The romance between Electronic Arts and FIFA for the future of its football video game franchise adds a new chapter. It is that the developer studio would remain firm in its decision to cut ties with the parent entity of world football after the launch of FIFA 23and he would have already chosen the name of his next titles. Then I’ll come on stage EA Sports Soccer Club.
The novelty was known by journalist Jeff Grubb (via VGC), who asserted that EA has already given the green light to the name that the saga will adopt Fifa since 2023. According to the specialist, the company will opt for the aforesaid EA Sports Soccer Clubwith the possibility of seeing it also stylized as EA Sports FC.
This is consistent with what was already mentioned in October last year; there they started talking that Electronic Arts was analyzing the abandonment of the hit franchise Fifa after more than 20 years. Already then it was reported that the developers had registered the trademark EA Sports FC with the UK Intellectual Property Office.
“I saw the trademarks and thought they might only refer to a feature of the game, like online mode. But I did some research and […] that’s the name of the game,” Grubb said. and added that at EA they are ready to move on. Moreover, he predicted that there may soon be official news about it.
That Electronic Arts remain firm in abandoning the brand Fifa It seems a faithful testament to his strained relationship with the world’s main footballing entity. As we learned in recent months, FIFA allegedly put pressure on EA to pay you more money for using your brand. It was even mentioned that developers would have to shell out $2.5 billion every 10 years.
Added to this was leaked statements from Andrew Wilson, the CEO of EA, who allegedly said that the only thing FIFA brought to the game was “four letters in a box”, especially in years without a World Cup. Basically, the director would have removed all sorts of relevance from the entity chaired by Gianni Infantino; and would even have assured that using this brand would have limited its expansion plans beyond traditional game modes.
If indeed Electronic Arts leans towards EA Sports Soccer Club Where EA Sports FC, it wouldn’t mean losing a lot of content beyond the main title. Please note that use of player likenesses and names is guaranteed by the most recent renewal of the agreement with FIFPro; while licenses for teams, stadiums and competitions are negotiated separately with the different parties involved. Today, EA has over 300 different licensing agreements for the FIFA series.
Logically, if the developers go ahead with their plan to rename the most important football video game franchise of decades, they will no longer be able to exploit the rights to the World Cup. Therefore, it is assumed that FIFA 23 this would be the last title under this nomenclature. And we would also have to see how it would be renamed FIFA UltimateTeam (FUT), which is the golden goose for EA.
As the current agreement between Electronic Arts and FIFA expires in November, after the contest to be held in Qatar, the studio would take the opportunity to launch its latest game with the World Cup as a playable contest. Moreover, we assume that the successor of FIFA 22 would happen for the first time with two world cups; is that this year’s men’s tournament would be joined by the women’s tournament, which will take place in 2023 in Australia and New Zealand.
