At first glance, the news that
FIFA 10 and
Madden NFL 10 are definitely coming to iPhone and iPod touch isn't a huge surprise. EA has been steadily gearing up its iPhone development during 2009, releasing titles based on brands such as
Need for Speed and
The Sims 3.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour came out in April, and EA announced there would be a
remote control iPhone app for the new
Madden NFL 10 Online Franchise that links into the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version of the game too.
But there hasn't been any overt mention concerning when dominant brands such as
FIFA and
Madden NFL would make their App Store debut.
Indeed, the developer of the
Tiger Woods iPhone game, Exient, stole a march and released its own soccer game,
X2 Football 2009, which seems to be doing the business in Europe. Of course, Gameloft's
Real Football is also already established.
However, tucked away on the App Store description for
Spore Origins, what do we spy - "
FIFA 10 by EA Sport coming soon", which rotates with a line that reads ""
Madden NFL 10 by EA Sport coming soon"
It makes perfect sense of course. The main console versions of
FIFA 10 will be released on October 2nd, just in time to get all the summer transfers in-game, while
Madden NFL 10 ships earlier - August 14th.
We'd assume Madden 10 iPhone will ship with the console versions, the term "soon" doesn't say October to me for FIFA 10, so maybe we'll be graced with an iPhone version of that in August or September.
Now all we need is for Konami to sort out
Pro Evolution for iPhone and we can start writing those 'Which is the best footie game on App Store features?' I can almost smell the autumnal tang of mouldy boots.
