Losing the FIFA license does not seem to have damaged EA Sports’ standing as the publisher of the best, and realistically, only football game that people still play in large numbers. The change of title to the clumsier EA FC 24 is more or less the only downside between this year’s offering and FIFA 23 from last year.
EA did not want to pay FIFA’s asking price for the license and decided it was big enough and had enough fans of its game to go it alone without the world governing body, not that this is some plucky underdog story, the FIFA licensed football games are said to have generated over $20 billion in revenue in the last two decades, with a healthy chunk of that coming directly out of my bank account courtesy of my kid being a huge fan.
FIFA’s ever-popular Bond-villain leader Gianni Infantino said last year (in not his only odd quote in the last few years), “The new FIFA game – the FIFA 25, 26, 27 and so on – will always be the best egame for any girl or boy, we will have news on this very soon.”
Now I can’t remember ever hearing the term egame either before or indeed since that moment, but it seems as though if rumors are to be believed, that 2K may be responsible for the new said FIFA egame.
A post on X from tech leaker Zuby_tech simply states, “Rumour FIFA Chooses 2K To Make The Next FIFA!”
Rumour FIFA Chooses 2K To Make The Next FIFA!#FIFA #2K pic.twitter.com/g8CSsqfmvi
— @Zuby_Tech (@Zuby_Tech) February 12, 2024
It’s not really backed up by anything but 2K would be a good position to make the game having other top sports franchises in its portfolio already. Konami’s eFootball is not in a great position, but it is also difficult to see any real competition for EA FC, if only because, while not having the FIFA license, EA holds the licenses for most of the top Leagues, teams, and player likenesses in the world, and that counts volumes for players who want a minimum level of realism in their games. Nobody wants Theo Messy to score a goal when they could be playing with Leo Messi.
Not popular
The reaction to the rumor on Reddit has been far from positive, with these just a selection of reactions:
“The Greatest Money Milking Fight”
“You’ll have two publishers that will want to milk you dry. EA vs 2K is a competition from hell.”
“2K vs EA is like getting to choose between two muggers down a dark alley”
It’s worth pointing out that the reliability of the leaker is not great, so this may not turn out to be true, but having missed a FIFA football game in 2024, the world’s governing body for Football will not want to hang about much longer. As yet there is no comment from either FIFA or 2K to the legitimacy of the rumor.
