‘Didn’t we already kill this game?’ [FIFA origin story]

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36 pointshyperpallium4 comments

In retrospect it seems extremely hard to imagine how it could not have been a success, but the provincialism of American management had to be kept away in order for it to be a success for EA.

In an alternate history the license might have gone to one of the European developers like Sensible Soccer.

You would be surprised how common that is.

For example, Steam is world leader mostly because 90% of the world can not use any of their cards or method of payments to pay any of the other stores.

Steam has other advantages:

- first mover

- absolutely terrible UX of the other stores with game-integrated features (Origin; original GFWL). Steam's not great, but it's acceptable for most people most of the time.

- non-punitive DRM: can move install freely without worrying about loss of media

- very generous frequent discounts

The last two help against the real competitor, piracy.

Not to mention the classic for any platform: excellent first party games to get it into people's homes in the first place.

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