Germany will win World Cup, according to FIFA game simulation

Most bookies fancy Brazil or perhaps Argentina to win the 2014 World Cup, which begins next week. But FIFA 14 publisher Electronic Arts has other ideas.

In time-honored tradition, the company today published a pre-tournament prediction, based on "the award-winning EA Sports football engine that drives FIFA" games. After running simulations of the 32-team tournament, the video game team most likely to win in real life is Germany.

"EA was able to simulate the 2014 FIFA World Cup and test all 32 teams under the same conditions they will face in the weeks ahead in Brazil," stated the company. "It was determined that Germany will defeat Brazil 2-1 (ET) at the Estádio do Maracanã on July 13 to win the country's fourth FIFA World Cup, becoming the first European nation to win the FIFA World Cup on South American soil."

EA points out that four years ago, the company "accurately predicted that Spain would prevail as the tournament champions." At that time, Spain was considered a hot favorite to win the World Cup.

The company's other predictions include Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior of Brazil winning the Golden Boot (most goals scored) with six goals and Spain's Andrés Iniesta scoring the tournament's best goal, versus England.

Here are EA Sports' full predictions from the knockout rounds.

Final

Brazil 1 - 2 Germany (ET)

3rd Place Game

Portugal 1 - 3 Spain

Semi Finals

Brazil 1 - 0 Portugal

Spain 0 - 0 Germany (Germany 5-4 pens)

Quarter Finals

Brazil 2 - 2 Uruguay (Brazil 4-3 pens)

Portugal 4 - 3 Nigeria

England 0 - 2 Spain

Germany 2 - 1 Argentina

Round of 16

Brazil 3 - 1 Netherlands

Ivory Coast 2 - 3 Uruguay

France 0 - 1 Nigeria

Portugal 2 - 0 Russia

Spain 3 - 1 Mexico

England 1 - 1 Colombia (England 4-3 pens)

Argentina 2 - 0 Ecuador

Belgium 1 - 2 Germany