For months now, it has been speculated that FIFA 22 could be the last installment of the legendary saga of the Electronic Arts soccer simulator. Thus, after 29 years of uninterrupted deliveries, EA has finally confirmed that its contract with FIFA will end during this month of December, so FIFA 23 will say goodbye to this franchise. Or rather a “see you later”.
And it is that coinciding with what would have been the 30th anniversary of these games, next installment, which will be released in July 2023, will arrive under the name of EA Sports FC.
However, despite removing the FIFA name, the publisher will maintain its agreements with the vast majority of soccer leagues, teams, players and brands now presentincluding LaLiga, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, Serie A and MLS, with a total of more than 700 teams with their 19,000 footballers, and more than 100 stadiums.
In fact, Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, has already said that FIFA licenses limited what its developers could put in their games, not being able to put some of the game modes beyond the classic 11v11 matches, making use of some of the agreements that FIFA had with some brands such as Nike.
Nevertheless, the company promises that its future games will retain all the content and modes from recent FIFA releases, with the sole exception of special content associated with the World Cup. And it is that we will continue to have the original modes created by EA as well as those belonging to the rest of the associated competitions, thus being able to create leagues and tournaments, continue the successful Ultimate Team, the Volta mode, and even the single-player campaigns of the Career mode. In fact, EA has already announced new agreements of its own with brands such as Nike itself, ensuring that The transition from FIFA 23 to the new EA Sports FC will hardly be noticeable.
The future of FIFA
For his part, FIFA President Gianni Infantino maintains that “The FIFA name is the only original global title. FIFA 23, FIFA 24, FIFA 25 and FIFA 26 etc, the constant is the name of FIFA and it will remain forever and remain ‘the best’«. And it is that in response to EA’s announcement, the football association has promised the future arrival of more products and games under the FIFA brand, from other game companies.
What is not clear is who will now take the place of EA, Konami being the only other company present within this simulation game market, with the latest release of eFootball quite “stumbled”.
