Another Year, Another FIFA.

No matter what genre of video games you may be interested in you have no doubt heard of the FIFA series. Year-by-year the EA Sports division of Electronic Arts churns out a title based on the popular sport and with each successive title purchasers are disappointed with the lack of innovation and change when it comes to the football simulation video game.

FIFA 18 like its predecessor FIFA 17 utilises the Frostbite 3 game engine. This may sound familiar as it is the same engine developed by EA for use in the popular first-person shooter series Battlefield.
The use of the Frostbite engine provides the game with silky in-game motion and some-what realistic player faces. However, as this engine was introduced in FIFA 17 the sensation of a new 'feel' to the game is let down by the overall staleness of the game. From FIFA 17 to FIFA 18 there is very little change overall, and this asks a question of EA as to why consumers should continue to buy their product if every year the product is more-or-less the same as the previous year.

As I am a long-term consumer of the FIFA series I feel the constant cycle of 'Another year, same FIFA' could be ended by a modification to how EA Sports publishes the game.
Instead of the release of a new title each year, EA could develop an ultimate release that will then receive critical software updates such as club and league updates, player ratings and skill modifications that could be downloaded through your console network.
This would allow consumers to purchase one hard copy of the FIFA game and keep it over a tally of years and then receive updates to keep the game modern as time progresses.
Of course this plan would never be initiated by EA as it would severely damage their profits but would their consumers prefer and value this approach more compared to the current model?

Would a change in the way EA develops and releases their FIFA products reinvigorate the games growing staleness? What are your opinions on FIFA 18 and the FIFA series in general?

- Mitch