Some people may find it difficult to put themselves back together immediately after a three-decade relationship has ended. FIFA, the global governing body for football, which on Tuesday announced an ambitious plan to produce multiple video games under its own brand, with multiple developers and publishers. The announcement came just hours after its former licensing partner, Electronic Arts, announced it was ending its relationship with the organization.
Until now, FIFA had an exclusive licensing agreement with EA for both simulation and non-simulation titles, which meant that no one other than EA could make football video games with the organization’s name and logos. That deal was set to expire this year, but the parties have signed a “short-term extension,” according to FIFA, under which the 23rd title in the franchise will be the last EA game to carry the FIFA brand. EA’s football franchise, which debuted in 1993 with o FIFA International Soccer on Sega Genesis, will be renamed to EA Sports FC from July 2023.
When it’s released this falloh FIFA 23 will not, for the first time, be the only FIFA-branded football game on the market, although it remains the only simulation of the federation. The mentioned extension between the organization and EA, according to themselves “grants rights only to the football simulation category, releasing broader game rights to FIFA and different game publishers to release new games and more immersive experiences for football fans and stakeholders“.
Thus, FIFA announced on Tuesday that “several new non-simulation games are already in production” for release this fall, although it did not name any of the developers or publishers involved. The first of these titles will focus on the 2022 World Cup, which will take place in Qatar from November to December. The federation said it is also in discussions with partners for game projects centered around the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand next summer.
Following the release of these non-simulation games in 2022 and 2023, FIFA’s plan is to have a FIFA-branded simulation football game back on the market in 2024. The organization said it is “currently engaging with leading game publishers.” games, media companies and investors” about the project. It’s worth noting that for over a decade, EA Sports FIFA has had only one real competitor: Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series, which the publisher relaunched in 2021 as eFootball with disastrous results. It will be no easy task for FIFA to find a partner, or for that company to create a soccer simulation game from scratch in just two years – let alone for the game to come close to achieving the depth, breadth and quality of EA games. firmly entrenched franchise.
FIFA had previously signaled that it intended to move to a system of non-exclusive licensing agreements for video games and esports, saying in October 2021 that “this needs to be a space occupied by more than one party controlling all rights”. The organization was responding to EA, which had fired the first salvo a week earlier, when EA Sports boss Cam Weber announced that the publisher was reassessing its long-standing deal with FIFA.
Between releases of these two statements, the New York Times reported that the dispute between the two parties was primarily financial – EA paid approximately $150 million annually to FIFA for the rights, and FIFA was looking to renew the contract at more than double that. . that amount – but also that they disagreed on the extent of the rights. The federation wanted the freedom to explore opportunities in the gaming and esports space outside of its deal for EA’s video games, while EA wanted to keep control of everything related to the federation’s name in the gaming world. After all, for millions of people, the name FIFA is synonymous with EA Sports as an abbreviation for the gaming franchise.
This will likely remain true for some time to come, at least, no matter what EA and FIFA do.
The organization, for its part, included a rash statement from its president, Gianni Infantino, in its announcement on Tuesday:
“I can assure you that the only authentic and real game that bears the FIFA name will be the best available to football players and fans. . The name FIFA is the only original global title. FIFA 23, 24, 25 and 26 and so on – the constant is the FIFA name and it will forever remain and remain the best.”
And while EA Sports FC is a perfectly reasonable name for EA to choose in their rebranding effort, it’s going to be a while before the masses stop referring to the franchise as “FIFA,” especially if FIFA’s own simulation game stumbles upon the initial gate like theeFootball fez.
This article is a translation of the writing by Samit Sarkar to the website Polygon
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