Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson has reportedly lambasted FIFA for “impeding” its football franchise, telling employees that it’ll be better off without the constraints that come with the costly license. According to Video Games Chronicle’s sources, Wilson recently held a meeting with staff during which he acknowledged having a “great” 30-year run with FIFA but said that the organization is making it increasingly harder for the publisher to innovate, and referred to FIFA as just “four letters on a box.”
Why an EA FIFA split was inevitable
EA and FIFA have been locking horns since late last year. Reports emerged in October 2021 that FIFA wanted to charge $1 billion for the license every four years but the organization issued a statement claiming that it simply no longer wants one company controlling and exploiting the brand. In public, EA has merely said that it doesn’t anticipate a negative impact from losing the license, which it claims it no longer needs. In the aforementioned meeting, Wilson reportedly told employees that FIFA continues to prevent changes that players want.
“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,” Wilson has been quoted as saying. “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. Our players want us to expand into the digital ecosystem more broadly… our fans are telling us they want us to go and participate in that space.”
Opinion: EA FIFA split will be interesting to watch
Zarmena writes… EA’s conduct and controversial approach to microtransactions aside, the company is currently the undisputed king of sports franchises and remains unrivaled. I’m sure there are plenty of publishers rubbing their hands and waiting to get their hands on the FIFA license but that doesn’t mean much if they don’t have what it takes to build what EA is known for. In the near future at least, this will be FIFA’s loss more than it will be EA’s but the latter will have a lot of legal challenges to overcome if it plans to make football games because there are so many things that only FIFA has legal rights to.
In other news, Elden Ring is one of the highest-rated games in recent years, and former CD Projekt RED devs have announced a new dark fantasy RPG.
[Source: VGC]
