
One headline sending shockwaves through the video game industry (and football world) today is EA's split with FIFA.
As we've already heard, Electronic Arts will be dropping the FIFA branding from its name in favour of 'EA Sports FC'. It's touted as the "future of interactive football", but it seems FIFA could have other ideas.
According to reports, FIFA is already working with other third-party developers to launch brand new football games, with plans to release these titles (including non-simulated ones) in Q3 2022. It's also aiming to release some games in 2023 and is hoping to have a simulated title ready to go by 2024 (via Polygon).
FIFA's president Gianni Infantino has issued a response - assuring football fans there'll only ever be one "authentic" FIFA game:
"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 [soccer] 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"
FIFA 23 will be EA's final FIFA game, and after this the series will be known as 'EA Sports FC'. At this stage, it's unclear how FIFA would potentially compete with EA's title which already has a licensing portfolio of more than 19,000+ players, 700+ teams, 100+ stadiums and 30 leagues.
How are you feeling about this news at this point? Do you think FIFA will get by without EA? What about EA without FIFA attached to its name? Kick-off the discussion in the comments below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 59
I told ya. This departure leaves the door open for someone else to take a big slice of ea’s football pie.
The FIFA series is about to get its own version of the Harvest Moon confusion.
@HeeHo : Story of Football Seasons?
Now if only EA would lose the NFL license.
@HeeHo If FIFA could partner with a better dev then who cares about what EA had to offered. Competition will only make soccer games better, reason why EA FIFA sucks is cause they had a monopoly on the market and would not change. Now that FIFA and EA are separate that means they are going to compete for the same market, one would had to top the other one and in all of this the consumers will win cause they had options now.
Very arrogant statement from FIFA. They really think they were responsible for the success of the game series. It shows exactly why EA had to split with them.
For once I am totally on EA's side here, as the slightly lesser evil organization / cooperation.
Regarding computer sports titles, the game always wins over the branding. History has shown that again and again.
Does anyone still play Championship manager these days, or is this brand totally dead?
FIFA will have a hard time, finding a decent developer for their games, that is also willing to pay that license fee EA declined.
If EA was to loose the license for all the clubs and player names, they would be in more trouble. But they do not. The FIFA brand itself is of lesser value than that.
Then we will see, whatˋs really the selling point.
Good riddance. Hopefully these new developers will make good football games rather than the recycled garbage EA have been spewing out.
The only shockwaves I felt when I heard this news were shockwaves of sheer delight.
EA are the ones who will be successful here. How well are Eidos doing with Championship Manager?
Also for all those hating EA here I guarantee you FIFA are worse. Would bet a lot the first game they release is a total money grab.
Never been big on sports games but I did really enjoy FIFA street on the ps2
I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how hilariously terrible the first non-EA FIFA game is inevitably going to be.
Maybe Fifa on Switch will actually be decent again now.
Next Level Games, published by Nintendo, Switch exclusive
Ahh yes, FIFA, the ONLY authentic, heavily corrupt name.
While I'm not a fan of either FIFA or EA, I do hope they find a decent developer.
The football game genre is in desperate need of some competition.
@dres I agree FIFA are being arrogant, but they are still correct. The challenge EA has now is securing enough leagues, stadiums, players and teams at a reasonable cost and hoping the offer is enough for fans - they seem to be off to a good start, but I haven't seen Ligue 1 in France or Serie A in Italy mentioned yet... nor the Championship or Scottish PL? Sounds like there WILL be gaps...
The reality is, if a fan doesn't have their team available, they will think twice about buying the game. EA can go on about the quality of their game all they want... it's ultimately an algorithm. People are already seeing through it, and if you add to that missing teams then sales will drop further.
That's before you even get into the PS5 and Xbox Series install base being so low still... that will also be eating into EA profits.
How long will it take another developer to build a game? Lets give FIFA a huge amount of goodwill and assume they have a deal in place right now with another developer (which I doubt is realistic) then what is the turn around time to get to the same level as EA FIFA?
The amount of money involved here means this argument/story will go on for some time yet.
The arrogance of Fifa saying the game will remain the best when they are yet to release anything away from EA... Ok Fifa, what do you base this on. 🤔 It's just words currently I'm afraid.
