- EA is considering changing the FIFA series’ name, likely because of the expensive naming deal
- The company spoke that no matter what happens, it’s committed to continuing to deliver the best quality virtual football experience
- Changing the franchise’s name will be a historical moment, as it’s had this name for almost 30 years
EA’s beloved FIFA franchise might have its name changed to something else as its parent company is reevaluating the naming deal with the real FIFA.
EA Considers Rebranding FIFA
American video game company Electronic Arts (EA) is considering rebranding its FIFA franchise. This was announced in EA’s official release, concerning the global success of its latest FIFA 22 title. Depending on how this develops, fans might see the future titles of the company’s football video game series changed to something else.
This is coming as EA is reviewing its naming rights deal with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Keeping the name is likely very costly to the video game developer especially considering it’s a standalone object of a deal, separate from all other of EA’s 300 partnerships and licenses. Because of this, EA is currently evaluating the possibility of rebranding the beloved video game series.
EA spoke on the matter and revealed that for the company, releasing a product of high quality is much more important than keeping the brand name. In the official release, EA stated that it’s thrilling to have 9.1 million people play FIFA’s newest 22 edition and it wants to keep on delivering the same experience to its passionate fans.
“The future of football is very big and very bright. Our priority is to ensure we have every opportunity to continue delivering the world’s greatest interactive football experiences. Thank you again for your support and feedback on this year’s game,” the company explained.
A Hard Step to Make
Changing the name of the FIFA video game franchise surely isn’t an easy decision for EA. The game series bore this name for almost three decades, since the series launch in 1993. After 1997, EA started publishing a new addition to the franchise each year, meaning that a lot of fans have grown to love the games and associate them with the name FIFA.
Because of that, it’s likely that some fans will be disgruntled. However, thinking about it logically, it may be better if EA invests its money more into upping the quality of its games, rather than in keeping the expensive naming deal. Or, in a worst-case scenario, some groups of fans may drop the game once it gets rebranded or might simply not have the same appeal on the market shelf. Right now we can only speculate as nothing is official yet.
EA isn’t the first company to ever consider such an approach. Earlier this year Konami changed the name of its Pro Evolution Soccer franchise to the more simple and royalty-free “eFootball”.
