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One of the world\u2019s most popular video games lost the licensing deal that helped make it famous. This is the story of making EA Sports FC 24<\/em>.
By Mark Milian and Cecilia D\u2019Anastasio
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Sitting in a mock living room at his office in Vancouver, John Shepherd gestures to a video game avatar of soccer star Erling Haaland on a screen beside him. He\u2019s especially proud of Haaland\u2019s shorts. Shepherd narrates over a series of animations showing the Norwegian giant kicking and swiveling his hips. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to get that cloth looking physically accurate,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was multiyear development.\u201d
Shepherd has been working on FIFA<\/em>, Electronic Arts Inc.<\/a>\u2019s smash hit soccer franchise, since 2008, after starting at EA as a game tester fresh out of college. By the time his first edition launched, FIFA<\/em> was already 16 years old and an international phenomenon. Now he\u2019s executive producer, and the game is one of the bestselling series in the world\u2014bigger than Minecraft<\/em> or The Sims<\/em>\u2014with more than 375 million copies sold and versions in 20 languages. Snoop Dogg<\/a> and Michael Phelps<\/a> have declared themselves fans. Real-life professional soccer stars protest publicly on social media if they think their virtual equivalent isn\u2019t fast enough. EA has put out at least one new FIFA game every year for the past three decades\u2014until now. On Sept. 29, after the failure of licensing renewal negotiations<\/a>, the company released the first game in the series not called FIFA<\/em>.
The partnership between FIFA<\/em>, the video game, and FIFA, the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de Football Association<\/a>, soccer\u2019s corruption-prone, Zurich-based governing body, was one of the most lucrative in sports media. Like most corporate breakups, the split was mostly about money, with FIFA asking for more than EA was prepared to pay. There were other disagreements, too: EA\u2019s leadership had long chafed at the requirement to run proposed game tweaks past bureaucrats in Zurich, while FIFA feared any loss of control.
The newest edition of the game is called EA Sports FC 24<\/a><\/em> (FC, as in \u201cfootball club\u201d). While it retains almost all the content from previous games\u2014authentic versions of nearly every major club, national team, league, stadium, player, ball, shoe, jersey and, yes, the shorts\u2014you can\u2019t play the World Cup. In interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek<\/em>, EA executives argue that this shouldn\u2019t matter, that their customers care more about the other aspects of professional soccer that FIFA doesn\u2019t control. At the same time, they give the distinct impression that EA would have happily renewed its licensing agreement if only FIFA weren\u2019t asking so much. EA was set to pay $160 million a year for the rights, but FIFA wanted much more, says Michael Pachter<\/a>, an analyst at brokerage Wedbush Securities<\/a>. (EA and FIFA declined to comment on the terms.)
The FIFA<\/em> rebrand comes at a key time for EA and its chairman and chief executive officer, Andrew Wilson<\/a>, an Australian-born veteran of its FIFA<\/em> franchise. The company will likely soon become the most valuable independent game publisher left standing. Microsoft Corp<\/a>. is in the final stages of its $69 billion acquisition<\/a> of Activision Blizzard Inc.<\/a>, which would add Call of Duty<\/em> and Diablo<\/em> to a stable of franchises that already includes Halo<\/em>, Elder Scrolls<\/em> and Minecraft<\/em>. Sony Group Corp.<\/a> has also been steadily buying game studios<\/a>, such as Bungie <\/a>and Insomniac Games<\/a>. Over the past year, EA shares have routinely moved up or down in response to developments in Microsoft\u2019s pursuit of Activision Blizzard\u2014a sign that investors suspect EA could be the industry\u2019s next acquisition target. There\u2019s no clear list of interested suitors, but as EA has a market value of $33 billion, speculation centers on deep-pocketed tech companies<\/a>.
The industry is consolidating, in part, because of the ballooning costs of developing blockbuster games. Meeting the expectations of modern players, who are accustomed to the glossy graphics and sharp play of action-adventure games such as God of War<\/a><\/em>, can require a staff of hundreds, many years of labor, and a budget exceeding $200 million per game. A dud can be devastating.
