Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
It was fairly recently that Electronic Arts mentioned it may be dropping FIFA licensing, but it’s still making moves to continue its popular efforts in cutting-edge soccer sim games for the foreseeable future. The company just signed a multi-year renewal with FIFPRO, one of the largest soccer player associations in the world, and with the agreement, EA Sports is set to continue to bring some of the best names and likenesses of the sport to its games no matter what direction they take.
Electronic Arts and FIFPRO announced their renewed partnership in a press release on October 12, 2021. With the partnership, EA Sports will be able to continue to depend on FIFPRO and make use of many of the around-65,000 professional players under its umbrella in future games. This renewal comes even as Electronic Arts recently spoke to the reconsideration of the use of FIFA licensing, in which the developer and publisher mentioned it wanted to expand its focus and boost further clubs, including women's teams and players in soccer clubs and divisions around the world.
It will be interesting to see if EA finally does drop the FIFA branding in its next game, but even if it does, FIFPRO’s partnership and players the organization has access to were always going to be pinnacle to EA’s continued work on soccer sims. In that regard, even as it considers dropping the FIFA naming, this move makes sense.
“Our players regularly remind us that one of the most important aspects of an EA Sports experience is the deep immersion created through authentic use of the world’s greatest leagues, teams, and talent -- it’s how we continue to uniquely blur the lines between the digital and physical worlds of football”, said EA Sports Brand Vice President David Jackson. “FIFPRO will continue to be an important partner as we build the next generation of EA SPORTS football experiences for players around the world.”
With that in mind, it seems like regardless of what direction EA Sports takes with its next soccer games, it will continue to bring some of the best players of the sport worldwide to play. Stay tuned as we continue to follow for further updates on EA’s changing and expanding soccer brand.