Football videogames used to be ten-a-penny. Really. Back in the 16- and 32-bit days FIFA and Winning Eleven / Pro Evolution Soccer were on the scene, but so were a raft of competitors: Actua Soccer, Virtua Striker, Sensible World of Soccer, Kick Off 2, and real oddities like Libero Grande (where you play a match as one player on the team). As technology improved EA's FIFA and Konami's PES came to dominate and, while there was still the odd effort from leftfield, football game fans picked one of the two sides.
EA ultimately managed to turn FIFA into a critical as well as a commercial success and, unfortunately for the PES diehards like me, has over the last decade beaten Konami black-and-blue: The contemporary iteration of PES, eFootball, is in a sad state. In fact FIFA got so big EA decided it doesn't need FIFA, and this year is re-branding the series as EA Sports FC. With FIFA flailing abjectly, it seems the path to victory for EA is clear.
