EA CEO Explains That FIFA 19 May Not Happen as Company Looks to End Annual Release

EA Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wilson has revealed that the game-publisher may bring an end to annual releases of their hottest sports titles, FIFA. 

The company is not planning to end production of the game series but rather wants to move towards subscription-based content and online updates - making the yearly trip to your local supermarket, or Amazon a thing of the past. 

For FIFA, this would work in the mould of squad updates following a hefty transfer window and the ability to kick around in the latest kits. 

"There's a world where it gets easier and easier to move that code around, where we may not have to do an annual release" said Wilson, speaking to Bloomberg. "We can really think about those games as a 365-day, live service."

EA recently released an update for their FIFA mobile title, with the official game's debut last year proving to be very successful. This year's overhaul saw an update to the App - with new features such as "Campaigns" and new Live Events. 

“When we design a game that lives in a true streaming world, we have to think about screen size and session time” he said. 

“How does a Madden game that exists in the cloud manifest on your mobile phone, one minute at a time? How does that manifest on your 60-inch TV, an hour at a time.”

“The greatest disruptor to the consumption of entertainment media in the last five years has been the combination of streaming plus subscription." 

Companies such as Spotify and Netflix have thrived off this model - with Wilson looking to take EA in a similar direction by scrapping the annual release of their games.