EA missed an opportunity with FIFA 13

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   December 25th, 2012   |  

Featured

The PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 partnership could have been explored by the developer, much in the same way MLB ’13 The Show is planning on.

One of the PlayStation Vita’s greatest strengths is its ability to link up and connect with the PlayStation 3 console and do a host of different things that not many developers have taken advantage of or demonstrated the potential of.

Of course, the console is still early on its cycle and taking major risks at this point is something that no developer is willing to do but one has to wonder at what point one will see a truly ground breaking IP on the Vita.

Up until now, nearly all the major success stories on the portable platform have been spin-offs or ports of already established series and games. Uncharted, Resistance, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation and Mortal Kombat, not to mention Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified are all established IPs.

Even the likes of Super Stardust, Lumines and Person 4 are ports of games that one can find on the PlayStation 3.

However, one area where WipEout 2048, a launch title for the console excelled and made its mark was its ability for PlayStation Vita players to take on PlayStation 3 players who had WipEout HD. The cross connectivity between the two consoles is something that is only just being explored. The second game to give this a go is PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and it could potentially grow beyond that to third-party developers and publishers as well.

One such publisher that could have really made an impact and really established itself on the portable console was EA Sports. FIFA 13 is already the fastest-selling sports title of all time and instead of building on their impressive first outing on the Vita, FIFA Soccer, the developers blew fans away with their absolute disrespect with their work on FIFA 13 on the Vita.

It was essentially the same game as its predecessor with only a few barely noticeable tweaks and a roster, kit update. That could have been justified if they introduced a cross-connectivity feature with the PlayStation 3 version of the game, where in players could save their Career Mode progress and transfer it on to the Vita, continue there, playing on the go before transferring it back to the console when they returned.

It would have brought Sony a tonne of sales but more importantly but EA Sports in a dominant position on the console as well. One can only hope that something similar to that happens in the future.

Disclaimer: the views and opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of news.wishfree.com in any way.