EA Sports has released a new preview video for FIFA Street that spotlights the various styles of gameplay to choose from. Those include Futsal, Last Man Standing, Panna and more. Continue on to check out the video and leave any thoughts in the comments! 

In an earnings call discussing the third quarter of fiscal year 2012 (October-December 2011) EA announced that through the first three months of release Ultimate Team mode in FIFA 12 generated $39 million in digital revenue. That represents an increase of 69% over the same period last year with FIFA 11. Combining with both FIFA 11 and FIFA 10 in the last year Ultimate Team mode has made EA over $100 million and the company expects FIFA 12 on its own to eventually generate $100 million in digital revenue.

The boasting over Ultimate Team’s success is still somewhat awkward considering how much it has been in the news due to the association with account thievery over the last four months or so. Both EA Sports and Microsoft will absolutely have to close the loophole that made FIFA such an attractive source of making money for those who gain access to the accounts of others.

Considering the failure of FIFA Street 3 in 2008 and the rapidly degrading perception of arcade-style games as viable products under the current market conditions and due to league license imposed restrictions it was initially a surprise that the return of FIFA Street would be a full $60 retail release. As the feature reveals are made though it is clear that EA Sports is putting resources into the game that could potentially give it the necessary value while reaching a level of quality that would justify a purchase.

The company has now announced a feature known as the “Street Network” which acts as its own social network of sorts. It will provide the ability to capture and share highlight videos as well as track and compare progress with friends in World Tour story mode and Online Seasons.

While FIFA Street still looks to be a tough sell on the surface with how successful the sim FIFA franchise has been in the past four years it may now have an opportunity to capitalize on all the popularity. It seems like a risk in domestic terms, given it wasn’t until recently that FIFA gained serious traction, but overseas it could flourish particularly given the more authentic approach being taken.

Joining the elite class of Pastapadre Game of the Year winners is 2011′s top entry FIFA 12. Though not without its own issues what it offered was the most well-rounded and fully-featured experience embodying everything one could ask for out of sports title. FIFA 12 also gets credit for taking a chance by introducing new technology and innovating in a time where companies have become more risk-averse than ever. 

The ranking of games in the best of 2011 list is based on number of factors including the personal amount of enjoyment had with a particular title, whether advertised features were fully delivered, post-release support, community interaction and communication, overall gameplay experience, feature set, and online play performance. Again this is largely a personal take and one with the advantage of tracking the games beyond just the release frame and does not act as some sort of recap of those with the highest scores on Metacritic. The analysis is weighted heavily towards those high in fun factor while considering them as a whole and compared relatively to the field.

Related: Online Seasons Impressions - Biggest Sports Game Sales Numbers in History - Impact Engine Proves Problematic - “Hacking” ties to FIFA

The fastest selling sports game in history earned that designation by providing top notch gameplay, paying great attention to detail, further enhancing presentation and atmosphere, having a deep feature set, and providing fantastic online performance. FIFA 12 was able to have appeal and appease the hardcore fans of the sport while retaining a ‘pick up and play’ nature for others – a delicate balance that most sports franchises have been unable to pull off.

The new “Impact (physics) Engine” delivered dynamic feel on the pitch but also created its share of problematic moments. There were times where frustration settled in when a player appeared to have been mauled but no call was made by the ref. These wonky physics moments were unavoidable and blatant but somewhat to be expected in the first year of implementation. At the very least credit is due to trying to push the series forward even as it sits on the mountain top and further refinement and benefits will be realized in future years.

‘Online Seasons’ made for arguably the best new feature in a sports game in 2011. Not only was the replay value so readily apparent to the structure but it encouraged users to complete their games rather than drop out when losing because of the penalty that would be assessed to their “season”. The system usually created fair and even match-ups in user skill and team quality and the goal to reach was clear in terms of earning points within the “season” to move up to the next level. Unique commentary that cited recent results and circumstances within the “season” added a lot to the experience as well. No lag online, even in full Online Team Play matches, was ever come upon. The series continues to impress with its online performance and features.

