We’ll have other pretty big news coming next week too, so make sure you check back throughout…

A new interview with World Cup producer Simon Humber has appeared; check it out above.

I especially like the swearing and the reference to this very site at the end. This man is a proper producer!

About the game going gold: It went gold about three weeks ago.

Regarding any differences between the demo and the final game: You’re playing the final gameplay, although that won’t stop a bunch of people claiming the full game and the demo are different. That happened on EURO too.

Regarding the promised squad updates: We plan to do two updates; one when the final 23 players are known [to be released after the round of 16], [another] during the tournament to update according to form.

Responding to those asking to make the game slower: Slowing or speeding up the game has many game breaking problems. If you slow the players and not the ball they don’t intercept passes, and if you slow both then you get floaty ball physics.

Responding to those saying that the game is too fast: Take a second to think about it. Think of two screens, one is 20 inches wide, the other 40 inches. If the camera didn’t follow the ball, then if you ran the player from the left side of the screen to the right side then it would take the same time on both TVs but on the big TV the player has twice as much screen width to cover. So to your eyes it appears faster, it’s an optical illusion of sorts. This assumes you are sitting the same distance away from both screens. I prefer to sit close to a smaller screen, than on my sofa with my big screen. I remember when we launched the FIFA 07 demo, I told everyone something had gone wrong and the speed was mental!

About the star ratings: The star ratings are a load of **** in any case. You guys get so wound up about them, but they don’t do anything. They are based on the overall ratings of a certain number of players, and the overall ratings are numbers that just represent some measure of quality, they don’t do anything by themselves. You’re way better off looking at player stats as they are what are used in gameplay to determine the quality of actions.

About correcting Spain’s away kit: We don’t have to contact them to change it, the problem now is time has run out ages ago. So to correct it means doing something post ship, and that gets muy complicato mi amigo. – Adidas send us the design for the kit. We make the kit. We send it back to Adidas. Adidas say ‘oh yes, well done EA, that’s right, you can now put it in the game.’ We put it in the game. We finish the game. Adidas launch the new kit and it’s different to what they gave us and approved from us. You moan.

An interesting fact for Ireland fans: Ireland have two home kits and one away kit.

Regarding Be A Pro mode and Online Team Play mode: World Cup has BAP, [no] OTP.

More on the absence of Online Team Play: There’s no 10 v 10 in World Cup. 10 v 10 is a massive amount of work. Even just to do what was in FIFA 10 and make no improvements is a lot of days work. Looking at our usage figures we deduced that there would be too little variety in matches in World Cup. They’d be way too many England v England v England v USA v France v Germany games. You’d get fed up of that. With the time we then had we could innovate with new online modes, namely Online World Cup & World League Ladder. So you can still get your 10 v 10 fix in FIFA 10, and experience brand new online modes in World Cup.

Regarding World Cup tournament customisation: You can customise the teams in the 32 team finals but you can’t create a tournament with the number of rounds, groups etc.

About the special XI teams: Classic XI has some new players. adidas XI is naturally their players. Not sure if they can be selected for unranked matches.

Regarding the new heading tweaks: Attacking headers are improved. Players seek space in the area and make more effort to get on the end of crosses.

About the midfield gameplay of future titles: The whole midfield, put your foot on the ball and survey your options is something we’ve talked about, especially in 10 v 10. I’d personally like it to be fully manual and people be skilled enough to be a playmaker. But to do that you have to negate pressing and that of course causes all manner of problems with getting into position to block or make tackles. Football games are ****ing complicated, otherwise there would be more than us and Konami still making them. Unlike first person shooters where there are ****loads of them.

An interesting fact about international retirements: There are players who retired during qualifying who retire in the game at the same point.

Regarding the new noise of the ball hitting the net: Yep the noise for the ball hitting the net, where it lifts up the metal frame on the ground, was something I kept hearing on Match of the Day, so we added it.

