Electronic Arts (EA) Sports' producer David Rutter was one of us, once -- trashing Electronic Arts every time they showed another slip-up, released another retread. But at least for the FIFA series, those days are gone, hopefully for good, and Rutter states in an interview they deserve some acknoledgment for that:

“It does upset me that people bad-mouth EA, and I used to be one of those people. But the fact that I am allowed to spend so much money on making good gameplay, without having to do anything gimmicky, to me speaks volumes of the work Peter Moore and other people in the organisation are doing."

To put it another way: the model at EA has changed, partly because the demands of fans has changed, or that's how it appears, anyhow. For a long time most of us put up with the company's inconsistent releases -- one year we'd get a good Madden, the next year it'd be the same old thing, sometimes worse, for example. They could afford to do this for awhile, but we caught on eventually, and got games like FIFA 09. Rutter says the pressure is on now, and they're grateful for it:

“The critical and commercial success of FIFA 2009 has put a lot of pressure on us for this new game, but I am fortunate that I work in an environment that lives and breathes on pressure. Everyone here knows what is expected of them in terms of quality [...] and that is doing what matters most to the fans, refining the game, innovating and putting in game modes that people want.”

“It is going to be very, very hard. Our Metacritic is currently 87," he says, referring to his bosses' requests to aim for a 90 ranking on the score aggregator (no small feat by any means), "and getting those extra three per cent is a really hard challenge to overcome. But I’m confident that when FIFA 10 finally comes out, it will be exactly what the gamer wants.”

It's sad EA has taken this long to realize making a quality game on their end that is something they want to play as much as gamers do is the best way to go, but hey, if it all works out in the end, we'll be happy.