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EA CEO seems pretty chill about losing FIFA license

FIFA
Image: EA Sports

The CEO of Electronic Arts, Andrew Wilson, has told employees that he feels the publisher could actually be better off losing FIFA license.

EA and FIFA have been partners for 30 years, but that relationship is in jeopardy as the pair can’t seem to agree on a long-term contract extension.

As we mentioned a while ago, New York Times The report claims that negotiations between the two companies have stalled, with the bottom line being EA’s request for broader access and FIFA’s desire to double the current payout to 2.5 billion dollars over the next decade. FIFA states that costs will increase as the revenue EA generates from licensing has increased significantly as microtransactions become more common.

Shortly after the New York Times report appeared in October, Wilson held an internal company meeting to explain EA’s position. Details of that meeting were shared with VGC.

When asked during the meeting why EA would even consider ending the deal with FIFA, Wilson said:

I will be more open… more open than I am to the outside world. We have had a great relationship with FIFA over the past 30 years. We’ve created billions of value… it’s really huge. We have created one of the greatest entertainment properties on the planet.

I would argue – and this might be a bit biased – that the FIFA brand is meant more like a video game than a football governing body. We don’t take it for granted and we try not to sound arrogant. We’ve worked really hard to try and make FIFA understand what we need for the future.

Essentially, what we get from FIFA in a year without a World Cup 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. digital.

Of course, in a World Cup year, we have access to the World Cup, but in the broader context of global football every year, the World Cup is important but not the most important. We have another 300 licenses that give us the content that our players interact with the most and most deeply.

Wilson even goes as far as to state that the FIFA license has actually held back EA’s ambitions for its video game series:

As we looked to the future, we wanted to grow the franchise, and ironically, the FIFA license was actually an obstacle to that.

Our players tell us they want more cultural and commercial brands that are relevant to them in their market, deeper into the game… brands like Nike. But because FIFA has a relationship with Adidas, we can’t do that.

Our players tell us they want more game modes, different things beyond 11v11 and different playstyles. I’ll tell you, it’s a fight for FIFA to acknowledge the types of things we want to create, because they say our license only covers certain types.

Our players want us to expand into a broader digital ecosystem… our fans are telling us they want us to go and join that space.

Our FIFA license actually prevented us from doing a lot of this. Again, FIFA was just the name on the box, but they ruled out our ability to branch out into the areas players wanted.

Our players are telling us that they want us to move really fast: ‘we want you to do things fast’. And for that, we need a degree of freedom to really create, innovate, and experiment in the marketplace.

Due to the nature of the approval schedule and the variety of things surrounding our FIFA license, it has been really difficult and we are moving much slower than we would like.

He added that EA will not be ransomed when it comes to how much FIFA expects to be paid for the rights:

I had a conversation with [FIFA president] Gianni Infantino just a few weeks ago where I said, ‘listen, you get what you pay: we don’t want to pay more than this license is worth. But it’s not about that, it’s really about our ability to deliver the games and experiences our fans want, in a trendy way’.

Wilson stated that EA is keen to continue the relationship and is doing its best – but, if that doesn’t happen, it could actually be better for the company and their fan base:

At the end of the day, I don’t know if we’ll get there. And ironically, if we don’t, and we can rebrand our game and take control of the global football ecosystem that we’re going to build, then ironically we have will probably generate more revenue and have more fans, and more engagement over time.

Because we will be able to work with more partners, we will be able to build more game modes, we will be able to expand deeper and wider into the surrounding digital ecosystems. football background and more than anything we’ll be able to move really, really fast.

We’re going to work this out, we’re going to think it over and we want to be a good partner with FIFA, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up going in a different direction. At the end of the day, I think that might even be better for us gamers than continuing with those four letters on the box.

If negotiations fail, it could be FIFA 23 will be the last game in EA’s lineup to feature FIFA branding on the box. The 10-year contract expires after the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

EA already has shown that, if it loses its license, it will keep all other leagues, players and stadiums it already has. FIFA responded with its own statementannounced that it is open to working with other video game companies if the agreement is not renewed.

EA has filed many trademark applications for ‘EA Sports FC’One potential alternative names for the series.

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