Regarding stadium altitude levels: Bolivia play in a generic stadium, some other teams use the same stadium. But when Bolivia play in it the altitude value is changed to La Paz, so only then is it a high altitude stadium. But in South Africa a team is not tied to a stadium, so we use the altitude value of each real stadium.

Regarding a missing stadium or two: We wanted to include St Jakob Park, but our Swiss office wanted Berne.

Regarding the odd set of incorrect adverts at a stadium: Qualifying is a licensing minefield, we tried to get other adverts in, but it wasn’t possible. Generally if you see something dumb in our games, in terms of authentic sponsorship, then this is why. We are not blind to reality, just handicapped in what we can do.

Responding to a question from a Spurs fan: Sorry, can’t talk to Spurs fans ahead of our semi-final on Sunday. COME ON POMPEY!

A response to those claiming that the game is a rip-off: Rip off is a personal viewpoint. If I leave my house to buy a bottle of water and it’s $10 then it’s a rip off. But if I am lost in the desert and someone offers me that bottle of water for $10 then it’s a bargain. Each individual has the right to decide how much the World Cup means to them and choose to buy the game or not. All we’ve done is make a game we’re pretty proud of, the rest is up to you lot.

A response to FIFASoccerBlog.com publishing the rumoured (and later revealed to be accurate) demo details: I must find their source and shoot that person.

You can read the interview in full if you click here.

Have a read by clicking here.

Cheers to Nanny as always for the heads up.

IGN: 2010 FIFA World Cup Feature

The interview with line producer Simon Humber goes into details about Controls, Penalty System, Virtual Pro Integration as well as Captain Your Country Mode. Its a very informative article so be sure to check it out.

On the official FIFA forums, Simon Humber has partaken in a Q&A session with the fans, in a bid to answer the many questions going through peoples minds. After the jump, we have a large segment of the Q&A, with some very interesting information!

Here are some other things he has already posted:

Loads of threads about exactly which 199 teams are in the game so here you go.

These are the nations that FIFA permitted us to include, others are not allowed for various reasons.

You can play any of these in the online & offline World Cup tournaments.

All are fully licensed, which means we are allowed to use the real player names & crests.

Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Virgin Islands Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Chad Chile China PR Chinese Taipei Colombia Comoros Congo Congo DR Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote d’Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (- C’mon England!!!) Equatorial Guinea Estonia Ethiopia Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Korea DPR Korea Republic Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Northern Ireland Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Paraguay Peru Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Scotland Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Tahiti Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Wales Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe

Will all have detailed kits? In 2006 only some had detailed kits. Just asking.

Not all of them, as many as we were able to build with the art team we had and with the reference we were given.

When you select World Cup mode are the groups going to be the ones that have been drawn for the world cup or will they be random? Also the same question about the qualification rounds.

Real or custom, up to you.

On throphy celebrations:

Oh yes, you get presented with the trophy very nicely

On list of managers in the game

Managers will be announced at a later date.

When can we expect the next bit of information, video, pictures, announcements?

In a few more weeks!

About the online world cup:

We haven’t posted as nobody told us about this dev team forum. We’ll start from now on but we’re working on the game which is the most important use of our time right now.

Personally I think it’s the best online mode we’ve done. It’s very exciting to play.

You choose any of the 199 nations and as TT31P says, we match you against someone at the same match of the tournament, attempting to avoid any team or gamer you’ve already met.

If you finish in the top two in your group you go into the Round of 16 and all the thrills of knockout football.

The third group game is also exciting since this is played simultaneously in real life, so in the game we give score updates from the other match in your group so you can alter your strategy according to where your score and the other score leave you in the table.

It’s an impressive article, and one that paints a very favourable picture of the upcoming game. Discussing everything from gameplay and graphical tweaks, to brand new additions in the game, it’s definitely worth a read.

You can do just that, by clicking here.

Gamespot: FIFA World Cup 2010 Q&A