As well as that gargantuan projection for this year it’s also been revealed that Ultimate Team already made EA a whoping $100 million last financial year which is essentially FIFA 10 and FIFA 11 combined.

It’s no surprise then that EA are looking to shift the FIFA Ultimate Team model in to it’s other franchises and here’s what EA President Frank Gibeau had to say:

“On the question about digital expansions within the Sports label based on what we’ve been able to do with Ultimate Team, we’re certainly looking at that as an opportunity in our other sports, but not just limited to our sports - We have a very ambitious plan to drive digital revenues off of our console businesses in our shooters category, in the racing category, in action. So we’re taking the key learnings that we’re developing from Battlefield and FIFA and we’re applying it to our entire suite of brands and across all of our different labels”

So there you have it, expect more micro-transaction goodness from other EA titles in the not too distant future and if they mimic the success of Ultimate Team, the future is indeed very bright for EA BUT is it bright for gamers?

Hit the comments guys and let us know how you feel about buying packs and micro-transactions in general.

Source: Eurogamer

Click the images to get a better look at them.

Wordfromthewise – Silver Liga BBVA

Aidan – FC Gooners

Chyngyz – EPL 75 Star

Johnpaulluna – ASTORIA FC

Neil – Blitzkrieg

Ole Martin – FK Oslo

Pablo – Inter Milan

Tim M – Irish

Tuome – Spain

Think you’ve got something better? Pop a link in the comments…

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is purchase any Gold, Premium Gold or Premium Gold Jumbo Pack, either from the Web app or in game, within the above time frame. Each pack purchased will count as one entry into the competition and you can enter multiple times. If you’re a winner, you’ll be contacted by email from the 24th of February.

Grand Prizes: (Available only to UK Residents)

• Signed Manchester City Shirt, 1 pair of tickets to Man City v Bolton at the Etihad Stadium on March 3rd, 100,000 coins.

• Signed Newcastle Shirt, 1 pair of tickets to Newcastle v Sunderland at the Sports Direct Arena on March 4th, 100,000 coins.

• Signed Chelsea shirt, 1 pair of tickets to Chelsea v Stoke at Stamford Bridge on Mar 10, 100,000 coins.

• Signed Arsenal Shirt, 1 pair of tickets to Arsenal v Newcastle at the Emirates Stadium on March 12th, 100,000 coins.

Secondary Prizes: (Available only to UK Residents)

10 Prizes of 100,000 coins

If you aren’t eligible because of your location, don’t panic. There will also be 10 Prizes of 100,000 coins for FUT players outside of the UK.

For full details, see the announcement on EA.com

Good luck.

It has been a strange time on the Fifa Ultimate Team market, player prices are jumping around everywhere, and what seemed to be good investments, turn into disasters. Everyone has noticed the price drops, it is a huge thing to take in to consideration if you are trying to build your Ultimate Team. I remember back in December, I bought a Neymar for 15,000 (below average market price), hoping that his price would rise. It turned out that his price not only didn’t rise, it plummeted. His average price is now under 9,000 – not a massive loss, but it was totally unexpected. I decided to research this further, and find the reason that player’s prices drop this much half way through the year, here is what I have learnt:

Why player prices have been dropping:

There are a few factors that have contributed to the player prices dropping, the most important probably is the massive increase of people buying packs:

• Increase of Supply:

During the winter period, many more people than normal have opened packs. As every economist will know, an increase in supply, will lead to a decrease in price. Players are becoming less rare and therefore their market price has dropped. Not great for people who have spent lots of money on very high priced players. So if you were someone that bought lots of packs during the winter, it was partly your fault that prices crashed!

• TOTY packs and IF cards:

When an in-form card of a player comes out, understandably people would prefer to have this card instead of the original, because it is better. This in turn means that the original player’s price will drop dramatically. Take Iniesta for example, before TOTY his market price was 250,000 , after this his price dropped to under 200,000 as everyone rushed to the packs to find the higher version. It has since risen slightly, showing that buying players just after their in form version is released can yield high profits.

How will the price drops affect you?

The majority of cards that you have in your club, have dropped in price by at least 5%. The players from TOTY and TOTW however, have increased by an average of 10% since their release, due to people not knowing their market price. If you have any players that have recently had an in form version released, their prices will drop.

It is extremely hard to predict whether your card will drop in price, perhaps the only way is by watching the trends on Ultimatedb.nl. You may be annoyed, but remember back to Fifa 11 where this all happened at almost the exact same time of the year. Perhaps the prices even dropped by less, I can remember really struggling to even sell players, because they had become almost worthless.