Just hope EA's final FIFA has a World Cup mode.
FIFA have likely cut off their nose to spite their face, I genuinely can’t see another developer wanting to buy the license.
I have as my much interest in soccer games as I would a paint drying simulator but glad to see FIFA doing this because, well, F EA.
I'm pretty sure whoever FIFA partners with will indeed beat out EAs cashgrabs (same switch game for how many years now) due solely on rosters. Nobody wants to play made up people in a sports game, they want to play with their heros, so losing the FIFA license will most likely kill EAs game.
Nice slap in the face to EA, they deserve it. Unless of course still sells them the rights to the teams and such, which in that case it's all pointless.
I don't care who picks it up as long as it's not EA...and not riddled with micro-transactions. Just give us a normal, darn good football game.
Can't wait for Mario Strikers btw
@SteamEngenius I think you’re a bit confused. EA are the one with all of the licenses for players, stadiums, leagues etc. Any developer partnering with FIFA would quite literally just get the name.
@dres Yeah. FIFA had big mouth vs EA earlier too and said they never liked EA and yet they charged EA for 30 year of licensing... I'm easily with EA against FIFA. FIFA isn't even able to behave professionally and they are like cry babies in media.
Football generally is known to be among the most greedy thing you can ever encounter on the planet.
In fact they are so greedy with their insane demands that they lost 30-40% of Premium viewers in Norway last month, and they are stupid that they think they have the upper hand. Football industry currently bleeds money here and not the ISP.
lol. Thing is. They want 100% of the population to pay for Premium football, including those who never watch football ever. A premium football sub can cost as much as 100$ extra monthly on top of existing TV sub. Insane.
Did you know that even very small football pubs need to pay a meaty amount of money for being allowed to show football on TV?
Anyways. 2K is probably the only one that will consider FIFA with their GTA 5 money, but as we know 2K doesn't make much great sports games anymore so 2K + FIFA combo will probably leave a bad taste.
Another thing is that games like FIFA have no longevity for sales, because there is a new one every year.
Konami? I do not think there are any other viable options if they want to build a big football game their fans are used to. Starting from scratch seems to be impossible to me, it would never get released, and/or would be light years behind expectations.
The worst game company parting with the worst sport governing body. Oh no./s
@gergelyv Nah. 2K is more likely.
Also. Did you try newest Konami football game "eFootball"? It's one of the worst football games ever made.
@Maulbert This comment went out of fashion and expired 10 years ago... Time to update this comment..
Secondly.. EA isn't the worst.
And besides, football industry is more greedy than any game publisher on the planet.
@Zyph Due to the insane licensing costs of FIFA, they are forced to fill any FIFA game with transactions.
Remember football games loses sale value quickly, so they need to rely on in game transactions instead to cover the costs.
@nocdaes
I think EA secured all the licenses for players and club football through FIFPro? And that deal hasn't changes, as far as I am aware of? But EA will not be able to make any World Cup special mode or editions anymore.
So the new EA Sports FC games should not be much different from previous FIFA games, except the branding on the box. And if that is the case, then EA will be doing just fine. They do not need the FIFA license at all.
FIFA on the other hand, greedy and arrogant as they are, really do not have a strong position now. They will loose a lot of brand recognition over this in the future, and I do not think their football game will be any good. But let's see. Competition is not a bad thing at all.
Amazing how many people don't read the article and then comment on how ea will struggle without the licences....🤫
They should have renamed it Football is Forever, Always!. Or FIFA! for short
Blur - Song 2: that's what made FIFA games huge, it was not fifa themselves nor EA.
@dres
Agreed.
The only issue I see for EA here is the potential confusion of many casual fans (of which there are a lot).
Imagine the name is sold to Konami and they release a "FIFA 23" next, while EA releases "EA Sports FC 23".
There are probably quite a few people who don't realize what is going on and just buy (Konami) "FIFA 23".
I don't think this will happen for several years in a row though, unless that (Konami) "FIFA 23" somehow manages to be better than EAs game, convincing the new players to stay.
