There may be a parting of the ways between EA Sports and FIFA – and a name change for the planet’s biggest selling football videogame series has now been teased.
Even as you read these words, lots of copies of the freshly-released FIFA 22 have been sold. Both digitally and physically, the relatively-well-received new entry in videogaming’s biggest sports franchise is in rude health. Across the new game each year and the Ultimate Team mode that we’ve covered before, FIFA’s annual contribution to EA Sports’ Christmas party fund is in the billions, and the trend is upwards.
But a marriage that’s lasted for over 25 years is now under threat: it seems FIFA – world football’s governing body – is threatening to take its name away from the series. Or, depending how you read it, EA is looking to remove the name above the door. Either way, a sizeable change might be a year away.
The catalyst is that behind the scenes, the licence to use the FIFA name has come up – as it does every now and then – for renewal. The current ten-year deal inked between the parties involved expires after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and much has changed in that decade. The assumption would be that FIFA 23 would be released around this time, but there’s a growing threat the game may not be called that.
At the heart of the issue appears to be significantly increased demands from FIFA itself. It’s reportedly asking for a doubling of the price that EA pays to use its name, to around $250m a year. As a report in the New York Times adds, beyond the cash the pair can’t agree the parameters of the deal either, and what it should include. “FIFA would prefer to limit EA’s exclusivity to the narrow parameters around use in a soccer game, most likely in an effort to seek new revenue streams for the rights it would retain”, the New York Times writes. “EA Sports, meanwhile, contends the company should be allowed to explore other ventures within its FIFA video game ecosystem”.
Farewell, old friend
By the sounds of it, FIFA is playing hardball here – but so is EA Sports. And it’s a game of brinkmanship that might just boil down to who needs who the most.
For EA, the dispute has come at a fortuitous time. As we reported here, its key competitor is going through its lowest point, with Konami rebranding the PES franchise as eFootball and moving to a free-to-play model. That may work in the long term, it certainly isn’t working now. FIFA is pretty much the only game in town: in fact, EA at this stage could in theory call it Bob Goes Fishing and still watch the money roll in.
(The threat of a change of name, incidentally, brings to mind when the Championship Manager football management games splintered in the early 2000s). Gamers quickly worked out that the game they loved was under a new title, and it didn’t take long for the old Championship Manager to sink out of view: people had moved over to Football Manager, the old game under a different moniker).
FIFA, meanwhile, has clear brand recognition on its side still, and it’s hardly short of resources. If the organisation really wants to chart its own course, it’s going to take a while for it to do so, even longer to actually compete. But EA is savvy enough to spot a long-term threat when it sees one, and has struck the first public blow.
Appreciating that the ideal for both parties then is that a favourable agreement is struck. EA has put it out there that it’s willing to call no deal. In a press release tubthumping about the latest sales figures for FIFA 2022 last week, it snuck a paragraph new the end of the announcement.
“As we look ahead, we’re also exploring the idea of renaming our global EA SPORTS football games. This means we’re reviewing our naming rights agreement with FIFA, which is separate from all our other official partnerships and licenses across the football world”.
It’s not exactly subtle.
FIFA the organisation is clearly on notice, and EA is actively testing the idea of giving the franchise a new name. One where it can keep – as it notes – its other licences in place, just ridding the series of the FIFA name. Long term, that does seem at the very least an economic idea for EA Sports (it’d save a billion every four years on the currently-offered terms), but inevitably, there’s an element of tinkering with the metaphorical golden goose.
EA Sports has, after all, gone down this road itself. When allegations sprung up against golfing superstar Tiger Woods around a decade ago it ultimately renamed its PGA Tour videogame series, ending a 16-year run where Woods fronted it. Rory McIlroy was drafted in to replacement in for the 2015, but along with odd changes EA made to the game, it proved to be the last hurrah for the series.
EA will not be looking to repeat previous mistakes therefore, and may tread cautiously with its prized football franchise.
But if it is going to make a change, this does seem to be the moment. By the end of the year, a decision will have been made one way or another. Right now, it’s too close to call just which way it’s going to go…