Consider Haaland\u2019s shorts. \u201cOur shorts used to be super stiff, like they would barely move,\u201d Shepherd explains. The thighs of a more muscular player like Haaland<\/a> would sometimes burst out of his virtual uniform, leaving an odd patch of disembodied flesh on the screen. So a team within EA spent years studying how real cloth deforms on the body, testing ways to replicate it. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult with the yearly cycle to get something every year that has such an investment like cloth,\u201d says Fab Muoio, lead producer on FC<\/em>. And all that work might barely be noticed. Nobody is buying a $70 game for the shorts.
EA\u2019s focus on realism originates with its founder, Trip Hawkins, who started the company in 1982 after leaving a job at Apple Inc<\/a>. A lifelong sports fan, Hawkins spent years courting legendary commentator John Madden<\/a> to persuade him to consult on\u2014and lend his name to\u2014a simulated American football game.
With team rosters and playbooks that mirrored the real National Football League, Madden<\/em>, which continues to be a big seller, pioneered the verisimilitude that\u2019s now standard across the industry. Encouraged by its success, EA began looking toward the much bigger audience, then largely outside the US, that prefers the other kind of football. The company struck a deal with FIFA to use its brand, and, just before Christmas 1993, EA released FIFA International Soccer<\/a><\/em>. It topped the charts in Europe despite what seem to the modern eye like major limitations: Rather than superstars, for example, gamers had to make do with generic names such as P. Stryker.
In 1996, EA asked the flamboyant French forward David Ginola<\/a> to put on a bodysuit and kick around a ball for its cameras, and his performance became the basis for the game\u2019s first use of motion capture. The technology, now commonly used in films and video games, takes the recording of a person\u2019s movements and maps them onto the skeleton of a digital figure to create more realistic action on-screen. Reviewers described the animation as a breakthrough, though it was rudimentary by today\u2019s standards. \u201cWe would just have kicks,\u201d says Paul Baruzzi, a senior gameplay animator. \u201cIt was one animation, and we make the ball go.\u201d
It wasn\u2019t always obvious that EA was destined to corner the soccer market. In the 2000s, Pro Evolution Soccer<\/em>, developed by Japan\u2019s Konami Group Corp.<\/a>, was winning fans with intricate club management features that allowed the trading of players and adjustments of team formations. \u201cIt was a dogfight,\u201d says Peter Moore<\/a>, who ran EA Sports at the time. But even if working with FIFA was annoying\u2014marketing materials and major changes to the game went to Switzerland for a six-week approval process\u2014the brand set EA apart. \u201cWe always worried during that period of time that if we walked away from FIFA, Konami would pick up the FIFA name and leverage the work we\u2019d done,\u201d Moore says. So EA kept reupping with FIFA and added affiliate deals that prevented Konami from using the names, players and jerseys of numerous major clubs. As a result, sales of PES slid as FIFA\u2019s soared.
With its major adversary relegated, EA searched for more revenue from its soccer titles. In addition to putting out a new main title annually, it sold a street soccer version, a standalone product for the World Cup and a short-lived series for the European Champions League. Some years, there would be three EA soccer games to choose from. This soon proved too much for even its biggest fans, who weren\u2019t prepared to pay separately for similar games. Then the company discovered a much more effective way to get customers to consistently shell out money: in-game purchases.
There\u2019s a World Cup tradition dating from the 1970s known as the Panini sticker book. Fans buy packs containing five random stickers of players and try to complete a book of teams designed for each tournament. Inevitably, collectors have duplicates and gaps, so they trade. Think of it as the McDonald\u2019s Monopoly game for the soccer-obsessed. The stickers inspired EA to create a new mode inside the game, FIFA Ultimate Team, which made its debut in 2009. Players assemble a fantasy team by purchasing packs of digital trading cards that can be bought and sold in an in-game marketplace. In 2016 sales of digital goods overtook sales of packaged games. The gap has widened every year since, and these sorts of live services now account for three-quarters of EA\u2019s $7.4 billion in annual revenue. In the 2021 fiscal year, which ended in March, the company generated $1.6 billion from Ultimate Team modes across its suite of games. (The company no longer breaks out Ultimate Team revenue.)
