EA will continue to make soccer games with best players and biggest teams, they will just be stripped of the FIFA brand and instead called EA Sports FC.
Confusingly, perhaps, FIFA24 should also be on the shelves next year because the soccer body is determined to go ahead with its own launch.
EA has already begun to highlight its advantages over the FIFA game, given it has the rights to show 19,000 players from more than 700 teams in more than 30 leagues playing in 100 stadiums. Manchester United, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain will still be there, along with their best players.
'That is the only place that you can have an authentic, famous and fully representative football experience,' David Jackson, vice president of brand for EA SPORTS FIFA, told The Associated Press. 'I do think that there is an element of potential confusion in the marketplace.'
The hyperbole from FIFA is already trying to undercut EA's marketing by claiming it is in talks with multiple rival gaming companies and has plans to enter the metaverse.
'I can assure you,' FIFA President Gianni Infantino said, 'that the only authentic, real game that has the FIFA name will be the best one available for gamers and football fans.'
How that will be achieved is far from clear, although FIFA does hold the rights to the biggest soccer show on earth. The World Cup will disappear from the EA game.
'The FIFA name is the only global, original title,' Infantino said. 'FIFA 23, FIFA 24, FIFA 25 and FIFA 26, and so on ' the constant is the FIFA name and it will remain forever and remain the best.'
That kind of bombastic talk puts pressure on FIFA to deliver on Infantino's vision for a game that usurps the EA franchise despite not having the rights to feature leagues such as the Premier League ' and the teams that play in them.
'New entrants would face a steep licensing curve to compete with EA,' said Andrew Marok, an analyst covering the digital media sector at investment bank Raymond James.
Soccer gaming is big business for EA. The annual report issued this week showed revenue of $6.19 billion.
'We've just had our biggest year ' ever ' for EA SPORTS FIFA games,' EA Sports CEO Andrew Wilson told investors on Wednesday, a day after it was announced the FIFA deal would cease at the end of the year.
A huge part of the revenue comes from the Ultimate Team mode, where customers buy extra content in EA sports games. That generated $1.623 billion in 2021.
'We have historically derived a significant portion of our net revenue from sales related to our largest and most popular game, FIFA, annualized versions of which are consistently one of the best-selling games in the marketplace,' EA told investors.
Brand loyalty will be key starting next year. Will gamers stay with EA's rebranded product or jump to the rival being launched by FIFA'
It's already a competitive market with eFootball, the former Pro Evolution Soccer game produced by Japanese firm Konami. That game has a partnership with Manchester United, though the record 20-time English champions will still feature in EA's game through a Premier League agreement.
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