EA confirms FIFA will be renamed EA Sports FC
(Pocket-lint) — It's finally been confirmed that EA is dropping the name FIFA from its flagship football (or soccer) game series, which will be renamed EA Sports FC.
The change has been detailed in a lengthy piece from The New York Times, then confirmed by EA itself, but there are still plenty of questions to be answered about what player likenesses and clubs will be included in the game officially.
The key information for most fans is that it looks like the vast majority of clubs will likely still end up in FIFA officially, given the agreements it has in place with organisations like the Premier League in the UK and the Champions League.
After all, between individual leagues, UEFA and other footballing bodies, the picture on rights is incredibly complex. Whether this means a rival like Konami's sketchily-reborn eFootball (formerly PES) series will snap up a partnership with FIFA itself will remain to be seen.
The split between EA and FIFA after 20 years of partnership has been rumoured for months after reports that FIFA was demanding a doubling of its fees alongside ever more prominent branding, something that EA might have seen as diluting its own position.
However, it does mean that events like the FIFA World Cup will presumably not be in EA Sports FC games when they do happen, which EA will have accepted at this point.
FIFA 23 will therefore be the last named entry with FIFA branding, given that the ongoing deal still runs until after Qatar 2022, so once that game comes out we'll have to get ready for a new era.
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