EA Sports, the makers of the famous football-based video game FIFA, had already trademarked the name “EA Sports FC”. Now, it has been made official that EA Sports and FIFA’s agreement won’t be renewed after the upcoming instalment of the game FIFA 23 later this year. FIFA 23 will be the last game from EA Sports under this branding.
The current partnership between EA Sports and FIFA has been extended to cover World Cup but this year’s FIFA 23 could be the last game of the franchise to be released. Starting from July 2023, EA Sports will be launching EA Sports FC which will take the place of the football-based video game.
Do check out: EA Sports FC: Everything you need to know about the new game replacing FIFA 23
EA Sports FC to replace FIFA video games from July 2023
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson said: “Our vision for EA SPORTS FC is to create the largest and most impactful football club in the world, at the epicenter of football fandom. For nearly 30 years, we’ve been building the world’s biggest football community – with hundreds of millions of players, thousands of athlete partners, and hundreds of leagues, federations, and teams. EA SPORTS FC will be the club for every one of them, and for football fans everywhere.”
“We’re thankful for our many years of great partnership with FIFA. The future of global football is very bright, and fandom around the world has never been stronger. We have an incredible opportunity to put EA SPORTS FC at the heart of the sport, and to bring even more innovative and authentic experiences to the growing football audience.”
According to a report by the New York Times, FIFA wanted to charge EA $1 billion to let them use the FIFA license within its game. Additionally, the organization wanted to limit EA Sports’ monetization of the game. EA Sports wants to explore monetizing, “highlights of actual games, arena video game tournaments and digital products like NFTs” the New York Times says.
However, EA Sports’s partnership with FIFA is different from its other official partnerships. So the loss of FIFA wouldn’t mean the loss of official teams and player names. This license only gives EA Sports the name, logo, and rights to use the World Cup within the game.
EA Sports FC will come out in 2023, which will more likely be an interactive form of gaming in collaboration with more than 300 partners across the world of soccer.
According to a report by BBC, it will most probably offer players the ability to watch real-life matches, experience Fortnite-like in-game events, and give users a broader range of branded in-game items. However, major FIFA events, like the World Cup, will not be included.
So losing this partnership won’t affect EA Sports much. However, the word “FIFA” has become synonymous with EA Sports’ football game and changing it would be a massive step.
