Would make sense for it to be Fifa, which will be make for great marketing. But its still cheaper to buy a PS4 and get Fifa separately lol

The free game idea is good if they really can't lower the price, but what a poor choice of game. Fifa games in the EU are very casual and not a priority amoungst early adopters. Fifa sales have only picked up towards the latter half of the gen as the entry level price of consoles came down. It's flat out one of the worst games to try and convince people to buy a £429 console for. I think a download code that allowed you to pick between Forza or Rise would have been better.

Given that shops take their cut, they can probably get them for £30-£35 per copy?

That's huge if true.

But that will cost Microsoft a fortune. I guess it's a long term investment.

The question is, how many copies EA or Microsoft think FIFA 14 will sell??? I think fifa 14 on xbox one won't sell more than 500k copies in 2013

It is an exlcusive deal where the game comes bundled for no extra cost. It isn't to have the game totally exclusive. Microsoft spent over a billion dollars on game development. Compared to that it was most likely launch money for a Fifa bundle.

FIFA casual in Europe? O.O

To bad the only thing that matters is how many systems there actually are and not how many places they can launch in.

i think thats why its only free on the x1 not on the 360  they know it wont sell alot on a new console

Well, you're right, considering how much they spent on the NFL deal, 50 million $ shouldn't hurt too much Microsoft, but is money hatting as its best....