The eternal battle between Electronic Arts’ FIFA and Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series took another twist today, as it emerges that the former will beat its Japanese opponent to store shelves this year.

EA informed us this morning that it intends to launch its increasingly-respected FIFA on September 30th for PS2, Xbox, PC, Cube and GBA, with NDS following on 6th October 2005 and PSP on the 21st October 2005.

As you’ll have noticed, EA’s football series has seen something of a revival of late, gaining an increasing amount of acceptance amongst the more hardcore of gamers, finding a working balance between function and flare that had previously been lacking.

“Today EA Sports announces the release date for the much anticipated FIFA 06,” read a press release issued this morning. “This year FIFA is arriving even earlier to tie in closer to the start of the football season in the UK.”

Unless you read the increasingly strange CVG of course, who REVEALED! today “…as sources at EA have just let slip that FIFA 06, the newest edition of its annual footy franchise, will kick off a little earlier than anticipated this year,” it colludes. “The official reason according to our source is…” and then they publish the press release as above.

Funny old world, eh?

As you ponder that, why not take a butcher’s at these screens we were informed by EA are exclusive to our little place in on the Information Superhighway. We got them for our source (EA Pr office) who revealed to us that they are from the PC version.