Producer David Rutter explains FIFA 09

Ambitions, challenges, key features and the competition

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We recently had the pleasure of a little hands-on time with FIFA 09, at EA's UK HQ in Surrey. David Rutter, producer of the Xbox 360 and PS3 editions of the title, was in town to tell us more about this latest footballing opus, which EA Sports believe to be their best FIFA to-date.

I gather you're based in Vancouver, Canada. What's it like developing a football game in a country where football isn't a popular sport?

Its interesting. More than anything this is because the team making FIFA are of eighteen different nationalities. The vast majority are British, European, Japanese South American and Korean. We have one American, and a handful of Canadians. The guys that are Canadian are actually remarkably good football players. You'd be really surprised. Some of the guys out there are really hardcore football fans. You can get more football on TV now and its good.

Playing the latest FIFA briefly, I noticed it seemed to be a little easier to score. Is this the case?

It depends on the goalkeeper; the settings. If you've got it on advanced then it isn't easy at all, but if its set to amateur than maybe a little easier, yes. The part of it we're very happy with is the more human goalkeepers. Last year's (FIFA 08) goalie was capable of pulling off some incredible, world-class saves, and then at another point you'd pass the ball back to him and he'd gift it to the opposition allowing a goal. The inconsistencies have ben removed. The goalie's positioning is better, but if you''re good you'll be able to pull opposition defenses out of position, creating realistic chances.

Is FIFA 09 realistic?

For me the changes we're making are about realism. How you play will see your mistakes punished realistically. The AI is vastly improved. Player attributes have a greater impact.

Torres is looking good...

Yeah, Torres is a total beast! We're trying to reflect his real world abilities but there are of course other good players too.

Is he the best player in the game?

Possibly. We're still playing with player statistics. We use a data collection agency to collate player details around the world and we're still integrating and analysing their data.

A lot of is changing after the European Championships, and lot will be altered ahead of data lock. No doubt it'll change again after the August transfer window.

The player attributes improvements are interesting. Will there be an emotional dimension to this? For example, will players suffer lapses of confidence after mistakes and the like?

So, there are emotional elements we can integrate. However, we'd want to keep it be playable. You wouldn't want to score a goal against an AI team and then find that the opposition collapsed entirely. However, there are things we will do. For example the AI will changes the way it plays based on your actions. More interestingly, if you've got an eccentric goalie, and you're losing in the last minute, he'll come up for a big corner.

I like the way in FIFA 09 that a big muscly player will often push a smaller, but perhaps quicker player off the ball. This seems realistic. Is there more of this to come, will you try to capture the 'style' of certain players?

Oh definitely. Its all about the whole custom team tactics; the way that this changes the dynamic of a football team. This is part of it. So is the way you can use player attributes. This is the long term plan for us, to make these aspects more important, bigger.

Is this the best version of FIFA ever? Or is it a case of changing tastes?

I think there will always be a bit of both. For me its been an interesting journey, going from our rival game being seen as a hardcore simulation, with our title portrayed almost as an arcade game. It seems like these roles have almost been reversed now. I find that quite odd. I think for this series, in recent years, there's been a real concerted effort to make this the best football simulation possible. Its heartening for me to see this is what's going on. This is one of the reasons I moved to Vancouver. In general EA Games are doing really well.

Is this because of John Riccitiello's new approach?

Partly, but I actually think its mainly because of Andrew Wilson. The executive producer of the title. He made a very large bet, gambling that we'd create a gameplay team, an engine, that can pull that off. We're benefitting from the fruits of his labour, his bet.

Were EA Sports guilty in the past of a lack of innovation?

No. I think we were trying to innovate too much. The key part of it is that we're really improving things every year - amazing new features - 10 versus 10, etc. We're analysing every release asking how we can make it better. Its more about evolution than revolution - but I've used that phrase in interviews far too much now!

The fact that we're so involved in the game engine, we've got 250 people working on it, and we're improving it all the time... I think this is quite a different way for EA to operate. Which is quite cool, actually.

Does keeping an eye on the competition help keep you on your toes?

Very much so, yes. I defy anyone in a market with rivals to not look at, touch, eat, feel a competitors product. It stops us getting complacent. If you have a weak competitor, you might, but in our case with Konami we've got a rival going all-guns blazing this year - and this helps keep us going too.

Does the competition stop the team getting jaded, or is that never a problem?

Well, I've been making football games at one company or another for 10 years, and I don't think I'l ever get jaded. I love football. I love games. I think we're the luckiest people on earth; you're one of the luckiest people on earth doing what you do. You know, everyone, people from all over the world, put in Vancouver, one of the loveliest cities on earth, to make videogames, I don't think any of them would do anything else.

Tell us about 10 vs. 10 online play.

Sorry it isn't 11 vs. 11! Its challenging enough getting 10 on 10 working.

Was it a challenge?

So, if you think 5 v 5 was pretty tough, 10 consoles, you've got to sync them - now we've got 20 and its expontentially harder. Its been a huge team effort to get this working.

Will this innovation impact other EA Sports games?

Well, we're the only game with that many players other than Madden...

No basketball?

I'n not a fan of basketball. Although I do love NHL, I'd love NHL to adopt this. NHL is abasolutely brilliant.

Peter Moore want more accessible sports games. Is that a balancing act, given the hardcore fans you also need to take care of?

I think there's a couple of ways we're doing this. You've seen the other version of the game. Its about matching the game to the console, and its audience. With the 360 and the PS3, the demographic is changing and we're going to need to appeal to new people to move with this. We're already doing this in part - difficulty levels linked to Achievements, AI assisted passing and shooting, the ability to define game arenas. Likewise, as time goes by, we'd like to do more. We've re-jigged the user-interface, you can set a favourite team. Choose Arsenal and your friendly rival will be Spurs, allowing you to get into the game quickly.

Where do you think we'll be with FIFA 2015 or 2020?

I think there will be major innovations. For 2010 we're hoping to have an 11 vs. 11 FIFA World Cup - national teams; a proper World Cup. That would be cool. Longer term, players will create virtual players resembling themselves, there will be virtual scouts, watching you - checking your stats. Single and online play. They'll report to their employee, a virtual mananger, who'll then sign you through your virtual agent. It'll be an alternate reality football game.

Sounds like FIFA World, or some such game?

Well, this stuff is a long way off.

Are you exploring it?

We're not exploring, but we do talk about it a lot. There's a lot of people that play management games, football games, stattos, we don't touch on all this. But hopefully we can bring them all together. Its something we want to do.

By Luke Guttridge