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EA FIFA divorce looking like a done deal
- Thread starter Mibu no ookami
- Start date
Urban
Member
Kokoloko85
Member
EA Sports its in the name….. But the most important name is FIFA.
I think its gonna knock EA’s sales alot. The people who are dumb enough to buy FIFA every year won’t know what to look for lol.
I wonder if they are allowed player and club team licenses etc… if not its gonna get rough for EA.
As for PES and the other new football game, its gonna be the best time for them to release something semi decent to compete with EA’s football game
I think its gonna knock EA’s sales alot. The people who are dumb enough to buy FIFA every year won’t know what to look for lol.
I wonder if they are allowed player and club team licenses etc… if not its gonna get rough for EA.
As for PES and the other new football game, its gonna be the best time for them to release something semi decent to compete with EA’s football game
Chittagong
Gold Member
Given they have the players and clubs they will be fine. Just call it
EAFA 2023
and nobody will notice the difference
EAFA 2023
and nobody will notice the difference
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Nautilus
Banned
Anyone willing to pick up the licence will not only need to pay a literal FORTUNE to FIFA for the brand, but will also have to compete with EA's Football game, which is already a proven quality(as losing the FIFA deal affects literally only the name of the game).
FIFA will have a hard time finding someone.
FIFA will have a hard time finding someone.
Bladed Thesis
Member
Not profitable to sell a new 60-70 game every year. Profitable for people to have to start over with Ultimate Team every year. That reset alone is worth probably 80-85% of the revenue generated.
Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Player and club names are licensed from FIFPRO. Only thing EA is loosing is the right to call their game "FIFA".
Urban
Member
synchronicity
Member
FIFA and EA are both such pompous entities. They deserve each other.
PaintTinJr
Member
They may even have a legal issue if sales don't significantly falloff, because it would strengthen the argument that they are still encroaching on the likeness of the license, which from copyright isn't allowed AFAIK as you can't sound or look like an equivalent of the real thing. In those circumstance Fifa might successfully sue them for the same yearly cut even without them having the license.
At this point I think the best thing would be for Nintendo to buy Konami and the license, effectively making the sports game franchise requirement for a successful console platform a dead issue.
A Fifa(named PES) being fully featured (yearly) on a Nintendo hybrid would make the need for likenesses and licenses a non-issue for all other footy game developers and could reignite that genre in the industry on the other major platforms, giving everyone a chance to focus on gameplay innovation like they did in the past.
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I don’t think you’ve given this much thought.
EA’s FIFA is an annual franchise. That customer you cite walks into ASDA every year to buy FIFA. When he walks in there in 2023, he doesn’t see FIFA 23. He sees a clerk who tells him what the situation and that he needs to by EA Sports FC 23. And he buys it.
The Next year, he already knows he’s looking to buy EA Sports FC 24. That’s it
nush
Member
Exactly, it's not like someone is just going to walk away and not buy the new football game for the year.
Portugeezer
Member
EA Sports brand is big enough on its own. They don't need FIFA. Sure, some people may be confused but in a year or two it will back to moaning about their garbage footy game - which we will continue to buy due to peer pressure - which is now not called FIFA.
PerfectDark
Banned
Soccer gamers are so lucky. If only NFL/Football gamers could be so lucky to get rid of EA.
The_Mike
I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
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funking giblet
Member
Omar Soccer...
It's all in the game
It's all in the game
PaintTinJr
Member
Why would any of those outlets like ASDA - that don't have staff to explain any game situation - even give a non-fifa labelled game any more prominence than they did PES over the years?
Lots of game sales are impulse by brand recognition from average consumers, whether it be Nintendo/Sega needing an Olympics license to have mario and sonic at the Olympics reach a wider audience, or a super hero game needing to be based on a marvel or DC IP.
We have all the evidence we need from watching how PES was treated worse than Fifa by retailers over decades to know that EA will need to incentify everyone to give their game the same level of prominence, and if they are competing against another game using the Fifa license, then the prominence will always be lower than that game, and it will lose sales in all situation where the consumer has never played the EA game previously because of the Fifa brand - so all young emerging gamers buying their first footy game.
