Extra time for FIFA campaign

EA says it will spend more on marketing FIFA 11 in the coming weeks than it did in the build-up to the best-selling football title.

FIFA 11 sold 821,000 units in its first week on sale, raking in 28.93 million. In terms of units it sold 21 per cent more in its first week than FIFA 10 achieved.

FIFA 11 is the most critically and commercially successful football release ever and that’s something the whole studio team in Vancouver, the EA publishing organisation and our retail partners can be immensely proud of,” said UK and Ireland marketing director Stuart Lang.

But this is just the beginning. We want to bring all football fans into the FIFA franchise. So we’re really focused on long-term engagement and that means understanding how we can continually improve and stay ahead of the game. This ensures we deliver the essential interactive football product and service that every football fan wants to participate in.

To deliver against this, we’re investing an unprecedented amount of time and money in customer service, online infrastructure and content offerings.

We’re also making significant investment in our marketing communications – the majority of which is focused post-release, to support us through Christmas and throughout next year.”

UK sales director Rob Davey added: We couldn’t be more delighted with the first week’s sell-through on FIFA 11. This has been a superb team effort from our studio, PR, marketing and sales teams. They’ve produced the best football game ever and one of the biggest releases this country has ever seen. That’s no mean feat in what has been a really challenging market – but 21 per cent growth in week one sales year-on-year for FIFA is nothing short of spectacular.

I would particularly like to thank all our retail partners across the UK who are very much a part of this successful new release.”

FIFA 11’s launch sales were behind only GTA IV and MW2.