Developer Interview: FIFA UEFA 12

We were at the EA showcase in London last week and managed to get an interview with lead producer on recently announced FIFA 12 DLC EURO UEFA, Sebastien Enrique.  We talk all things, as well as the future of DLC.

What made you decide to go down the DLC route with UEFA 12?

There are a couple of factors why we're doing EURO DLC for FIFA 12; one of them is the community. The community was craving, asking for a EURO DLC for FIFA 12. And on the other side, FIFA 12 was a really successful game, IS a really successful game, it sold more than 10 million units and there are more than 1.5 million people playing the game every day. It has a user base which is so big which allows us to put those things together and say 'yes, we can now do a DLC for FIFA 12'.

Are people more likely to buy DLC?

Well, I'm not a marketing guy, I'm a developer…

Ok, as a gamer then?

As a gamer I would much prefer the DLC as well because I play FIFA 12 and it has a lot of things in the game that I want and I want to renew the experience with a tournament that's out there that is going to stop the world for those three weeks and I'm going to continue playing that but inside my world of FIFA. That's what EURO provides.

We start with Europe then, so can gamers expect to see other tournaments from around the globe, such as the African Nations Cup or the Asian Nations Cup, making their way as DLC into future FIFA iterations?

I can't speak about what's going to happen in the future, but there is no doubt that how EURO [is received] is going to affect the decisions for the future. It's the first time we're doing a DLC as big as EURO inside FIFA 12. We're going to see how people receive this, if this is better than a packaged game or not, we'll see. Will there be more of this in the future? I don't know but the outcome of this is going to be a deciding factor.

Will the UEFA and EURO DLC be available worldwide?

It is available world-wide, yes.

So tell us how the engine works.

It's using the FIFA 12 engine in both aspects; gameplay and graphics. That said, we incorporated a new graphical element and so we have all of the eight stadiums of the tournament and you can see all the branding in the stadiums and we have the real kits and real jerseys for the teams we have the license for, we have new shoes, we have the tournament ball, so there are a lot of things and so the presentation of the game really puts you in the wold of EURO.

So what is your favourite thing, or your proudest achievement in the game?

There are two particular things that I really like, one is the branding and the presentation of the game. So you can enter EURO from the FIFA 12 main menu. When you enter EURO you really feel like you have entered into a different world and a different game. So all the branding is really colourful, powerful. In the EURO aspect I really like the "expedition" mode, so it's the introduction of the new game mode which the designers and creative directors always talk about what are the things we can incorporate as new game modes into the football world. In this case it was inspired by board games and we had the opportunity to do something new, something fresh that people will enjoy, so that's one of my favourites as well.

What about the EURO championships, can we expect to see those in the future?

I can't really talk about the future, I'm sorry… Next time we can probably talk about it again.