FIFA 10 Expansion 'Ultimate Team' Announced as Electronic Arts Trumpets 'Record Sales'

Having previously stated that FIFA 10 represented its best European launch ever, publisher Electronic Arts today revealed a downloadable expansion for the game and further detailed the "record sales pace" of EA Canada's latest soccer effort.

The Ultimate Team downloadable content in action.

Coming to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in February, the "Ultimate Team" add-on brings more options for squad management and training, including "a completely redesigned chemistry system built around player relationships on the pitch" plus the ability to buy, sell or trade players to help create the titular ultimate team.

In the announcement, Electronic Arts billed the download as "a deeper, more authentic, more dynamic version of the game mode successfully introduced last year."

The company further named FIFA 10 as "the highest rated sports game ever on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360" and "the top selling game overall in Europe in 2009," with first-week European sales of 1.7 million having made it "the fastest-selling sports videogame in the world" and

more than 4.5 million units having now been sold worldwide. The latter figure represents a 26% increase over the same period last year.

EA also trumpeted "new franchise records for online play," with a total of 113 million online matches having been played as of November 30 and a daily average of 3 million online matches, based on data from October 1 through November 19, 2009.