The naming agreement between FIFA and EA Sports expires in December 2022. Meanwhile, Andrew Wilson, EA CEO, has confirmed that a new contract will not be reached.
EA vs FIFA
We already reported in October that there was a name dispute between the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the game publisher EA Sports. Recently, the site VGC published some statements Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, made to his employees. His quotes exacerbate the disagreement between the world federation and the still-manufacturer of the FIFA series for the gaming world.
The shock sits deep. For us, at least. We have been playing the popular soccer simulation FIFA for three different decades. My personal first FIFA was FIFA 2002, and after exactly 20 years is then probably end of fun: EA does not want to extend the contract with FIFA.
EA boss confirms: EA and FIFA go separate ways
The contract poker between FIFA and EA did not work out. But who has lost? FIFA or EA? Or both? Only time will tell. As of now, the facts look like this: The existing contract between the two parties has been running since 2013 and expires on Dec. 31, 2022, and an extension seems almost completely out of the question. Wilson describes the current deal as an “obstacle”.
After FIFA 23 is the end
Since the current paper is still valid until the end of 2022, we assume that EA will publish the last game in this series with FIFA 23. To what extent there are clauses in the contract that say what happens to a published game outside of the valid contract, we don’t know. It is also not excluded that there will be no FIFA 23 at all (but a game with another name). EA seems to have had enough.
FIFA wants 860 million euros over four years
Contracts always fail because of money. In the period from 2013 to 2022, EA transferred about 850 million euros to an account in Switzerland or the Cayman Islands. However, FIFA is now demanding more than double that! 860 million euros should now be due in a period of only four years for the name “FIFA”. EA Sports does not want to fulfill these demands. The EA boss says about it:
“Looking to the future, we want to grow the franchise, and ironically, the FIFA license has been an obstacle to that.”
EA secures naming rights for FIFA successor
Wilson continues, “We’ve built a great relationship with FIFA over the last 30 years. We’ve created billions of dollars of value…. it’s just huge. We’ve created one of the biggest entertainment properties in the world.”
And yet, a billion-dollar company like EA can afford to do without the name of its most successful game by far. Annually, the Canadians take in 1.5 billion euros with Ultimate Team alone. That’s your money spent on bad FUT packs, btw. That the vultures of FIFA want to have some of the cake there, logical. But not with the EA board:
“I would argue – and this may be a bit biased – that the FIFA brand as a video game is more important than the Football Association. We don’t take that for granted and we try not to be arrogant. We’ve worked really hard to make FIFA understand what we need for the future.
Rumble. EA, meanwhile, has also secured various rights to new names for the FIFA series. FIFA 24 could be called “EA Sports FC 24”. Makes me sick.
“In a World Cup year, of course we get access to the World Cup, but in the broader context of global soccer on an annual basis, the World Cup is important, but not the most important thing. We have 300 other licenses that give us the content that our players engage with most and most intensely.”
So FIFA is now the second soccer sim after PES to lose its name in a very short time. The game, most of the licenses, gameplay and Ultimate Team will of course remain. Basically, “only” the name will change. But what will we be playing then? I think that I will forever say “FIFA”.
Who is the loser of the whole story now? For me, it’s both parties somewhere. EA loses the name, the brand of its most successful video game. The recognition value is simply gone. And FIFA? They lose a lot of money. They also miss the opportunity to shed some green light again on the political outrages of the past decades (cough Qatar cough).
Why can’t they both agree on a price in the famous middle? Money and arrogance rule the world.
FIFA 23 RELEASE – WHAT IS KNOWN SO FAR
FIFA 22 is still in full operation, but in the background the game makers of EA Sports are already working on the next part – FIFA 23 will be released in autumn 2022.
But under which name will the classic game be continued in autumn 2022? As things stand, it is not at all certain that the game will continue to bear the name of the world association FIFA. We have the most important information about FIFA 23 for you, why the game series will get a new name and on which consoles the next part of the soccer simulation will be available.
WHEN WILL FIFA 23 BE RELEASED?
We can’t give you an official launch date for the next part of the FIFA game series yet. EA hasn’t communicated much in this regard yet, so so far we can only assume that FIFA 23 will be released in the period between mid-September and early October 2022, just like its predecessors. In the past years, the latest launch date of a FIFA game was October 06.