To those who've known me for the last five to ten years, I have become something of a "hater" of Electronic Arts. Though I have to say much of it is warranted. From the infamous screenshot incident to their poaching of league licenses. I've found their business tactics are really in place to make up for their poor game quality. There are of course the few exceptions, but for the most part games that tend to come down the old EA poop shoot aren't exactly what I'd call top tier software.
With that being said, my latest experience with FIFA 09 has me thinking that this is one of those gems that may have escaped the Evil Empire without being bungled up by high level execs. And according to EA's CEO that may exactly what has happened. You see back in February of last year John Riccitiello gave an interview with Wired, detailing how high level executives were killing games via "one size fits all" management.
To this credit FIFA 09 may be one of the first titles to be turned around by the dumping of that archaic management style. Though EA has always been the leader in sports titles; over the last eight years or so smaller devs have been able to best them in sports such as soccer, basketball, and hockey. To come to mind Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer, has always dominated the pitch with it's high learning curve and degree of realism. However, the game as a whole has never been able to match the eye candy an EA dev team could cram onto a disc.
Now with FIFA's 09's improved gameplay it, definitely competes with the bar that Konami has set with PES. Here in the states soccer games don't exactly disappear off the shelves but I can say that I, and several others, are more than impressed with EA's football offering.
The real question though is whether this new found philosophy will translate into more sales? As some might think the damage may be done to EA's goodwill, and regaining the trust of gamers again will be difficult to say the least. Another indicator may be other sports titles that have been lackluster in year's past but wil turn around with better reviews from mainstream webs like IGN, GameSpot, and 1up. But ultimately it will take more games that match the quality of FIFA 09 to change our perception of the software publishing giant.
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