Usually, this article focuses on the reviews of a single product, but the Metacritic average for FIFA 21 - 73 on PlayStation 4, the platform with by far the most available reviews - was low enough to send the memory of that meeting with Rutter crashing to the front of my mind. Look closer, however, and the series' astounding revenue and sales numbers don't tell the whole story.

With a cursory application of hindsight, it would seem that Rutter's belief was correct. FIFA was popular in 2011, but the small group of journalists in that boardroom in EA Vancouver had no idea just how big it would become. That was a few months before the launch of FIFA 12, two years before Ultimate Team made its debut and changed the face of the entire franchise. The apparent dwindling of goodwill among both critics and players should be of great concern to any publisher I had been playing and reviewing FIFA for several years, and I asked Rutter a question that burned every time I was tasked with appraising the differences between each new edition: annualised games demand change with each iteration, but can you reach a level of quality where change can only harm the overall experience? Rutter politely dismissed the idea, assuring me that the fascinating world of football was more than capable of providing EA with the inspiration needed to justify a $60 product every year. In 2011, I was part of a press tour of prominent Canadian studios, which included an afternoon at EA Vancouver and the opportunity to talk shop with David Rutter - then the executive producer of FIFA, now the head of every EA studio in Europe.

Fifa 21 review