"Great desire" to localise FIFA World to Arabic

There's a "great desire" to localise the free-to-play FIFA World for Arabic territories, and according to senior director Mike McCabe it could happen by early 2015.

A FIFA World global beta launched earlier this year and many players are positive about getting to play a version of FIFA without paying any money up front.

Users from Middle Eastern regions have been asking about localisation, but McCabe says the main thing standing in the way is technology.

"The reason we haven't in all honesty is that the technology system we're using to develop the user interface doesn't support Arabic at the moment," he told ArabicGamers.

"So our tech teams are working on building language support so that we can actually use the Arabic scripts, and then we can build it into all of our menus.

"So there's a great desire on our part to do it. We're just hampered a little bit by the technology not supporting us. But it's something that we absolutely want to do as soon as possible."

He went on to say that an early 2015 date for localisation could be feasible, but again it depends on the technology and how fast it can be updated.

"My desire is to see it early part of next year," he added, "but again we're kind of constrained by - and I'm being completely transparent and honest - we're constrained by that technology limitation at the moment."

McCabe also claimed that "more teams and more clubs" from the Middle East are additional aims and "something that we want to do".

"With FIFA World we want it to be a world game. We want it to be relevant worldwide but locally relevant as well."

Click here to register to play FIFA World.