Henry Roldán
Millions of fans around the world shuddered after it became official on Tuesday what they have been fearing the most since 2021: FIFA and EA Sports did not renew their rights agreement for the traditional FIFA game.
According to the video game company, as of 2023 the soccer game will be called EA Sports FC and will continue to have the rights to a good part of the most important leagues in the world, since these are not negotiated directly with FIFA.
“We’re thankful for our many years of great partnership with FIFA. The future of global football is very bright, and fandom around the world has never been stronger. We have even more innovative and authentic experiences to the growing football audience.”
Statement by Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts
FIFA: One of the Best-Selling Games in the World
FIFA, soccer’s world governing bodyand EA Sports, its biggest commercial partner, failed to reach an agreement to extend a partnership that attracts 150 million gamers, with a major cause of the split being that FIFA demanded at least double the $150 million annual fee it receives from the video game developer and publisher, according to The New York Times’ Tariq Panja.
While sales of the video game series exceeded $20 billion over the past two decades, FIFA is expected to try to find a new digital partner to address the huge financial shortfall that will be caused by its breakup with EA Sports.
Likewise, FIFA would be quite limited when it comes to making a new video game deal, as the organization does not have many rights to major competitions beyond the World Cup. Rights such as the Champions League, Premier League and other major soccer competitions are exclusive to EA Sports FC.
And while it may not have been a very wise decision for FIFA to pull out of the deal, its president, Gianni Infantino, thinks otherwise.
“I can assure you that the only authentic, real game that has the FIFA name will be the best one available for gamers and football fans.”
Gianni Infantino, FIFA president, in a press release.
For now, we can only wait and see what will come out of this harsh separation that leaves Frenchman Kylian Mbappé as the latest player to appear on a cover of the historic video game.
