Is Electronic Arts going to drop the FIFA branding going forward?
The FIFA video game franchise is one of the most profitable series of all time. EA’s long-running video games have seen an annual release for decades, which have made the publisher billions of dollars over the years. The game’s 2020 iteration, FIFA 21, played a huge role in EA’s full-year revenue of $5.6 billion. Recent estimates suggest that 29% of that $5.6 billion came from FIFA 21’s Ultimate Team mode alone. Unfortunately, it appears that the football body is asking for a larger slice of the pie and EA has no intention of sharing more. Earlier this week, EA hinted at dropping the FIFA license due to how expensive it is becoming to use. FIFA is reportedly asking EA to pay $2.5 billion over the next 10 years to use the FIFA license in its games. According to New York Times’ sources, the $2.5 billion figure is more than double what EA has paid to use the FIFA name in previous years. The same report states that EA and FIFA had been in negotiations for at least the past two years before discussions stopped following FIFA’s $1 billion demand every four-year World Cup cycle. EA’s previous agreement with FIFA still stands. However, it’s set to expire following 2023’s Qatar World Cup. If EA and FIFA cannot strike a deal before then, fans should expect FIFA 24 to release under a different name. We might even see the name change happen as early as in FIFA 23. Of course, this is all a big IF, and while $2.5 billion over the next 10 years is no small amount, EA could stand to lose a lot more if its decision to rename its best-selling franchise doesn’t pan out. Case in point, FIFA’s former main rival, PES, was changed to eFootball earlier this year. Although the name change is only partly to blame for its shortcomings, it didn’t help. Not to mention, EA is currently facing controversy for its stance on loot boxes in the game. We doubt that EA will risk losing a steady income source for what is essentially a small portion of their annual revenue.
