EA and FIFA part ways
It had been coming but FIFA have made quite the decision
Trying something a bit different, two posts in a day? Bonkers. But in keeping with ‘Stuff I used to Tweet’ - well, this is absolutely something I would have tweeted.
News. After what seems like 2 years of rumour, it’s finally happened, FIFA and EA have parted ways. NYT reporting FIFA wanted double the $150m and non-exclusivity for EA. EA obviously think they bring a lot more to FIFA than *just* the game (they’re right, too). See tweets below.
Now, my personal view is this is an incredibly naive move from FIFA. The costs alone of making a new game and then moving over perhaps one of the largest and one of the most revenue positive communities in games to a new game is very ambitious. To many players who aren’t even into football, EA’s game *IS* football.
Consider what is stacked against FIFA to even get close to competing with EA’s new title, EA FC, is a stretch. There is a slight case study at play too, though no where near as big as this. In the 2000s, Community Manager took the name of their game back from Sports Interactive and thought they could build a new game (a lot less expensive than it is to make a FIFA title). SI, made Football Manager, new title name, same engine. FM won by a distance. From FIFA’s quotes tonight, I see no evidence they know what they have ahead of them.
Even in the category, Konami once had the best football game around in Pro Evo, but a series of mistakes and EA’s strategy blew the new E Football (?) - what was Pro Evo out the water. What does FIFA actually have?
Now let’s consider EA, they have all the big leagues, players and Nike with them as (see below) the tweets and press release show. They also have the competitive FIFA players and events who have spent years playing and mastering EA’s FIFA. The budget they can lean on to saturate the market and give their game big noise in PR and Social let alone all their partners is massive.
This could unleash some incredible new experiences too - perhaps new modes, a better mobile version, fantasy leagues, even a competitor to trading cards (shudders) or NFTs. We’ll see, but it could be a great new dawn - only time will tell what EA do with their newfound creative potential.
In an era where young people are experiencing football and sport via digital and games and the UCL is getting bigger and bigger, as well as the PL, the World Cup’s relevance is arguably much less.
What is FIFA, without EA? Well, we will see.
What do you think?
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