The soccer title will be part of the newEA Sports FC brand and will no longer be referred to as the "FIFA" series. The announcement marks a break for one of the oldest and most popular continuous franchises in video game history.
The future of global football is bright, and fans around the world have never been more enthusiastic. We have an incredible opportunity to bring even more innovative and authentic experiences to the growing football audience.
More than 300 individual licensed partners give players access to more than 19,000 athletes across 700 teams, in 100 stadiums and over 30 leagues around the world.
The World Cup, the quadrennial international tournament run by FIFA, will be missing an official reference in the newly branded game. Every four years from 1998 to the present, there are separate branded FIFA World Cup titles released by the two companies, as well as a separate World Cup mode for the Ultimate Team digital card game. The integration was expanded to include the World Cup update.
The Women's World Cup will be included in the game for the first time in franchise history, according to reports.
A bitter divorce.
It isn't a surprise that the company split with the game. In October of last year, the gaming mega-publisher publicly said it was reviewing its naming rights agreement with FIFA. According to a February report, Wilson told the employees that the license of the game had made it difficult for them to branch into areas that players want.
The term "EA Sports FC" was confirmed in a March chat with Giant Bomb by VentureBeat journalist Jeff Grubb.
The New York Times reported last year that the publisher was being asked to double the amount of money it paid for the rights to its brand name. According to a report, the value of the FIFA name was starting to be questioned by the company.
In a world where most people don't see the box anymore because they buy the game digitally, the four letters on the front of the box are what we get from the game.
Perhaps in anticipation of Tuesday's announcement, FIFA announced yesterday that it is already working with new partners on soccer games that will launch later this year. The 2020 announcement of the return of the NFL2K franchise, which will get around the exclusive license for NFL games by offering simulation games, brings to mind Take-Two's announcement of the same year.
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