Electronic Arts announced Tuesday that this fall’s plans FIFA 23 will be the last title, in 30 years, to carry the trademark of world football’s governing body. Starting in 2023, EA Sports’ soccer flagship will be called EA Sports FC.
EA said: “The introduction of EA Sports FC will not affect any of EA Sports’ existing global football games, and EA and FIFA are delighted to offer the largest, most expansive EA Sports FIFA ever. ever later this fall,” EA said in a statement.
Last fall, Cam Weber, general manager and top executive at EA Sports, said the company reviewed its license agreement with FIFA, considering the huge patchwork of licenses the game has carried, from other football leagues and teams, and what the FIFA brand has actually added to the product. On the same day, it was revealed that EA has trademarks filed for a game called “EA Sports FC” in the United Kingdom.
In a statement on Tuesday, EA chief executive Andrew Wilson said the new EA Sports FC will be “the largest and most influential football club in the world, at the heart of football fandom.”
“For nearly 30 years, we have built the largest football community in the world – with hundreds of millions of players, thousands of athlete partners and hundreds of leagues, federations and teams,” said Wilson. “EA SPORTS FC will be the club for every one of them and for football fans everywhere.”
Read between the lines, the statement shows how much FIFA’s trademark really gives little to a game that has an exclusive partnership with UEFA’s Champions League, the English Premier League, most clubs Italy’s Serie A team, South America’s Copa Libertadores club championship and other major franchises are not controlled or regulated by FIFA.
FIFA owns and controls the branding for the World Cup and Women’s World Cup, but those tournaments take place every four years and traditionally appear in an update to the main game a few months before the announcement. Real life events begin. The last independent World Cup title that Electronic Arts developed was FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil for PlayStation 3, Windows PC and Xbox 360.
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