Ending an alliance of more than three decades, Electronic Arts and FIFA will stop collaborating on the development of their emblematic video game saga.
While the developers announced the future launch of EA Sports FC, as a successor to this famous title; from FIFA announced the establishment of a new model of non-exclusive licenses, by means of which they will be able to establish agreements with several developers at the same time.
The era of EA Sports ends with FIFA video games
FIFA 23 will be the latest installment of the popular soccer simulator developed by Electronic Arts. Starting in July 2023, the game will be de-licensed by FIFA and rebranded as EA Sports FC.
“For almost 30 years, we have been building the world’s largest football community, with hundreds of millions of players, thousands of athlete partners and hundreds of leagues, federations and teams. EA Sports FC will be the club for each of them, and for football fans around the world.”Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson said at the release who announced this move.
This new title will retain the same game modes of previous FIFA titles, while also retaining its portfolio of licensed leagues, tournaments, clubs and athletes. In other words, EA Sports FC will continue to have the rights to championships such as the Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Serie A and MLS, among others.
For its part, FIFA ad that the game will continue to be licensed to other developers for future editions. “The FIFA name is the only original global title. FIFA 23, FIFA 24, FIFA 25, FIFA 26 and so on: the constant is the name FIFA and this will remain forever and will be the best.said Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, alluding to the prestige that this title has in the video game industry.
Technically, the old relationship between FIFA and EA is now over. Currently, the launch of FIFA 23 by EA is on the agenda, which for the first time will include the women’s and men’s World Cups in the same edition. This responds to a license extension extended by FIFA, while the organization is already enabled to establish agreements with other developers.
Outside of following the cycle of the FIFA Soccer World Cups, the next licensed video games may be released in different release cycles, also exploring formats other than simulators.