How can you maximise your profits?

The drop in prices will affect players with less money more than those with more. If you have little money, you will find it hard to start trading and making profits, as prices are all over the price. If you have lots of money however, you can take advantage of the price fluctuations, and cash in on players when their prices peak. Always check the player prices before you sell, this will ensure that you are not being ripped off.

• Buy low, sell high.

Obvious really, but I see many people ignoring it. It is easy to sell players cheap, but that will not do you any favours, wait until their price rise.

• Buy in form players as soon as they are released.

Their prices are proven to rise by alot after they are released. If you get a player for 60,000 just as they are released, it is likely that their price will be around 80,000 in about a week. Buy as many of them as you can, if you can afford it, you may just get lucky and rake in 100,000′s of coins.

• Buy regular players when IF’s have been released.

As you will have learnt, player prices drop after an IF card has been released. It is likely that their price will increase later on. Remember that you need to buy the players after their prices have dropped, buying before the drop would be plain silly! If you see the player’s prices rising slowly after a drop, this is also a good time to buy, there is no better way to make profits than buying when a player’s price is rising!

You can follow FIFA Monster on Twitter, and visit the site at FIFAMonster.com

The information was taken from a financial call yesterday in which EA also announced that Battlefield 3 had breached the 10 million sales barrier too. So, they have plenty to be pleased about at EA towers right now and with a bumper February/March which will see the release of Mass Effect 3, SSX, Kings of Amalur, Syndicate, Grand Slam Tennis and our beloved FIFA Street, they should remain happy well in to the summer.

Oh and FIFA 12 also found itself top of the UK Chart once again for a fifth consecutive week…

Source: CVG

The information was taken from a financial call yesterday in which EA also announced that Battlefield 3 had breached the 10 million sales barrier too. So, they have plenty to be pleased about at EA towers right now and with a bumper February/March which will see the release of Mass Effect 3, SSX, Kings of Amalur, Syndicate, Grand Slam Tennis and our beloved FIFA Street, they should remain happy well in to the summer.

Oh and FIFA 12 also found itself top of the UK Chart once again for a fifth consecutive week…

Source: CVG

The information was taken from a financial call yesterday in which EA also announced that Battlefield 3 had breached the 10 million sales barrier too. So, they have plenty to be pleased about at EA towers right now and with a bumper February/March which will see the release of Mass Effect 3, SSX, Kings of Amalur, Syndicate, Grand Slam Tennis and our beloved FIFA Street, they should remain happy well in to the summer.

Oh and FIFA 12 also found itself top of the UK Chart once again for a fifth consecutive week…

Source: CVG

EA Sports are looking for people, regular football fans like yourself, to get involved in data collection for their upcoming projects (unofficially FIFA 12). The program is called EA Sports Football Talent Scout, and you can get involved, or find more information by visiting http://www.eafootballtalentscout.com/TalentScout/TalentScout/index.aspx

If anyone does decide to get involved, please feel free to drop us a line at Soccer Gaming and let us know of how you get on!

It’s Wednesday and that can only mean one thing, it’s time for the next installment of Back To The FIFA. This week we want you guys to have a think about FIFA’s online modes and what new features you’d like to see over the next five years?

FIFA 12 marked a revolution of sorts for FIFA in the online space and there’s no doubt that Head To Head Seasons has improved the multiplayer experience immeasurably in comparison to previous games. But what do you think is the next step for H2H Seasons, or do you have a totally new idea for an online mode you’d like to see in FIFA?

As well as game modes that form a core part of FIFA on our consoles, this generation has also seen a swathe of supplementary online components like Game Face, the FUT Web App, Creation Centre, EA SPORTS Football Club and the  recently announced FIFA Street Network. These are all great but they can of course all be improved and what other FIFA online “apps” would you like to see? We’re dying for EA to put Custom Tactics online, which is surely a must for FIFA 13 and beyond?

Finally, an area of online play where FIFA has yet to excel is the mobile market and although an iPhone version of FIFA is great, we’d really like to see our FIFA console experiences connected persistently where ever we go. How could EA do this, what in-game content do you think would transfer well on to a handheld?

Your feedback has been amazing so far, and we’re recording absolutely everything. Hit the comments and help shape the future of FIFA online.

If you want to add feedback via Twitter use the hashtag #WishFIFAWouldBe and head over to Sweetpatch.TV

*UPDATE* The video is up in English. Big thanks to Matthew Bussy for the heads up!

Click here to view the embedded video.