By Akriti Rana and Nimish Dubey
It was definitely not as high-profile or as acrimonious as the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp separation, but when it came to gaming, it certainly was the end of a famous relationship. Mention sports-oriented games to anyone, irrespective of the platform, and there’s a fair chance that EA Sports’ FIFA series of football games would be among the first to come to their minds. There's a good reason for this. The FIFA series has been around for almost three decades — it first surfaced as FIFA International Soccer in 1993, and has since emerged as the highest-selling sports game of all time, with more than 300 million copies sold worldwide. The game is considered a showcase of how a sports body and a game developer could collaborate profitably.
"For a few (billion?) pieces of silver, he left us…"
Well, that collaboration is over. Or more accurately, will be officially over in July 2023. FIFA and EA Sports have decided to part ways after being one of the most successful partnerships in gaming history. There will be a FIFA 23, but none from EA after that. EA has already announced that its football simulator series will now be called EA Sports FC, the first game of which is expected in late 2023. FIFA, for its part, has said that it will start working on games of its own, although it has not named the game developers it would be working with. A golden, and very profitable, chapter in the history of gaming has come to an end. Ironically, the partnership that saw off gaming challenges from the likes of Microsoft, Konami, and Sega, collapsed under the weight of its own expectations.
As with so many things in this world, money evidently was one of the reasons for the breakup. According to multiple sources, FIFA, which is the world football's governing body and the organisation that controls tournaments like the Football World Cup, had increased its gaming licensing fee to $1 billion for every four-year cycle covering a World Cup. This was evidently more than twice the amount previously paid by EA for the licence. Ironically, the reason for this dramatic increase in licensing fee was the success of the FIFA Ultimate Team mode which generated revenues of more than $1.5 billion in 2021. There were other factors behind the split as well. EA evidently wanted to explore other aspects of the game, including moving to perhaps a subscription-based model and giving fans more options to create and watch content. FIFA, on the other hand, had seemed content with the very profitable way in which things were proceeding.
An own goal or a terrific assist?
The split is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the gaming world in general and football/sports games in particular. EA will release FIFA 23 later this year, and even when it moves to EA Sports FC, most gamers are unlikely to see too much of a change in the short term. While EA will not be able to let gamers play tournaments organised by FIFA (like the World Cup), the brand still has tie-ups with most of the major football leagues in the world including EPL, Bundesliga, and La Liga. It also continues to have a collaboration with UEFA, the organisation behind the Champions League and most football events in Europe. Those who buy EA Sports FC will therefore continue to get access to most official club lineups, player likenesses, jerseys, stadiums, and so on. Although EA has talked of adding more experiences to the game, those will take some time to deliver — after all, EA will be still working with FIFA until July next year.
It is likely that FIFA will ring in gaming changes. The governing body has issued a statement saying that it will be following a non-exclusive licensing model after the 2022 Qatar World Cup later this year, instead of giving gaming rights to a single publisher. It has hinted at working with a number of game developers in this regard and has stressed that it will retain the FIFA brand name associated with the game. FIFA President Gianni Infantino said, "The FIFA name is the only global, original title. 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 is a rather tall claim when you consider how successful the EA Sports’ FIFA series has been.
Will 2023 kick off a whole new "non-simulation" ball game?
FIFA does seem to have some interesting ideas up its sleeve, though. The organisation has been talking about moving football gaming beyond simulations and giving users different experiences. FIFA calls these games "non-simulation games" and through them is trying to take football beyond the "pick a team and play a match" format followed by most football games. If successful — and that is a huge "if" — this could add a whole new dimension to sports gaming, one where the action on the field is not the only one that counts. Sports management games have tried doing this to an extent but even they boil down to revolving around on-field action. FIFA says that the first of its non-simulation games will launch in the third quarter of this year and will offer a "tailored gaming experience featuring the biggest event on Earth, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which will bring new, interactive experiences to fans across the globe." This is unfortunately utterly vague, but we are keeping our eyes open for something innovative.
The biggest impact of the EA-FIFA breakup in the short run is more likely to be seen in relationships between sports bodies and gaming companies, rather than in the games themselves. So far it has been common to see sports bodies tying up with a single brand for licensing rights. Sports tournaments and competitions have a single official game. That could change now, with sports bodies and organisers perhaps looking to have multiple tie-ups with different developers. So for instance, the ICC (cricket's governing body) might have several games based around the next Cricket World Cup, some of them revolving around playing the game ("simulations") and others on aspects surrounding the game (fitness routines, media management, pitch preparation, media coverage, fan activities in the stadium…you name it).
All of which could change the way sports-oriented games have been played so far, making them a little more mainstream. We could have multiple "official" titles complete with likenesses and proper names around a single event, and not all of them would be about playing the sport either. The presence of non-simulation games could also attract a more casual gaming audience. One of the complaints about the FIFA games has been that they have been mainly targeted at football followers. That could change. Most significantly, as per many observers, the presence of multiple official games would also cut down the scope of game developers charging a massive premium for being "exclusive." Games could actually get more affordable.
EA, as per our sources, is likely to continue to focus on hardcore gamers. Most of its followers are unlikely to leave it even after splitting from FIFA as apart from the World Cup, the game series would be covering almost all other major tournaments, leagues, and players. While it has talked of adding more experiences and letting fans get more creative with game content, it is unlikely to step away from its core audience, which revolves around hardcore football gamers. At least, not immediately.
A more diverse gaming world?
So, come 2023, football gaming could find itself diversified like never before, divided between serious and casual gamers. While EA's titles are likely to have a large audience, thanks to a following built over decades, FIFA's games could get their own adherents, especially if they happen to be well designed. As a result, there could be a lot of high-quality football games around, bringing the days of limited choice in football games — generally either FIFA or PES — to an end. That is good news in our book, as football gaming was falling into a rut of just getting official jerseys and likenesses and trying to avoid embarrassing goal celebrations. If this diversification works commercially, we could even see other sports following suit. God knows, they need it — we have very limited gaming options for sports like badminton, tennis, hockey, and actually, even cricket.
Of course, all this is idle speculation. As of now, FIFA and EA are still technically together and will work on the World Cup in Qatar later this year. But FIFA will move out of the EA house in 2023, and the gaming world is very likely to change. Only time will tell whether this change will be for better or worse.