EA, who are developing the ever popular FIFA games, announced a while ago that they’re looking for options to change the name of the games. While they didn’t really get into why they’re aiming to do that, a new report by The New York Times now shows that a lot of money is involved and that the FIFA (or Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is looking for a big deal over four years.
The New York Times have reported that FIFA wants to charge EA double the amount ($1bn+ every 4 years) to license the EA Sports game.
That explains why they are thinking of a name change then 😂 pic.twitter.com/a4isUyzsCe
— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) October 14, 2021
According to the New York Times, EA and the FIFA are still in discussions over the naming rights, but the name change is looking more and more likely. If we were to see a name change for the popular series, we might be getting it as soon as the conclusion of the World Cup in Qatar, with EA’s naming deal with FIFA ending. While the name of the game might be changing, EA would still retain the rights to players, stadiums and more as they negotiated those rights separately, so on that front things would remain the same (for now).
If the deal falls through it’d mean the end of a naming convention that’s been in place ever since 1993, only deviating from it in the time period between 2002 and 2005. Earlier on their competitor PES (Konami) also rebranded and changed their name to eFootball.
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