Is EA dropping the ‘FIFA’ branding? – CEO says FIFA license has impeded their growth

EA Sports have carried the FIFA name for over 20 years now, but that seems to be changing soon, as the FIFA wants to share the license with multiple developers now and pull away from the exclusivity that EA currently has. EA themselves have already come out to say that they’re exploring a possible name change, with EA Sports FC currently being one of the possibilities.

Now the CEO of EA Andrew Wilson has opened up more about the situation to his staff in a report by VGC. “We’ve had a great relationship with FIFA over the past 30-odd years. We’ve created billions in value… it’s just huge. We’ve created one of the biggest entertainment properties on the planet. 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.”

🚨 HUGE FIFA news 🚨

EA Sports planning #FIFA23 release, but gaming franchise could be set to end, after EA CEO says FIFA licence has been an ‘impediment’ in recent years.🤯

Story for @MirrorFootball, original reporting via @VGC_News.#FIFA23 #FIFA22 https://t.co/EMQOvdkZdL

— Nathan Bliss (@EsportsNath) February 23, 2022

Wilson goes even further by saying that the FIFA license might’ve actually prevented their franchise from growing. “Our players tell us they want more cultural and commercial brands relevant to them in their markets, more deeply embedded in the game… brands like Nike. But because FIFA has a relationship with Adidas, we are not able to do that. Our players tell us they want more modes of play, different things beyond 11v11 and different types of gameplay. I would tell you, it’s been a fight to get FIFA to acknowledge the types of things that we want to create, because they say our license only covers certain categories”

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Image Credits: EA Sports