EA Sports and FIFA are entering the final year of their current contract, and it's been announced that the gaming company won't be renewing its deal with football's governing body. Instead, in the Summer of 2023, EA will be launching its own independent footballing game, EA FC. When discussing the move away from FIFA, the CEO of EA, Andrew Wilson, dropped a savage comment about the state of the footballing association.
We’re In The Club
Learn More July 2023#EASPORTSFC pic.twitter.com/IuMWgIlpGb— Premier League (@premierleague) May 10, 2022
“I would argue – and this may be a little biased – that the FIFA brand has more meaning as a video game than it does a governing body of soccer. We don’t take that for granted and we try not to be arrogant. We’ve worked really hard to try and make FIFA understand what we need for the future,” said Wilson via EarlyGame.
While Wilson's comments were certainly bold, the statement is not too far-fetched when you give it some more thought. The rise in popularity of the video game series has made FIFA a household name, if it wasn't already. Within the gaming world, it's taken on a life similar to that of the Madden franchise.
“As we’ve looked to the future we want to grow the franchise, and ironically the FIFA license has actually been an impediment to that.”
Wilson also explained that working with FIFA has made it more difficult to grow the video game in the direction EA has envisioned. Additionally, FIFA was also demanding €860,000,000 for a four-year deal with EA, despite its previous 10-year contract being worth €850,000,000. Naturally, EA was not on board with such heinous financial demands.
EA plans to launch the independent EA FC in 2023, meaning this year will feature the final EA Sports FIFA game under that name, with more information to be revealed closer to the launch.
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