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Jibran#one
Member
As long as the player ,club and international team names stays I don't think it will do any harm but if they loose player and club names people will flock towards where they go
Pes for a long time had ace gameplay it only wasn't a commercial success because of the licenses
Pes for a long time had ace gameplay it only wasn't a commercial success because of the licenses
One of, under very specific circumstances.
Honestly if we were mates and having this back and forth in the pub, I'd put a proper cash bet on what I'm saying. I don't think I know anyone in real life who would take that bet though.
And outside of my gut feeling, If EA - a studio who's biggest fault is that if anything it has too many bean counters, thinks this makes sense, it probably does.
The sport would be better without fifa involved as it is.
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…Because it’s a game that will be selling hundreds of thousands of units on day one?
Of course they’ll heavily stock it. Because the guys who run it have brains
Azurro
Banned
People around the world that love football (proper football, not american extreme hit concussion ball) will HATE the new name. Only north america calls football soccer.
I remember the days when there were multiple soccer titles, most of them had real names and teams. I don’t get how it’s come to the point that there’s literally one franchise now. PES died with 2022 and now there’s…just EA’s game. So I see them losing this license as a great incentive for another studio to step up and give us fans of the sport something new.
jezhumphrey75
Banned
microsoft to buy fifa and ea?
NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
Yeah, but the original game was FIFA International Soccer. And before licenses became a huge part of the EA Sports games, they had EA in the name. Before NHL, there was EA Hockey.
Granted, the market has become a tiny bit bigger in the last 30 years, so they’ll probably go with Football this time, or at least in all editions outside the US.
Rayven_king
Member
Time for sony to dust off This is football and buy all the licenses
JLB
Banned
lol no.
EA can rebrand FIFA as Margaritas and piñas coladas 2023 and sales will continue to be outstanding.
PaintTinJr
Member
Based on what evidence exactly? The (non-specialist) retailers can only assess the viability of the product based on how it is now with the license.
Without the license it is a new proposition and EA will need to use all their contacts and influence to ensure the product get prominence and shelf space - beyond launch. If it does great numbers with a rebrand, then that obviously buys them prominence for the next release. But the license guaranteed shelf space everywhere.
Even when PES was competing well in sales to Fifa in the PS1/PS2 days, retailers still didn't give it prominence or shelf space beyond the launch window.
Unless the market has completely changed, anyone with deep pockets - Apple, Amazon, google - that could easily gamble a few years on the license could buy any 3D footy game dev and release the games on all platforms - as the license requires - and get all year round prominence for their game (in non specialist retailers) - at the expense of EA's new name football - even if the game was complete garbage, and that's exactly why EA have paid for the license for the last couple of decades and successfully killed the competition in the genre - barring Konami.
lyan
Member
I think there are two concerns, first is whether this customer will see the need to actually buy EA Sports FC23 when his copy of Fifa22 still plays fine (i.e. if this will finally break their habit of buying the same game every year).
Another is what happens when he sees EA Sports FC24 and Fifa24 on the shelves, if on the chance that EA Sports FC23 turns out shitty or like mentioned they didn't buy EA Sports FC23 in the first place EA might have a big problem to solve.
PaintTinJr
Member
Why would anyone need to put money on it in a friendly bet. You can just buy EA shares and make huge bank if you are right, because they are going to save enough money - if the sales hold up - to make an extra billion in profit.
Anyone that's worked in footy game development at any point over the last few decades will tell you how important the license has been, even compared to other footy licenses, that worked well in the Spectrum/C64 days, but were completely overshadowed in the PS1 era. However, if the guy at EA that formulated FUT gives gameindustry.biz or eurogamer, etc another interview and says the industry has changed and the license doesn't matter, then I would take that as someone that knows what he's talking about.
