Would Electronic Arts be the loser of this announced divorce? This is obviously the argument that Gianni Infantino, the turbulent boss of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, would like us to swallow. In the wake of EA’s announcement, the FIFA press release therefore confirms its intention to stick its four letters on all kinds of products, while EA Sports uses the name one last time with FIFA 23.
As a result, FIFA opened the dialogue with “publishers, studios and investors” around the creation of a new great football simulation that would be ready for 2024 and would therefore take the name FIFA. Besides this alleged future rival of Electronic Arts, the name FIFA will appear on games belonging to other genres than The first will focus specifically on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and will be available between July and September 2022. Caution dictates that we lean towards a mobile application.
“In the process, FIFA will launch games and virtual experiences around the FIFA World Cup 2022. Other projects are currently being studied with several publishers, in view of the next Women’s World Cup.“, can we also read. It is at this stage of the press release that Gianni Infantino offers us a technical gesture halfway between the tackle with both feet off in a vacuum and the Coué Method.
I can assure you that the only authentic and real game that bears the FIFA name will be the best available for gamers and football fans. The name FIFA is the only global and original title. FIFA 23, FIFA 24, FIFA 25 and FIFA 26, and so on – the constant is the FIFA name and it will forever remain and remain THE BEST.
In short, according to the expert point of view of the boss of FIFA, it is therefore the name displayed on the box, the four magic letters, which determine the quality of the products, and nothing else. Remember if need be that the FIFA license grants Electronic Arts only the use of the World Cup. All the other licenses that really matter to the public (leagues, clubs, stadiums, players) being the fruit of hundreds of other separate partnerships.
The FIFA press release is twisted in such a way as to imply that the end of the partnership with Electronic Arts was the will of the football federation. According to the information that circulated before the announcement of the separation, it would be Electronic Arts who would have had enough of spending increasingly astronomical sums to have the simple right to use the name FIFA. We are talking about 2.5 billion dollars over the next decade, double the previous contract.
Electronic Arts knows it, its years of experience, its huge community already in place and its know-how are likely to continue to make a difference, first to resist the temporary disorientation that the name change could cause, and then to face the new kid who wants to pass himself off as “the only authentic game” on the basis of its simple name FIFA.
Electronic Arts has quietly dominated its discipline for too long without being pushed around, the idea of seeing a serious competitor appear on the market as early as 2024, as suggested by FIFA, is interesting on paper but has something to leave skeptical as the task seems colossal for those who would like to put on the gloves against EA Sports. Ask Konami.
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