Confirming recent rumors that FIFA and EA were at an impasse in negotiations moving forward, FIFA today announced that it would be parting ways with EA Sports and more importantly the game that has worn the organization’s name since 1993.
An official statement released by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association reads:
FIFA is bullish and optimistic about its long-term future in gaming and esports following a comprehensive and strategic assessment of the gaming and interactive entertainment market. it is clear that this needs to be a space that is occupied by more than one party controlling all rights.
According to recent reports, FIFA was looking to increase its profits by licensing its organization, which was previously 150 million per year. They were looking to make a billion dollars every four years which would nearly double their yearly profits. It is estimated that the EA Sports franchise turns a profit of two billion every year making this increase a drop in the bucket against the profits they were making.
In actuality, the biggest hindrance to any sort of agreement was most likely new profit models pitched by EA that and deal with FIFA would have required to be excluded. These would have included highlights of actual games as well as digital items like NFT’s.
FIFA went on to say that in light of how eSports are growing they have no intention to leave the video game industry. It is unclear what the future of the company will look like in the industry, but it appears, for now, they will look for somewhere else to bring their brand. EA trademarked EA Sports FC in preparation for such a split, only losing the rights to the FIFA Branding and the FIFA World Cup but not any of the Clubs or Players.
Recently the Konami franchise PES (In The West) underwent a rebranding as well. Now called eFootball it was released free-to-play in September and was plagued with issues that it is hoping to be able to fix soon. Another football franchise is also set to release free-to-play as well, entitled UFL. Apart from its announcement very little has been showcased on that title. If FIFA rejoins the market with a new developer that will make four franchises occupying the space in total.
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