FIFA World Cup interview

Simon Humber, Line Producer on 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, talks to PlayStation.com about recreating the football carnival.

What are the key additions in 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa?

The key message for us is that we continue to work on the gameplay and there are more than a hundred improvements compared with FIFA 10. We've fixed small problems such as goalkeepers rushing off their lines and strikers finding it too easy to chip the ball over them.

And then there are the visuals - this is the best looking football game we've ever made. The lighting is much improved and we've revisited some of the player likenesses from FIFA 10 that we weren't so happy with in retrospect.

It's all driven towards creating a more rounded game experience.

What are you including in terms of online play?

The online World Cup is going to be a massive feature. It lets you play through the group and knockout stages against real opponents and as any of the 199 teams that tried to qualify for the Finals.

Our ethos with online play this time around is bite-sized gaming. If you look at FIFA 10's online leaderboards, it takes days and months to make an impact. Because you have a maximum of seven games in each World Cup campaign, players can play through it in an evening or finish it off at a later date. And there's no greater feeling than lifting the World Cup at the end of it.

How it works is that for each match, you're paired with a player that is at the same stage in their World Cup, be that the first group match or the final. For the group stages, we bring in each player's past results to generate the league table. This is the best method because it means you can play the competition however you like, be that in one sitting or over the course of a few days. Basically, throughout the tournament you always play against someone at the same stage, using any of the 199 available nations.

How closely have you worked with FIFA to ensure you faithfully recreate an event that, during development, was still many months away?

At the beginning of the project we compiled a massive list of assets and information that we needed, and as the months go by, they deliver stuff that allow us to replicate what they're doing, and create something that's authentic in terms of the aesthetic and format.

You've included many lesser-known nations in 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa; how do you go about researching them and ensuring they look and play like they should?

We have a network of experts spread across all of the football confederations, all over the world. They supply us with information and opinion on some of the more obscure countries. Then we have FIFA; so if we have trouble finding out who the Vanuatu captain is, for example, then we consult their list of Vanuatu players and take it from there.

Having studied the competition so closely, do you think there will be a surprise winner on 11 July?

No, I think it will be the usual suspects, don't you?

Finally, are you holding any features back?

Yes, this is the first of three announcements so you can look forward to hearing of more features in the run up to South Africa.