@nocdaes All that stuff is irrelevant. All the FIFA license gets you is the name FIFA and the World Cup every four years. And FIFA wanted a billion dollars for four years of the license.
The leagues, clubs and players are licensed from other organisations.
I really hope the licence goes to the ‘Behold the Kickmen’ guy.
Anyone who reads the FIFA statement and actually thinks they have bright future with video games is delusional.
Yeah they will work with other developers for sure. It's gonna be mobile games all over the place with FIFA licensed content
@Ventilator I was thinking that creating all the models, animations, and polished gameplay is probably an insane amount of work. 2K would start from scratch, no? The FIFA series is basically the same game that has been updated for decades. My gut feeling is that there is no way to catch up with that in a matter of one or two years. I know PES is in bad shape currently but at least they have a lot of experience, and many things to build on. And all this speculation ignores the problem of all the licenses for the teams, leagues, and players.
@gergelyv yeah the cost of creating brand new game plus add all the licensing etc etc is insane.
No publisher is gonna take that risk trying to compete with EA.
FIFA will now be mobile games for sure
FIFA & EA are so arrogant
FIFA2K incoming.
I see no problems with this. So long Fifa legacy crap. Maybe 2k can create a football game. Maybe Konami can get their poop together and kill off eFootball.
@SteamEngenius " a paint drying simulator". Y'know. This is Linda genius. I guarantee if someone made this and put it for sale $1, enough daft/curious people would try it. . Works for such screens. "no the paint is still wet"
I can't believe that FIFAr are finally ditching EA.
@gergelyv Yeah. It would take a long time only to figure out the correct gameplay, and at the same time it has to be better than EA one.
It have never been as hard to make it from scratch as now as it also have to utilize newest consoles and PC's while it have to run at minimum 60 FPS with near photo realistic graphics.
My guess it could take 4-5 years with a huge skilled team and it still might not even be as good as the EA one.
I also think it would need as high budget as some of the most expensive AAA Games.
There is a reason FIFA didn't have much competition for over 20 years. Football is too expensive to gamble on, and this is why we got games like Rocket League, Mario Strikers etc. instead as none of them competes with FIFA.
@Chozo Your EA hate shines here as you ignored the article and made up your own lie that isn't related to this news.
It's EA ditching FIFA.
It were known for a long time that EA were gonna boot FIFA.
This can only be good. I don't care if the game has FIFA in the title, a great game is a great game. Will see now if EA was doing a good job...
@Ventilator @gergelyv You also need to consider whoever comes in is trying to hit a moving target, whatever you think of EA and the current game, they are going to continue to improve it, so the game in 2, 3 and 4 years time should be better than what it is now...
@Kirgo you make a good point regarding casual gamers confusion, but EA are probably calculating that they can take an x% drop in sales and still make more money to due FIFA asking so much for the licence.
Eco Shooter Football Club featuring "recycled materials"
If I was an EA investor I would be extremely concerned about the future of the company. Their core business is FIFA and Madden and those are in flux. Their shooters have all bombed and they didn't diversify by making more games. They have Respawn until they choke it to death like Bioware and Popcap and Maxis, etc.
EA may regret not investing onto the Switch given it is thr 5th best selling console of all time! Where is Classic Battlefront? Where are the Sims?
The Switch is the first Nintendo Console (not including wii u) since the N64 to not have a Sims game.
And yet these publishers keeping doing the same thing over and over chasing fads like NFT and loot boxes. They just want to be Sega and make gambling games.
Just wait for FIFA 2K next year!
Read: Find someone else who will pay FIFA $1 billion for their name.
@SwitchplayerJohn if you was an EA investor would you be happy to see EA pay FIFA $250m per year?
EA doesn't need FIFA to sell its football game. they will be perfectly fine without the FIFA license
EA is releasing the same game with minor improvements each year. now after 29 installments their formula is quite solid. People will follow EA but if Fifa releases a cheaper version with 2k sports something or Konami it will be a success too
International Super Star Soccer for SNES is way better. 😚
Not an EA fan, but boy does FIFA make them look good in comparison!
FIFA's interminable entanglement with bribery, corruption and money laundering makes them one of the most dislikable organisations in the world.
I'll probably stick to Mario Strikers...
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