also be developed for current generation systems. "In the last two weeks, you've also seen several announcements about our product slate for the remainder of this year and into FY15," Wilson said. "We are refining our focus on our biggest brands and great new IP in development, including The Sims 4, EA Sports UFC, FIFA World Cup and Dragon Age: Inquisition." EA Sports traditionally launches a new World Cup-branded game in line with the global sporting event, which occurs every four years. The last game in the series was 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, which launched in April 2010. Given that the next World Cup is scheduled to begin in June 2014 in Brazil, a new entry in the sub-series is hardly surprising. The publisher's next-gen efforts will not include Tiger Woods in its future golf games, and Jorgensen also noted that Titanfall will be exclusive to Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC "for the life of the title" during the call. EA will launch the next-gen version of FIFA 14 along with the new consoles this coming month.
