FIFA 14 dev: Players disliked the speed of FIFA 13

Upcoming football title FIFA 14 will be slower and feature less of a focus on speed compared to last year's game.

This is according to developer Sebastian Enrique, who claimed that players offered a bit of negative feedback about how quick FIFA 13 appeared to be.

Enrique said that FIFA 14 would have more of a battle for possession in midfield so that players can't just hold onto the sprint button.

"The thing that I believe, what was the main feedback that people probably disliked a bit, was the speed of the game," Enrique told ArabicGamers.

"So people saying on the forums, and every time we talked to people, that the game is too fast. The reality is we didn't change the speed of the game but the mechanics of the game - the way the game is balanced - produced like a way and dynamics of how people play the game.

"And people were sprinting all the time so there was not a lot of battle for possession in midfield, so it became just a 'chance it' zone and you were seeing a lot of back and forth all the time from box to box and that's one of the things we wanted to address this year."

Enrique believes that adding the new Protect the Ball system - allowing players to shield and block other players from tackling them - and tightening defences helps with controlling the speed in matches.

"And we did many things to address the pace of the game," he said, "adding Protect the Ball is one of the things that helps with that because you can play more of a ball possession game.

"We tuned a little bit the defence, so the position of the defence is tighter compared to last year.

"What happened last year, as soon as you received the ball you're unmarked or you don't have a tight mark, so you can sprint immediately and you have no risk.

"Now by having the defence tighter you have to think twice about that."

We'll be bringing you much more on FIFA 14, including a video interview with Enrique, all throughout the week.