IMHO the bean counters at EA are basing their decision on Konami being like Sammy - of Sega Sammy, now - with little interest in gaming and even less money or interest in paying that amount for the license, and EA counting on the fact that no one can reach the level of them or Konami quick enough - and across all platforms - to take up the deal. Konami being Japanese means they aren't going to be easily bought by a US competitor, and EA probably thinkj that neither PlayStation or Nintendo would have the money and desire to buy both Konami and the license, and so are calling Fifa's bluff.
Sony owning Evo could easily see value in acquiring Konami's PES and the Fifa license as the defacto Evo footy game, and Nintendo could do it as a defensive move for their Switch platform's successor's benefit.
EA probably need to hope that Fifa don't offer the license for less to others, just to damage EA's game.
WitchHunter
Banned
Time to bring back Brutal Sports Football.
Limbs must fly™
Limbs must fly™
Mibu no ookami
Demoted Member® Pro™
They aren't exclusive. PES has licenses as well.
Licensing is a challenge when it comes to soccer, but if you're going to drop the money on the FIFA org license, you might as well get the other licenses too. Might as well make a competent soccer game as well.
I think EA losing the license might be the best thing for gaming since it should in theory give the industry two predominant soccer games and force each to evolve.
Right now there really isn't any competition when it comes to any sports games.
EA has soccer, football, and hockey
2K has basketball
Sony has baseball
theclaw135
Banned
Protip: no one likes FIFA. People aren't buying the games because they want to support the governing organization.
daffyduck
Member
I know it's not just you saying this, but there are also a few Commonwealth countries who use Football to mean Rugby, and Soccer to mean Football.
JLB
Banned
Bit offtopic, but both Football (what americans call soccer) and Rugby are branches of what was originally the same sport. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_football
JLB
Banned
I think theres a lot of confusion around this licensing thing. Dont blame you, licenses in sports are complex, and licenses on football specifically are almost impossible to understand.
Long story short: This license is only for FIFA name on the title, and competitions organized by them (World Cup, Federation Cup, etc).
Things like Champions League are owned by UEFA, dresses and clubs by local competitions (LaLiga in Spain, Premiership in England, etc), and players is a whole different world and ownership is hard to establish, though players (or third party marketing companies) tend to own them.
Bo_Hazem
Banned
If so then it's massive! Sony already holds football gaming from its balls worldwide and most if not all football celebrities mentions "playstation" all the time when playing FIFA/PES. I think it's worth the gamble to get the licenses of the biggest sport in the world.
SkylineRKR
Member
This shouldn't be a problem. FIFA is nothing, except for a four year world tournament. As long as EA has the clubs, competitions and kits, well, it changes nothing.
TheGodfather07
Member
Nobody plays fifa because of its name. Its the licenses for the clubs. EA will be totally unaffected by this unfortunately.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
The problem is, unless there’s a PES rebrand, I doubt FIFA’s going to be able to have anything in the market until 2025.
Also don’t forget that by that time, the bulk of the market would have adjusted to the new name and moved to EA FC. The online population would be there. Ultimate Team would be there.
Who’d buy the FIFA game in those circumstances?
The license that allowed EA’s FIFA kill off PES was the FIFPro license which EA still owns.
Retailers order large quantities of EA’s FIFA every September. They’ll want to do the same next year…and if there’s a name change, they’ll speedily adjust
PaintTinJr
Member
The history of football games says otherwise. Codemasters club football was between Fifa and PES for gameplay quality - so much better than Fifa at the time - and they had all the player licenses needed via the clubs, so that should have killed both Fifa and PES, and yet it didn't dent the status quo in any meaningful way.
And (non-specialist) retailer only have a set amount of shelf space for games, and if a different company's fifa game is available when EA footy 23 is available in September, they will split their space and spend - assuming they aren't sale or return - because the license has sway and reach way beyond gaming - so much so, that someone may even buy a console and the fifa game as a first time buyer. They aren't doing that for some unknown EA footy 23 or PES on the shelf.