After a bit of a slip up yesterday, EA has officially let the cat out of the bag and announced that 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa is currently in development, and will be available in April on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP and mobile platforms.

2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa will feature all 199 national teams that took part in the qualification rounds leading up to the World Cup, as well as the stadiums from each qualifying region, so players will be able to recreate the qualifiers and carry their team right through to the World Cup Final, playing through all 10 of the official South African stadiums to get there.

The game also includes, for the first time ever, a full and authentic online World Cup tournament, so you can do battle with players in rival countries by fighting your way through the group stages and knockout rounds online, for a chance to become the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa champion… virtually, of course.

Another neat innovation this time around is the fact that altitude differences will play a part and affect player fatigue and ball flight, while teams will have access to both home and away strategies and situational tactics.

2010 Fifa World Cup will be available in North America on April 27th, and Asia and Europe beginning April 30th, with more than enough time to get ready for the real Fifa World Cup to kick off in South Africa in June!

Browse through the rest of the newly released screenshots for EA’s 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa below, and also be sure to read through a list of the new and improved features injected into this edition as you go:

Pitch Improvements:

• A gorgeous new pitch: Our pitch simply wasn’t good enough, so we’ve made it look superb.
• Lighting of the players and environment: Clever changes to the lighting makes everything look more realistic.
• Camera flashes: You’ll see all the fans in the crowd using their cameras.
• Seat cards: Fans hold up cards to form national flags and emblems in a show of patriotism.
• Fans: Close-up shots on supporters cheering on their team or despairing in anguish.
• Confetti rains down from the sky in the team colors and stays on the pitch all game.
• Streamers create a carnival atmosphere as they glide to the ground.
• Populated benches: Characters sit on the benches rather than being empty.
• Broadcast graphics: The same captions you’ve seen in FIFA tournament broadcasts.
• Close-up celebration camera: To really feel the goal-scoring moment, the camera zooms in close to the player as he responds to your celebration commands.
• New players and managers: More content for star heads and many of the team managers.[England national team manager Fabio] Capello looks brilliant, and [notoriously tall English footballer] Peter Crouch no longer looks like a naughty elf.

Responsiveness

• New chest traps that allow you to chest the ball in the direction you want to go rather than having to take midair touches after a chest to change direction.
• The ability to let a ball drop over your shoulder and move off in the direction of ball travel. Great for preserving momentum with lofted through balls.
• Improved the problem of trapping the ball too far and being “stunned,” then taking too long to go and dribble the ball.
• Defensively players will now clear an aerial ball rather than do a chest trap first when you are asking for a clearance.

Goalkeeper:

• Improved the “narrowing down the angle” logic so the keeper doesn’t come out so soon and so far, making him vulnerable to the chip shot.
• Ability to change his save direction if there is a deflection.
• Added variety to punching, which results in punches sometimes not clearing the ball out of danger.

CPU Teams:

• Added more skill moves for the CPU to use depending on a player’s flair attribute or trait.
• Better understanding of game context and situation, resulting in more intelligent changes of tactics/mentality.
• Manager now looks at who he has as subs and will attempt to give star players on the bench some playing time (i.e. Fabregas for Spain; Pato for Brazil). Previously he would rely solely on match rating and fatigue, leading to unrealistic substitutions or the same one over and over again.

Positioning:

• Teammates will now take more factors into account when looking into space inside the box when they are making a run for a cross to be delivered. I can verify how exciting this is having seen the way that Emile Heskey bulldozed his way onto the end of a cross in Andorra the other day.
• Improved marking for when the CB pushes up to the ball possessor when he shouldn’t, leaving the team vulnerable to an easy through ball and 1-on-1 with the GK.

Shooting:

• Improved the realism of where players strike the ball to give more off-center strikes leading to more swerve and variety in ball trajectory.
• Changed the chip shot to make it more challenging and also to improve the feel of it—more backspin, better trajectory.

Passing:

• Added personality to crosses to allow better players to put in more driven crosses into the box.
• Added chest and shoulder passes.
• Lowered the amount of power you can get on backwards crosses and backwards lofted through balls, forcing you to roughly have to face the way you want to pass it to for these types of kicks to succeed.

Set Pieces:

• Ability to trigger a teammate run on a quick free kick.
• Lowered the likelihood of the CPU scoring from FKs—they were too good.

Source: Gamespot