Despite consistently being one of the best-selling franchises year after year, EA wants to ensure that Fifa doesn't become complacent and is keeping a close eye on the competition.
"We're still worried about what Konami is going to do with Pro Evolution Soccer and naturally they're our closest sports competitor," Fifa boss David Rutter told CVG.
He said that the developer is excessively harsh on itself, to the point that they need to be reminded to focus on the positives when giving presentations.
"Today I did the good news; 'fantastic reviews, amazing sales, everyone loves our game' and then [colleague] Aaron steps up and goes, 'this is rubbish, this is rubbish...' It's just the way we are. We don't have a great deal of time in the year to make the game and we don't have a great deal of time in the year either to celebrate what we just did."
He also says that being based in Canada is an advantage, as the staff aren't constantly bombarded by the game's popularity as they would be in Europe.
"I think actually being in Canada is a bit of an advantage as well because we're away from all the, 'woohoo! Look how amazing we are!' We don't see the shops with tonnes of FIFA copies in them, or see the launch or hear about it on the news. We're far enough away that we're this little isolated pod of negative nerds all working on FIFA."
By Ben Salter - Bio