EA Sports announced today that the football title it publishes in 2023 would be part of the new EA Sports FC brand, abolishing the FIFA name the series has been using since the days of the Sega Genesis and Super NES. The announcement marks a significant break for one of the oldest and most popular ongoing franchises in video game history.
“We are grateful for our many years of great partnership with FIFA,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in a statement. “The future of global football is very bright and fandom around the world has never been stronger. We have an incredible opportunity to EA Sports FC at the heart of the sport and to bring even more innovative and authentic experiences to the growing football audience.”
EA’s upcoming FIFA-less football game will still have “more than 300 individual licensed partners, giving players access to more 19,000 athletes across 700 teams, in 100 stadiums and more than 30 leagues around the world.” Those partners include major international leagues such as the Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, UEFA, CONMEBOL and more.
Aside from the name on the cover, the new branded game will also not miss an official reference to the World Cup, the quadrennial international tournament hosted by FIFA. EA partners with FIFA to release separate branded products FIFA world cup titles every four years from 1998 to 2014 and introduced a separate World Cup mode for its lucrative Ultimate Team digital card game for FIFA 14† That integration expanded into a broader World Cup update in FIFA 18†
Reports suggest: FIFA 23Launching later this year as EA’s last FIFA-licensed game, it will further expand the World Cup mode to include the Women’s World Cup for the first time in franchise history. “Our final FIFA product will also include more game modes, features, teams, leagues, players and leagues than any previous edition,” EA said in a statement.
A bitter divorce
EA’s split with FIFA isn’t exactly a surprise. The gaming mega-publisher publicly said it was “reviewing our naming rights agreement with FIFA” last October amid reports of clashes over exclusivity and licensing fees. And a February report suggested that Wilson told EA staff that the FIFA license has “prevented our ability to branch out into the areas players want” in terms of gameplay.
Even the specific EA Sports FC branding is no surprise; the term popped up in trademark filings last year, and VentureBeat journalist Jeff Grubb confirmed the name in a March chat with Giant Bomb.
Last year, The New York Times reported that FIFA asked EA to double the $150 million it was already paying annually for the rights to its brand name. Meanwhile, EA reportedly started to wonder how much value the FIFA name brought to its popular gaming franchise.
“Basically, what we get from FIFA in a non-World Cup year is the four letters on the front of the box, in a world where most people don’t even see the box anymore because they buy the game digitally,” Wilson said. told workers at a meeting in November.
Perhaps ahead of today’s announcement, FIFA announced yesterday that it is already working with new partners on “non-simulation” football games launching later this year. That wording is reminiscent of Take-Two’s 2020 announcement of the return of the NFL2K franchise, that will make ends meet EA’s Exclusive License for NFL Simulation Games by offering ‘non-simulation football game experiences’.
But FIFA also says it is “in talks with leading game publishers, media companies and investors regarding the development of a major new FIFA simulation football game title for 2024.” The organization also says it will continue the convention of numbered annuals FIFA game releases with its new partners.
“I can assure you that the only authentic, real game bearing the FIFA name is the best for gamers and football fans,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement on Monday. “The FIFA name is the only global, original title. FIFA 23† FIFA 24† FIFA 25and FIFA 26and so on – the constant is the FIFA name and it will remain and remain forever best†
EA’s partnership with FIFA dates back to 1993 FIFA international footballfollowed by annual releases and occasional spin-offs such as FIFA Street† The only game series with a comparable uninterrupted annual series of releases is EA Madden NFL franchise, which began in 1988 and will maintain that branding despite the death of John Madden late last year.
