FIFA terminates cooperation with EA Sports after nearly 30 years

According to the New York Times, the World Football Federation (FIFA) and Electronic Arts (EA) have failed to reach a trademark license agreement after months of intense negotiations.

In a statement on May 10, EA said that the name EA Sports FC will be used after FIFA 23 launches later this year. Details about the new game are expected to be announced in July 2023.

EA Sports FC will not change much, keeping most of the clubs and players due to their own copyright agreement, but the tournaments organized by FIFA will not appear. FIFA 23 is still updated with content for World Cup 2022 and Women’s World Cup 2023.

The FIFA football game series will change its name to EA Sports FC from 2023. Photo: EA.

The FIFA series has generated nearly 20 billion USD. Since last year, the relationship between FIFA and EA gradually cracked. Many sources say FIFA wants to receive royalties twice as much as 150 million USD/year, equivalent 1 billion USD every 4 years. FIFA also wants to put the brand on other EA electronic products including games.

In February, Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA said that the only value that the FIFA name brings beyond the years of the World Cup is only “4 letters on the face of the box”.

“I would like to point out, albeit with a slight bias, that the FIFA brand is meant more as a series of games than as football governing body,” Wilson said. He directly negotiated with FIFA President Gianni Infantino but the two sides failed to reach an agreement.

FIFA may be looking for partners to license the brand, but creating a game line to replace EA’s product will not be easy. Gareth Sutcliffe, game analyst at Enders Analysis, said while EA has the technology and creativity, what FIFA owns is just the name.

The US game company also has more than 300 agreements with organizations including the European Football Federation (UEFA), tournaments such as the Champions League, Premier League and other popular domestic leagues around the world. Immediately after EA announced the new direction, some partners openly sided with EA instead of FIFA.

“EA Sports is a long-term, valuable partner with the Premier League, and we look forward to continuing to work together in this new era,” said Richard Masters, Premier League Chief Executive.

His statement also included comments from representatives of the European and South American football federations as well as the heads of the German and Spanish domestic leagues.

The relationship between EA and FIFA ended after nearly 30 years of attachment. Photo: MGW.

The success of the FIFA series of games is largely due to the transfer, skin and club updates every year, while the technology or the graphics have not changed much. An analytics firm estimates the Ultimate Team mode in FIFA to bring in about 1.2 billion USD for EA in 2021.

Terminating the relationship with FIFA also opens up the opportunity for EA to cooperate with many brands such as Nike to sell jerseys and sports products to users. Previously, EA’s commercial cooperation projects were strictly bound by FIFA.

FIFA’s current focus is on hosting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. With EA, Wilson said FIFA 23, the final version of the FIFA series, will have many major updates when it is released in September this year. He also left open the possibility of a separate partnership with FIFA to bring tournaments into EA Sports FC if possible.

(According to Zing)

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