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Producer of the upcoming FIFA 08, Joe Booth, has stated that he anticipates the inevitable challenge of facing off against rival series Pro Evolution Soccer, noting the market is now able to facilitate more titles in the genre than ever before.

Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz recently, Booth commented, "There seems to be more and more appetite for football games.”

"People treat football games a bit like they treat first-person shooters - they don't just buy one game, they buy two or three games through the year anyway."

EA’s latest FIFA outing became the UK’s best selling game for 2006, although it was a close call between Konami’s Pro Evoultion Soccer. Despite this, Booth admitted that it doesn’t boil down to simply beating out competing titles, adding, "I think that's something we ask ourselves - not how do we beat Konami, but how do we move the genre forward, and what opportunities are there."

"We have to assume that Konami are going to come out and be very strong. If we only assume they're on their current trend, then we'd be complacent. As gamers, we want that as well. We like the competition."

Philosophically at least, Booth anticipates changes as to how EA operates as a whole, aiming to establish greater communication between the firm and it’s customers.

"What we've been doing is trying to change the organisation - the whole of EA - to this year-long relationship with the gamer, which is quite hard, because the business is optimised for annual launches of games," he said.

“In each territory they've got different divisions - guys who deal with community, guys who deal with PR, guys who deal with the marketing - and they do three or four games and they just align on FIFA for that two-month window. So it's quite challenging to change that and build this relationship with the user."

The first step is apparent in the company’s decision to implement online functionality in the series next release, FIFA 08, which launches on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 this autumn.

"When we do announce what we're doing, it's not just going to be about features," added Booth.

"It's going to be about lots of other stuff as well."