FIFA Superstars: Playfish's soccer game aims to be a 'billion dollar hit'
We constantly hear about FarmVille maker Zynga raking in millions from its roster of social games, but imagine a single game that brings in one billion dollars. Well, that's what Playfish COO Sebastien de Halleux tells Venture Beat his company plans to do with its first Facebook adaption of a big-name EA game -- FIFA Superstars.
"We think Facebook can deliver a billion-dollar hit on the scale of the film Avatar. It's early days, but we're serious about it"
The new Facebook game will be a spin-off of the internationally acclaimed FIFA World Cup video game was casually announced last week, without any details on how it'll work. de Halleux says no one should expect a "straight port of the game."
"The trick is not to launch a role-playing game with a brand and hope it works. It won't. You have to understand what the brand means to users. It's how to weave an offline passion into an online activity for all of those people in the world who are not gamers. How do you extend social experiences into a platform like Facebook. That is what we are building on."
He goes on to hint that FIFA Superstars will include real-life athletes and teams (all of which Playfish/EA have the rights to publish) and, of course, a way to interact with fellow players. He also seems to hint that the game might roll out in tandem with the World Cup, though that has not been officially confirmed. Any other specifics are mum right now, outside of the fact that this will be a true test to see if both sports games and big brands have what it takes to score a billion dollars (or maybe even a Dr. Evil worthy 'one hundred BILLION dollars') on Facebook.
