Thirty years on, Tom Stone remembers the conversations at EA Sports ahead of them launching the very first edition of FIFA. It’s hard to believe today that there was ever any doubt the world’s most renowned video game organisation would make a success out of football. Back in 1993, though, before the birth of the Xbox or PlayStation, there was plenty of cynicism among EA’s top brass.
“The Americans just didn’t get it,” reveals Stone, who was appointed as the company’s vice-president of European marketing that year. “They were like, ‘Soccer? What is that?’ They asked how many units this game was going to sell; they said football wasn’t very popular. We countered, ‘Actually, it really is’.”
In the end, even EA’s European division, who had argued the case for the creation of a football game, couldn’t have foreseen how colossal their idea would become.
As much as Stone and his colleagues were consciously seeking an “evergreen franchise” that would deliver big returns each year, just as Madden NFL was doing in North America, what followed was nothing short of a global sensation. After the game’s maiden iteration, FIFA International Soccer, released on Sega Mega Drive in December 1993, the series sold in excess of 330 million copies and became the best-selling sports video game franchise of all time.
And it nearly didn’t see the light of day.
SEND FOR TONY GUBBA
Bu hikaye FourFourTwo UK dergisinin October 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye FourFourTwo UK dergisinin October 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Sean Longstaff – Local Hero
Like Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sean Longstaff has shone for his boyhood club this season. The midfielder tells FFT all about his Newcastle revival under Eddie Howe, a £50m move to Manchester United that never was, and why he hasn't been herding sheep...
"We won 3-0 at Spurs.Two games later. I was sacked"
Two-and-a-half years since his Manchester United reign came to an end, Ole Gunnar Solskjder sits down with FFT for a rare interview, opening up on the club’s post-Fergie struggles, Cristiano Ronaldo and the challenges of managing modern superstars
Trent Alexander-Arnold – Calm down! Calm down! Calm down!
There's been plenty of noise around Trent Alexander-Arnold's performances for club and country over the past 12 months, but the man himself has maintained a cool head. Donning a retro shellsuit for FFT, the Merseyside maestro insists he's still got lofty ambitions - none more so than becoming the best footballer on the planet...
WHAT WOULD WOODWARD DO?
Sir Dave Brailsford isn't football's first interloping innovator from another sport, as Southampton fans will recall
THE ARQUND GROUNDS EFL-NON-LEAGUE-SCOTLAND
The Wigan gaffer on why he could have taken up tennis, seeking Sir Alex's advice and memories of cup glory with the Latics
HOW LUTON TOWN BECAME A PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM
The Hatters were tipped to finish bottom of the table at the start of the campaign, but have adapted their game to give themselves a chance of avoiding the dreaded drop
NOISY NEIGHBOURS
Part-owned by the City Football Group, minnows Girona emulated Manchester City by surging past Barcelona to gain Catalan supremacy and even topped La Liga this season. FFT speaks to those in the know to find out how
THE DEBATE
Are the Financial Fair Play rules really working?
ENGLISHMEN ABROAD
Qualification for the 2026 World Cup resumes in various parts of the globe this month meet five English managers hoping to steer their adopted nations to unlikely success
MY FOOTBALL
The Barking-born singer-songwriter and activist recalls meeting Bobby Moore, making Stuart Pearce roar, and playing a gig during a Euros final