EA Sports delists FIFA-branded titles on digital stores
As of this week, FIFA titles appear to have been removed from PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the Nintendo eShop, Steam and the Epic Games Store.
EA Sports FC 24 is available this week in early access if you had the Ultimate Edition, and officially launches on September 29, but it looks like EA is doing away with the FIFA branding in more than one way this week. With the general release date of EA Sports FC 24, it would appear that EA has also removed its digital backlog of EA FIFA sports titles from almost all storefronts. New digital copies of titles like EA Sports FIFA 23 cannot be purchased or downloaded.
The delisting of EA Sports FIFA titles was first shared by video games industry analyst MauroNL, as reported by Video Games Chronicle. A further look at various shops shows that FIFA cannot be found on them anymore as well. Among the digital storefronts confirmed to have delisted these games are the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the Nintendo eShop, Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Even on EA’s official FIFA 23 website, the delisting hasn’t been confirmed, but clicking on any of the links that would take you to the game on those storefronts takes you to a dead link. Furthermore, checking out the game on Steam shows a new notice that reads, "at the request of the publisher, EA SPORTS™ FIFA 23 is unlisted on the Steam store and will not appear in search." The only place the game is still available to play and download is via EA Play with a membership.
This could be considered both an expected and drastic outcome of EA’s decision to break ties with the FIFA brand in its soccer games. EA Sports FC 24 is still meant to bring a wealth of players from clubs and organizations across the world together in one place, alongside a new co-gender Ultimate Team mode, but it looks like all previous EA FIFA games are also a casualty of this move.
Certainly, there are still physical copies of EA Sports FIFA games out there, but if you’re looking to get them fresh, you may be out of luck as EA Sports FC 24 officially launches. Stay tuned for further updates on this story as they become available.
-
TJ Denzer posted a new article, EA Sports delists FIFA-branded titles on digital stores