FIFA, EA’s cult franchise, will indeed change names. According to statements from internal sources relayed by renowned journalist Jeff Grubb, the next episodes of the saga will now be called EA Sports Football Club or EA Sports FC.
If you follow video game news, you may know that EA is planning to change the name of FIFA, its famous sports franchise. The reason ? The end of the contract between EA and FIFAscheduled for December 31, 2022. The thing had already been mentioned by the American publisher in a press release published in October 2021. Rebelote in February 2022, with comments by Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, in which were mentioned the disappearance of the name FIFA in favor of another name.
However, the renowned journalist Jeff Grubb has just published new information on the subject. On his Grubbsnax show, he announces that internal sources have confirmed to him that the saga was going to be renamed. “EA Sports Football Club, EA Sports FC, that’s the name of the game. I saw trademarks for it, I thought it might just be a feature like an online mode, but I inquired about the subject and that’s it, that’s the new name”, he assures.
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FIFA will indeed change its name
According to him, a first official trailer for the next opus should soon be released, with this new name. Traditionally, EA starts advertising the upcoming FIFA in June before the title releases at the end of the year. As a reminder and according to an article from the New York Times published in October 2021, negotiations between EA and FIFA turned sour due to EA’s desire for more licensing and exploitation rights.
Thing to which FIFA had responded positively, on the condition of revising upwards the payment of the license for the next ten years. In effect, the organization demanded this time the sum of 2.5 billion dollars. An amount deemed too high for EA. After these stormy negotiations, CEO Andrew Wilson even declared that the franchise could very well thrive without the FIFA license. “Our FIFA license actually prevented us from doing a lot of things. Again, FIFA is just a name on the box, but it has stopped us from getting into areas that players want.” he had assured in internal notes.
Source: VGC