These extra in-game payments also made EA very unpopular. Parents hated the additional requests for money from their kids\u2014and the occasional shock credit card bill. And many gamers disliked the idea of a mode where the player who spent more won more. In 2012 and 2013\u2014the year Wilson took over as CEO\u2014the website Consumerist<\/em> named EA the worst company in America<\/a> and called on it to \u201cstop treating your customers like human piggy banks.\u201d
Despite the grumbles, the popularity of FIFA<\/em> only grew: Sales increased 20% last year, according to Wilson. But in 2021 the company began to seriously contemplate perhaps the biggest change to FIFA<\/em> in its nearly 30-year history, says DJ Jackson, vice president for brand. Talks on a new licensing deal were stalled\u2014and not only over the financial terms. EA wanted to relax the process for running changes by Zurich and expand its use of the FIFA name outside of the game while retaining exclusive access.
Yet even as FIFA struggled to recover from a series of scandals, it worried about giving up too much brand control. Over the previous few years, multiple international soccer officials had pleaded guilty to US criminal charges related to fraud and bribery<\/a>. (A FIFA spokesman says the organization \u201chas implemented extensive reforms\u201d since then.) \u201cCover art every single year would be this long, drawn-out challenge,\u201d Jackson says. \u201cSix swooshes on this piece of content but only one Adidas three-stripe.\u201d How would FIFA\u2019s official licensing partners\u2014which include Adidas AG<\/a>\u2014react?
EA floated in an October 2021 press release the prospect of changing the name of the game<\/a>. This appeared to be, at least in part, a negotiating ploy. The company still hadn\u2019t made up its mind about how to proceed, Jackson says. \u201cThe FIFA license is obviously a big one for us. It was the name of the game for 30 years,\u201d he says. \u201cWe felt that there was a delta between what the organization was asking and what we were prepared to pay.\u201d The final decision was made early last year, and, after much debate, EA announced its new FC<\/em> name a few months later. (One alternative was Copa<\/em>, the Spanish word for cup and the name of many of the most prestigious soccer trophies in Latin America.) It remains an adjustment for many employees, who still call the game FIFA<\/em> out of habit, Jackson says. \u201cThere\u2019s almost a swear jar now.\u201d
By the time the first customers got their hands on the final FIFA <\/em>version in September 2022, work was well underway on FC 24<\/em>. Putting out a new title annually requires a rigid cycle. Production typically starts in early September. That\u2019s when the next game\u2019s major features are decided, and each EA team starts anew. The gameplay division makes adjustments to the controls, the match experience group refines the presentation on the field, then the sound teams capture stadium chants, select the soundtrack and so on.
Much like in the real FIFA, women historically have been an afterthought in the video game. That\u2019s beginning to change as women\u2019s soccer gains in popularity. EA added the first female players in 2015 for the World Cup and women\u2019s clubs last year. In August it pushed an update to FIFA 23<\/em> touting the addition of a hijab for Nouhaila Benzina, a defender for Morocco\u2019s national team. FC 24<\/em> will allow players to deploy women in Ultimate Team and introduces the first headlining female announcer, the Sky Sports commentator Sue Smith.
An important ritual for Sam Rivera, who\u2019s in charge of gameplay for FC<\/em>, is to gather his most devoted customers into a room and listen to them complain. To accomplish this, EA routinely flies professional video game players to Vancouver to solicit their feedback. These conversations influence what the company prioritizes in development. One feature geared toward pros in FC 24<\/em> is called the controlled sprint dribble: a third running speed between jogging and sprinting. Another is precision passing, which allows the player to put spin on the ball. It takes Rivera a full minute to explain all the buttons required to make one of these passes. \u201cWhen you go back to last year\u2019s game and you don\u2019t have that feature, you feel like, \u2018Oh, something is missing,\u2019\u200a\u201d he says. Such changes are intended, in part, to persuade fans to pay to upgrade to the latest release. EA also stops updating the rosters and other features of older games over time, providing another reason to upgrade.
