FIFA has released a statement following the news earlier today that its partnership with EA will end after the release of FIFA 23. In the statement, they state that the future will allow for it to partner with other publishers for a new football simulation game from 2024 onward, so while EA has ditched the increasingly costly license, the FIFA brand is not dead in the gaming world.
In the immediate future, we will still have FIFA 23, a final EA-produced game that will feature both the men’s and women’s FIFA World Cups – the men’s in Qatar this winter and the women’s in Australia and New Zealand next summer. Alongside that, FIFA has licensed some non-sim games that will come out in the third quarter of this year. After that, the football sim license can be passed around to other publishers, and FIFA is absolutely certain that they’re going to be a bajillion times better than EA’s new EA Sports FC brand.
Gianni Infantino, FIFA President, said: “I can assure you that the only authentic, real game that has the FIFA name will be the best one available for gamers and football fans. The FIFA name is the only global, original title. FIFA 23, FIFA 24, FIFA 25 and FIFA 26, and so on – the constant is the FIFA name and it will remain forever and remain THE BEST.
“The interactive gaming and esports sector is on a path of unrivalled growth and diversification. FIFA’s strategy is to ensure we can make the most of all future options and ensure a wide range of products and opportunities for gamers, fans, member associations and partners.”
The big question is who they can turn to with the license. If they wanted an established developer, then Konami’s football series could be an option, even though the new free-to-play eFootball has had a rough launch, but they could also try to get a new company involved. The obvious choice there would be 2K due to its experience with sporting titles such as NBA 2K and WWE 2K. It also works from a business perspective; 2K has a lot of experience with making as much money as possible from its sports titles, to put it lightly.
When the news broke earlier 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.”
coruscant
FIFA really are laughable, aren’t they?
Andrewww
Well, everyone knows FIFA are an incredibly greedy bunch of bast****, their only goal is the money and not football. So, there’s no surprise about this split-up, and it’s a little obvious what they’re trying to do here.