Reflecting negatively on the FIFA series has been the opportunity opened up by EA Sports for nefarious characters to exploit Ultimate Team mode for profit. It has since become associated with what many consider to be “hackings” though has been determined simply to be products of social engineering. Hijacked accounts show FIFA usage as those individuals spend the Microsoft points or use credit cards on the accounts to purchase in-game Ultimate Team items to then flip and sell on sites like Ebay. It’s a loophole that EA must find a way to close in the future or they’ll continue to get bad press because of it.

FIFA 12 was the game that I kept going back to – it was the one game that I would often be thinking about wanting to play when I wasn’t. The addictive nature and incredibly fun gameplay being coupled with a relatively limited time investment makes it tough to beat. Those who wanted to go deeper with the game were given plenty of opportunity to do so with its dearth of modes all of which were well designed and rewarding. While FIFA 12 wasn’t necessarily an ‘all-time great game’ it was ultimately the best of 2011 and went to show just how much could be achieved when the proper resources and a high level of dedication are realized.

Earlier Year-in-Review Pieces
•Community Choice Award Winners
•The Biggest Stories of 2011
•#1: FIFA 12
•#2: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters
•#3: Madden NFL 12
•#4: MLB 11: The Show
•#5: NBA 2K12
•#6: WWE All-Stars
•#7: NCAA Football 12
•#8: NHL 12
•#9: Fight Night Champion
•#10: MLB Bobblehead Pros

EA Sports has released a trailer for the PlayStation Vita version of FIFA Soccer (or FIFA Football as it will be known overseas). The upcoming handheld system is slated to arrive on February 22nd in North America with FIFA as one of the release titles.

The full feature list for the game can be found here and includes touch controls, Be a Pro mode, and online play. Continue on to check out the brand new trailer and leave any thoughts in the comments! 

A multi-year agreement has been reached between EA Sports and FC Barcelona/Argentina superstar Lionel Messi to represent the FIFA division for the company. Beginning with FIFA Street in March, on which he is featured as the cover athlete, Messi will be heavily utilized in all facets of marketing for the FIFA products.

The multi-faceted partnership will see Messi become an EA SPORTS Ambassador. He will become the cornerstone of marketing and advertising campaigns, featured on packaging, and utilized in social media activities around the world for the critically acclaimed FIFA Soccer franchise. EA SPORTS will also team up with the Leo Messi Foundation to support social, educational and health care related initiatives for children around the world.

Messi had been the cover athlete for FIFA’s rival Pro Evolution Soccer (PES 2009-2011). 10 new screenshots have been added to the FB album and continue on to check out the announcement video which features Street footage. 

EA Sports has released a new trailer for FIFA Street that blends real-world video with game footage in an effort to show the style of action being replicated. They are taking a somewhat more grounded approach than the series has gone for in the past. FIFA Street will for the first time utilize the engine from the traditional FIFA series and introduce a number of new dribbling and skill moves – some of which will be seen in the trailer. FIFA Street is expected to release in March as a traditional retail offering as opposed to going the digital-download route of other arcade style titles as of late. 

Over the past month there has been a great deal of discussion regarding hacked Xbox accounts which have then been used in conjunction with FIFA 12 and FIFA 11′s Ultimate Team modes. Both Microsoft and EA Sports have denied culpability but the issues have continued regardless of how accounts were being lost. Consumers have been seeking out an answer and that now seems to have come – though it will probably still be of little comfort to those who have had to deal with the situation personally. 

In a statement from Microsoft to Eurogamer today the company stated there have been no security breaches and no loss of personal information. EA has already gone on record about that being the case for them as well. Instead Microsoft suggests the same problems that have plagued any number of websites or services is to blame.

“It’s not a hack, it’s really just a different way to monetise stolen accounts,” he explained. ”Any service has compromises. Facebook has compromises, WOW has compromises. What they’re really doing is trying to make money off those compromises. So FIFA is a very popular title – it’s just a new way for the bad guys to make money. It wasn’t, based on our investigation… we didn’t see anything new. It was just a different avenue.”