In both good and bad news for EA, gamers so far seem indifferent to the FC 24<\/em> tweaks. While video game review site IGN<\/em> praises the game\u2019s enhanced realism in ball physics, player likeness and field wear and tear, it concludes<\/a> FC<\/em> \u201cis just about the same, frustrating but beautiful game that FIFA<\/em>\u2019s been for many years.\u201d The loudest complaints from fans are about the $30 cost of a special pack of Ultimate Team cards.
But there\u2019s that notable absence: the World Cup. With the FIFA partnership terminated, EA no longer has the right to simulate the federation\u2019s flagship event, the world\u2019s most popular single sporting competition. Previous games allowed players to trace a team\u2019s real passage through the tournament and re-create\u2014or rewrite\u2014some of the most iconic moments. While there\u2019s plenty more to do in the game, as excitement builds for the next men\u2019s World Cup, to be jointly hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico in 2026<\/a>, the gap might start to seem more glaring.
EA\u2019s Vancouver studio occupies a series of buildings, partly connected by elevated walkways and all decorated with sports memorabilia. The company\u2019s UFC<\/em>, NHL<\/em> and Skate<\/em> games are made here along with FC 24<\/em>, and the workspaces look like a college fraternity converted into cubicles. Guys in sweatshirts and ball caps sit at desks next to TV screens and game controllers, with rows of national flags and jerseys hung from the ceiling. The office\u2019s intramural soccer league is technically coed, but there aren\u2019t enough women to balance out the teams. It\u2019s no surprise who the best players are: \u201cThe FC<\/em> dudes,\u201d says Juliana Nogacz, the office\u2019s employee engagement and events lead.
Although the majority of the work on EA\u2019s games is done in Vancouver, some of the online services are developed in Bucharest. A team in Cologne, Germany, is responsible for evaluating players and setting their ratings, which determine how fast their avatars run and how accurate their passes are. The process can be contentious: In September 2022, the French superstar Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a>, who shared the game\u2019s cover that year with Australian women\u2019s captain Sam Kerr, protested his 36% defensive rating. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m not here when we defend?\u201d he said in a YouTube video. \u201cI go take a coffee?\u201d Dzuljeta Tamsone, an assistant producer in Cologne and an ex-Latvian national football player, is used to the complaints: \u201cOur ratings reveal always encourages a spirited discussion,\u201d she says.
In late March, the FC 24<\/em> team was making final preparations for a marketing blitz. Starting Easter weekend, the game would be advertised at 119 televised matches. The ball for the Liverpool-Arsenal English Premier League game would stand on a lime green pedestal featuring the FC 24<\/em> logo. At Real Madrid\u2019s match with Villarreal, Karim Benzema<\/a>, the reigning winner of the Ballon d\u2019Or\u2014an annual award for the world\u2019s best player\u2014would hold an FC 24<\/em> banner with gold tassels by his teeth.\ufeff\ufeff
Also in late March, Wilson hit send on a companywide memo announcing that as part of a restructuring, EA was terminating 6% of its staff<\/a>, about 800 employees. Those were hardly the only tech or media layoffs last spring, but the decision was still a surprise to many in the company. The subsequent reorganization created two distinct development and publishing arms: EA Sports and EA Entertainment. It was clear which one was top dog: What would soon become the entertainment arm had just canceled mobile versions of two of its biggest series, Apex Legends<\/em> and Battlefield<\/em>. It also appeared to be hit harder by the layoffs.
