FIFA declares that whichever game is called FIFA will be 'the best'
Yesterday, EA announced that its current licensing deal with FIFA is ending: There will be a FIFA 23 later this year, but from 2023 onwards the long-running football series will be rebranded as EA Sports FC. This marks the end of an incredibly successful partnership. Over decades, EA has made billions and constructed a true industry juggernaut, while also adding immeasurable value to FIFA's brand.
The split comes with an element of risk for EA, and is a disaster for FIFA, which now has to either build a competitor from scratch or wave goodbye forever to the billions of dollars that the series has generated.
«We've got over 150 million players across unique accounts, and so when we think about the future of football right now, we really made this decision on the basis of being able to deliver experiences that our players wanted,» said EA CEO Andrew Wilson on an investors call after the announcement. «They told us they wanted more modalities of play, they told us they wanted to see more commercial partners in the game that are representative and authentic to the broad global world of football. They're telling us they want us to move beyond just the core experience and really build out the digital football experience, and they're telling us they want us to move really really fast.»
Wilson paid a bit of lip service to FIFA and the decades-long partnership between the two organisations but, as we'll see, FIFA itself is not being quite so gracious. Wilson was then asked in the Q&A by investors about the risks inherent in re-branding an incredibly successful product, and marketing the game without the FIFA license.
«I think it's a little early to tell yet,» said Wilson. «We're certainly being very thoughtful and deliberate
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