Essentially they are saying the reason why it’s making news and creating such concern is because those who have lost control of their accounts are seeing similar end results – as those thieves spend the points and/or use FIFA Ultimate Team in order to generate pure profit by turning around card packs/coins on Ebay or elsewhere.

Phishing and social engineering are commonly troubling – the best advice to limit risk is to use different username/password combos, at the very least different passwords, for every website or service that is utilized.

EA Sports is releasing a massive patch for FIFA 12 that will be delivering improvements to everything from gameplay, to online, to career mode and a whole lot more. The update is scheduled to roll out today for both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Continue on for the full list of changes supplied by EA and leave any thoughts in the comments! 

Gameplay
•Sometimes the game would get confused when a user called a second player to take a quick throw-in, where the game would consider the ball to have re-entered play. We’ve made sure this won’t happen anymore.

•We have fixed an occasional problem where a user’s crossing setting would default to Manual and need to be reset.

•Very rarely indeed, a physics error could cause a player’s leg positioning to become misaligned. You may have seen some videos of that around the time we brought out the demo for FIFA 12. As rare as it was (the vast majority of people will have never experienced it), it’s now fully extinct.

Career Mode
•You can now select the weather conditions before entering a game.

•Your chief executive’s salary suggestions when offering a youth player a senior contract will now remain consistent when exiting and re-entering the negotiation screens.

•We have made sure that, after releasing a player from the Youth Squad, his salary returns to the Wage Budget.

•When loaning in a player with an option to buy him at the end of the season, if that player caused you to reach the maximum squad size, you wouldn’t be able to buy him. Now you can.

•It’s now no longer possible to sign a Youth Player with a wage greater than your available wage budget.

•We have addressed a couple of rare situations where specific actions would cause controller buttons to become unresponsive.

•When playing as a player in Career Mode, your manager will now be more inclined to sub off your player if he’s getting too tired.

•We’ve made sure that commentary won’t fail to show up when playing League Cup games involving Manchester United.

•We have fixed a situation where, given a certain set of circumstances when editing and saving player positions, you could see player names converted to numbers before experiencing a console hang.

•We fixed an issue where it was possible for the user’s player’s team to enter a new season without a goalkeeper, or without the minimum number of players needed to play a match.

•We have solved a problem that involved the player’s team recording a win despite forfeiting a league game because of an insufficient match-day squad.

•Recently signed Youth Squad players who you’re attempting to sell on will now enter negotiations with an accurate, consistent ‘Current Wage’ displayed, meaning you’ll see them picked up much more easily by CPU teams.

•If you and a friend entered a Career Mode game with two controllers, advanced beyond the Player Selection screen and then backed all the way out again, the game would hang. We got that fixed.

•We have taken care of a bug that caused apparently random crashes in Career Mode, with players sometimes appearing with a zeroed cash value.

•Physical attributes of players were growing a little unrealistically since they were tied to their overall growth potential. We have made a change that separates the growth of these attributes from others, resulting in much more steady progression.

•You can now offer a new contract to players you have loaned out for the last year of their contract, before they run off and become free agents.

•Loaned players weren’t always growing fast enough. We have tuned this to be more noticeable, making loaning players out much more rewarding.

•More mid-week Career Mode games will now be played with night-time lighting conditions.

FIFA 12 Ultimate Team
•Using an outdated “Take Me There” link on a Trade Feed notification in the FUT hub will no longer result in your coins not being returned if you lost the auction.

•The Trade Feed notification in the FUT Hub for a newly acquired Goalkeeper Coach will no longer cause the game to hang.

•Creating a new squad, then immediately deleting an old one before then applying an item to your new squad could result in a disconnection. Not now it won’t.

•We have made sure that real-time information is displayed on active auctions. You’ll no longer find yourself unknowingly outbid while waiting for those auctions to count down.

•We have isolated and eradicated a data-flow interruption that sometimes caused the game to crash while players were on the Match Setup screen before a FUT game.

•You will now see your EAS FC XP increase – and your news feed update – after playing a single-player or play-a-friend game in FUT.

