You'd have to come up with some good arguments if you wanted to say that the FIFA series wasn't the top dog of soccer games. Although fans of Pro Evolution Soccer may disagree, the sales and online numbers don't lie. While adding new features each and every year is expected, one wonders how long a company can keep it up without running out of ideas. FIFA Producer David Rutter is quick to assure loyal gamers that there's nothing to worry about in the upcoming years.

With 19 games in the FIFA series to date, it should come as no surprises that fans and pundits alike may start questioning the longevity of what newer editions can bring to the same sport. With FIFA 12 due for release in two months (which we got to check out during our hands-on with FIFA 12 at E3), concern is growing over a lack of game-changing, 'wow-factor' surprises which draw in more than the usual FIFA Regulars. There's plenty of subtle and well-defined features in the upcoming FIFA 12, but the average gamer isn't going to notice all of them.

Despite the concerns, Rutter is confident that he and his team can appease the masses for years to come:

"For future years, we have some things that we want to achieve still that we know are going to take us a while to get to. I don't think we're going to run out of ideas for FIFA."

The comment was quipped as Rutter came off of an interview centered on FIFA 12, where he was happy to demonstrate just how far they'd already come before public release.

"This is the first year ever we've let anyone play Career Mode at any of these events and I brought it round because we know there's a lot of really good stuff in there that we want people to see. I think that's why we came out quite early with playable code much earlier than we do usually."

If the full team behind the game at EA Sports is as brimming with confidence as Rutter himself is, we may still see some great new features heading to the classic franchise yet. Hopefully the features which are going to take "a while" are more than simply porting controls to Kinect!

What do you think about the future of the FIFA franchise? Can you think of any additional features which you want to be added to the series?

FIFA 12 is scheduled for release September 27th in North America, and September 30th in Europe, around their usual time of release each year.

Source: CVG