FIFA has even blocked them at times from expanding the game

The ramifications of the name change extend to more than just what the next game will be called. The “FIFA” brand name license comes with the additional perks of being allowed to replicate the most popular sporting event in the world, the World Cup, as well as the FIFA Club World Cup. With the news that EA will continue with FIFA 23 Coins the FIFA name for at least one more cycle (FIFA 23), EA CEO made some interesting comments that were picked up by VGC last week:

“I’m going to be more open… more open than I’ve been with the outside world,” Wilson said, when asked why EA was considering breaking up with FIFA. “We’ve had a great relationship with FIFA over the past 30-odd years. We’ve created billions in value… it’s just huge. We’ve created one of the biggest entertainment properties on the planet. I would argue – and this may be a little biased – that the FIFA brand has more meaning as a video game than it does a governing body of soccer. We don’t take that for granted and we try not to be arrogant. We’ve worked really hard to try and make FIFA understand what we need for the future.”

Bold words there by EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson but…

If you mention FIFA, most people would assume you’re refererring to the video game and not the corrupt governing body. Mr. Wilson even doubled-down on these comments:“Basically, what we get from FIFA in a non-World Cup year is the four letters on the front of the box, in a world where most people don’t even see the box anymore because they buy the game digitally.

“In a World Cup year of course, we get access to the World Cup, but in the broader context of global football on an annualized basis, the World Cup is important but it’s not the most important. We have 300 other licenses that give us the content that our players engage with the most and the most deeply.”

According the EA CEO, FIFA has even blocked them at times from expanding the game:“As we’ve looked to the future we want to grow the franchise, and ironically the FIFA license has actually been an impediment to that. Our players tell FUT 23 Coins buy 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.”