A potential buyer might find the neat division between EA\u2019s valuable sports games and everything else convenient. In an interview, Wilson says that wasn\u2019t a factor, but he adds: \u201cIs it plausible that someone would want to acquire a company like ours at some point? Sure, I mean, if you want to be part of the future of entertainment.\u201d
Outside of sports, EA\u2019s biggest franchise is Star Wars<\/em>. The latest game, Star Wars Jedi: Survivo<\/a>r<\/em>, came out in April and was a bestseller. But Star Wars<\/em>, like the sports leagues, is owned by someone else: in this case, Walt Disney Co.<\/a>, which had a decade-long exclusive licensing deal with EA before letting the agreement expire this year. EA will keep making Star Wars<\/em> games, but it will have competition from NetEase<\/a>, Skydance Media<\/a> and Ubisoft<\/a>.
Could something similar happen with soccer? There\u2019s a real risk that another gaming company will take the FIFA brand and begin selling games under its banner. Still, the complicated nature of sports licensing means it won\u2019t be easy to build a full-throttle competitor. EA has exclusive agreements with many global football leagues and teams, meaning a challenger wouldn\u2019t be able to feature them.
These relationships are key to the biggest technical achievement in FC 24<\/em>. EA had been trying for years to make FIFA<\/em> feel more current, with live rosters that reflect which players are hot and which are warming the bench. Now it\u2019s using an AI-driven technology, HyperMotion V, to capture data from athletes\u2019 actual match performances and incorporate them into animations and gameplay. EA will be able to produce individual representations on a scale that would be logistically impossible with traditional motion capture. FC 24<\/em> now has custom animations for more than 1,200 players, up from about 50 in FIFA 23<\/em>. None of that would happen, of course, without permission from the leagues and teams.
Rivera envisions all sorts of new HyperMotion-powered features. \u201cLet\u2019s say it\u2019s the Champions League final,\u201d he says, \u201cand Haaland scores an amazing goal. We get the data the next day.\u201d From there, a player might be able to see the game through Haaland\u2019s eyes and experience everything he saw on the field at that moment.
HyperMotion can do a lot, but it can\u2019t yet do muscles or hands. For those, EA still uses motion capture. The Vancouver studio typically hires soccer players from nearby colleges, who are asked to strip down to their underwear and run on treadmills. Alternatively, they put on black bodysuits covered with dots and play on the A Stage, an expansive warehouse with cameras suspended on metal beams overhead. Staffers sit on the sidelines in front of computer screens, and the footage is fed into machine-learning software that analyzes muscle flexing or hand movements. \u201cArtificial intelligence is getting to a level of detail that allows us to replicate the motion of each finger in the game,\u201d Rivera says.
All this costs money. Happily for EA, the breakup with FIFA opens possibilities for generating revenue. One example is a new partnership with Nike Inc.<\/a>\u2014something that was impossible when EA was tied to FIFA, which was tied to Adidas. The companies declined to disclose financial terms, but the swoosh is all over FC 2<\/em>4; there\u2019s also a new Nike Ultimate Team campaign mode.
The pressure is on for both commercial and critical success. \u201cWhat are the stakes if FC<\/em> was a flop?\u201d Wilson asks. \u201cIt\u2019s a big part of our company. The stakes are high.\u201d
But Wilson is already looking past FC<\/em> to a world where EA\u2019s empire stretches beyond video games. There\u2019s nothing on the walls of the conference room next to his office in Redwood City, California, but an abstract painting and a whiteboard\u2014colleagues warn that he\u2019s prone to use it. Reaching for a blue felt marker, he draws a circle with spokes representing old media: \u201cbooks, radio, TV, movies, theme parks.\u201d He draws another circle representing a new kind of entertainment company: \u201cplay, create, watch, connect.\u201d This is not exactly a unique insight\u2014see Mattel Inc.<\/a>\u2019s huge success with Barbie<\/em><\/a>, for example. Yet despite EA\u2019s heavy reliance on others\u2019 intellectual property, Wilson says EA is ready for the transition. He professes admiration for Disney and says that even though that company has struggled to make its own video games, much of what it\u2019s doing will survive the shift. He\u2019s especially fond of Disneyland. So when will we be able to visit an EA equivalent? Wilson hesitates, then says: \u201cIt costs a lot to build theme parks.\u201d
Read next: Has Bog Iger Lost the Magic? Inside Disney CEO\u2019s Billion-Dollar Crisis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n