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.