•We have optimised the game to make sure the console won’t struggle, or even crash, when paging through a lot of FUT auction pages.

•We have taken care of a crash that would occur if users entered FUT and downloaded the latest update after creating a Virtual Pro.

•We have made a couple of separate enhancements to the FUT pack purchasing system to make sure sudden losses of internet connectivity (such as pulling the network cable) won’t result in console crashes.

•We discovered that if you downloaded a roster update in FUT and, while still on the update confirmation screen, signed out from your Gamer Profile, the game would crash. Not many people would do that but, just in case they do, they’re now safe.

FIFA 12 Clubs
•Changes that Clubs players make to camera settings during a Clubs game will now find those settings saved for subsequent games.

•You will now be able to change your penalty kick taker via Team Management between the penalty kick being awarded and taken.

•Clubs players’ accomplishments are now fully tracked in online matches.

•We asked you, and you told us. Community feedback overwhelmingly suggests that the default AI in Clubs is too powerful, leading to clubs choosing not to field defenders in order to allow the AI to do their work for them. We have therefore dropped the AI difficulty level in Clubs from World Class to Professional, and have made some complimentary minor adjustments to AI goalkeepers.

My Live Season
•Injured or suspended players will now be automatically moved to the reserves, not the subs bench. And there’ll be no more missing subs as a result in subsequent games.

EA SPORTS Football Club
•We have made an optimisation that stops the game making too many calls for Support Your Club information on entering the EAS FC hub.

•Every now and then, when coming back to the main menu from another area of the game, the Back/Select button to go to the EAS FC hub was not always displayed and functional. That won’t happen anymore.

•We have taken care of a rare crash bug that cropped up when entering the EAS FC hub from the main menu.

•We have enhanced the way the game loads the pre-match arena before an EAS FC Challenge.

•All your Career Mode activity will now display correctly in the EAS FC news feed.

FIFA 12 Online
•An occasional problem saw users repeatedly failing to match-up online due to mismatching squad files, despite re-downloading the online squad file. We’ve made sure that won’t bother anyone again.

•A small number of people found their stats not tracking properly for Online Friendlies games. They are now.
Creation Centre

•We have solved a problem that saw FIFA 12 crash when trying to download PNG images (e.g. a team crest) that were over the maximum file size.

•Particularly keen Creation Centre users who bookmarked a lot of items to download into their game could find that they were not able to enter the Creation Centre gallery. Now they can.

•We have fixed a rare problem where it was possible in specific circumstances to find your Creation Centre team hit the pitch with a man missing.

•We have made sure that swapping and changing kit sponsor images on the web will no longer cause any problems on the console.

•We have improved the way FIFA 12 handles large numbers of Creation Centre downloads to make sure there’s no slow-down in the performance of team-selection screens.

•The game no longer struggles to retrieve Tournament Crest images in the Creation Centre gallery.

EA SPORTS Arena
•We have enabled private sessions within the EA SPORTS Arena.

And some others…
•We have turned on our in-game podcasts. If you want to listen in, you can access our regular five-minute chunks of audio news and information by turning the option on in the Game Settings > Audio menu. [English language only]

•We have made some optimisations to make sure that people with lots of save files on their hard drives don’t suffer long load times or server disconnections.

•[PC only] We have corrected a problem where, after scoring a goal, custom music would stop playing for around two minutes.

•[PC only] We have added an option to the FIFA 12 launcher to disable some Windows settings, improving the framerate for people with lower-spec PCs.

As Black Friday approaches the deals of video games will be widespread and that’ll be tracked on the site, but right now coming off the Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale of last week comes another opportunity to secure one of the top sports games of the year at a reduced cost. FIFA 12 is being offered on Amazon, today only, for $40.

When FIFA 12 released at the end of September the online retailer was offering a $20 promotional credit – so the $40 price essentially brings it back down to that level. FIFA 12 since has become the fastest selling sports game of all time worldwide and shown impressive growth in North America. Though the new physics system is wonky at times FIFA 12 is overly enjoyable and fantastic online – with the new ‘Online Seasons’ especially addictive.