Some people may find it difficult to put themselves back out there immediately after the breakup of a three-decade relationship. Not FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, which on Tuesday announced an ambitious plan to produce multiple FIFA-branded video games with various developers and publishers – just hours after its former licensing partner Electronic Arts announced it was ending its relationship with FIFA.
Previously, FIFA had maintained an exclusive licensing agreement with EA for both sim and non-sim titles, which meant that nobody but EA could produce soccer video games with FIFA’s name and logos on them. That deal was due to expire this year, but the parties have signed a “short-term extension,” according to FIFA FIFA 23 will be the last EA game to carry FIFA branding. EA’s soccer franchise that debuted in 1993 with FIFA International Soccer on Sega Genesis, will be renamed EA Sports FC from July 2023.
When it releases this fallFIFA 23 will – for the first time – not be the only FIFA football video game on the market, although it will be the only FIFA branding simulation game in the market. The above-mentioned renewal between FIFA and EA “only grants rights for the football simulations category and frees up broader game rights for FIFA and various game publishers to bring new games and even more immersive experiences to the market for fans and football stakeholders,” the said FIFA.
Accordingly, FIFA announced on Tuesday that “a number of new non-simulation games are already in production” to be released this fall, although it did not name any of the developers or publishers involved. The first of these titles focuses on the 2022 World Cup, which will take place in Qatar from November to December. FIFA is also in talks with partners for gaming projects surrounding the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which will be held in Australia and New Zealand next summer. (Both tournaments appear in FIFA 23 also.)
After the launch of these non-simulation games in 2022 and 2023, FIFA plans to launch a FIFA-branded simulation football game again in 2024 according to the project. It’s worth noting that EA Sports FIFA has had only one real competitor for more than a decade: Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series, which the publisher relaunched in 2021 eSoccer
Fifa had previously signaled a change a system of non-exclusive license agreements for video games and esports, who said in October 2021 that “this has to be a space occupied by more than one party controlling all rights”. The organization returned fire at EA, which fired the first salvo a week earlier, when EA Sports boss Cam Weber announced the publisher was re-evaluating its long-standing agreement with FIFA.
Between the publication of these two statements, the New York Times reported that the dispute between the two parties was primarily a financial one – EA paid FIFA about $150 million annually for the rights, and FIFA wanted to renew the contract for more than double that amount – but also, that they disagreed on the extent of the rights. FIFA wanted the freedom to explore gaming and esports opportunities outside of their EA video game agreement, while EA wanted to retain control of everything FIFA-related in the gaming world. After all, for millions of people, the name FIFA is synonymous with EA Sports as an acronym for the gaming franchise.
That’s likely to remain the case for at least some time, no matter what EA and FIFA do.
For its part, FIFA added to its announcement on Tuesday a stormy statement from its president, Gianni Infantino: “I can assure you that the only authentic, real game to bear the FIFA name will be the best for players and football fans alike. The FIFA name is the only worldwide original title. FIFA 23, FIFA 24, FIFA 25 and FIFA 26 and so on – the constant is the FIFA name and it will stay forever and will remain THE BEST.”
And while EA Sports FC is a perfectly reasonable name for EA in its rebranding efforts, it will be a while before the masses stop calling the franchise “FIFA,” especially when FIFA’s own simulation game stumbles out of the starting gate like that eSoccer did.
