FIFA football games have been crushing the competition for years now. And if EA will no longer publish them from the next opus, they should continue to dominate the market.
The most nostalgic players still remember PES. But in fact, FIFA, its direct competitor, is much more popular. In 2022, Electronic Arts claimed to have sold more than 325 million copies, all FIFA confused. But the future of the license was uncertain until then: for mainly economic reasons, the partnership between EA and the International Federation of Association Football ended several months ago. For its part, the Californian publisher has already expressed its ambitions. From the end of 2023, it should launch its new license, EA Sports FC.
But what about games FIFA ? After all, the name is extremely selling! As one might suspect, these will not disappear. Just re-elected as head of the Federation, Gianni Infantino said he intended to compete with Electronic Arts on his own ground.
It was during the 73rd FIFA Congress, which is currently taking place in Kigali, Rwanda, that Gianni Infantino was re-elected as President. The opportunity for him to reconsider his plans for the future. Gaming is one of them: on the sidelines of the congress, he proclaimed loud and clear that games FIFA will continue to outperform the competition. And there is rather an interest in them being profitable. Remember that EA refused to pay 250 million dollars per year to FIFA to continue to use its license. And for good reason: this would have represented an increase of 100 million dollars compared to previous years.
Infantino says FIFA will go toe to toe with EA Sports by launching its rival video game (EA Sports had refused the money demanded to keep the name ‘FIFA’)
“The new games FIFA – FIFA 25, 26, 27etc – will always be the best egames for all girls or boys. We’ll have some news on that soon.”
Martyn Ziegler, via Twitter
No FIFA 24 on the horizon?
If we won’t dwell on the strange use of the term “egame” rather than “video games”, another detail draws our attention. When he talks about the future of the license, Giovanni Infantino quotes “FIFA 25, 26, 27, etc”. But where has it gone FIFA 24 ? It can certainly be a simple oversight, but we can also see it as the choice to give up on the next edition of the famous football game. This would give the developers more time to work, but also to find a new publisher. Response, we hope, in the coming months.
