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[DGrayson]

 

[DonJorginho]

I actually didn't know that - I just assumed the licence with FIFA included the likenesses of the players and leagues, hence the cost. So... FIFA was trying to charge USD$250,000,000 a year just for putting their name on the box?

Yep, I imagine the reasoning why being that FIFA Ultimate Team is the highest money making online service atm and they want a piece of the pie.

 

[Dream-Knife]

COF call of fifa modern footballfare!

Game plays like Fifa, but at the end you play as a riot cop fighting off fans of the losing team.

 

[Damigos]

I wanna see a FIFA released by Konami..

 

[10101]

I can’t see many (if any) publishers willing to shell out that much for this licence. It’s basically a name and the rights to the World Cup competition

As long as EA retains control of the domestic leagues, teams, names, etc they will be fine. Spend some of that billion they are saving on marketing the new name next year and no-one will care imo.

 

[Dibils2k]

FIFA name is useless if the game cant have team/player licenses

 

[Gamezone]

This is a great time for 2k to make a football game.

Why the hell would you want these people to make a football game when NBA basically has become a casino?

 

[Yoshi]

Sounds good. But it's just branding anyway.

All the teams, players and gameplay are still needed to be done by the game studio. And as much as gamers hate annual rehashes, it takes a lot of these rehashes to make a solid sports game.

It's not like a one-off action game or RPG that takes 5 years to make and is awesome.

Sports is based on real life and there's a lot of expectations that go into it which sports fan will notice. Go to any sports game forum and gamers will nitpick sock colours and if the mascot looks right.

Since ISS64 is still the best Konami soccer game and Fifa 98 the best EA soccer game and Sega Soccer Slam & the Mario Soccer games are better than both, I don't think that's true!

 

[supernova8]

Maybe? Seems like EA wanted out anyway because FIFA wanted to charge them $1 billion for a new four-year deal, which was double the amount of their previous deal.

Investors might be happy to know that they didn't blow a cool billion, especially when they still have access to all of the teams and players and only list the World Cup stuff.

I can't imagine FIFA is going to find many companies willing to spend a billion to be locked into a four-year contract with them if they keep that asking price the same. Plus, who else besides Konami is out there making soccer games these days?

Could be that EA told FIFA they were not planning to renew and then FIFA wanted to save face so they mutually agreed to make it look like FIFA had upped the licensing fee (and therefore that FIFA was dropping EA, not the other way around).

As you say, they probably won't find any other individual company willing to pay that much. Plus, as soon as it becomes a non-exclusive license, that new $1b (possibly bogus) asking price becomes worthless anyway because it's not special if multiple players can claim the FIFA name.

 

[reksveks]

Could be that EA told FIFA they were not planning to renew and then FIFA wanted to save face so they mutually agreed to make it look like FIFA had upped the licensing fee (and therefore that FIFA was dropping EA, not the other way around).

I know it's all unknowns at the moment but the rumours was that it was a combination of the increased fee and some additional terms about fifa having the ability to use their brand in other games that made the negotiation fail.

 

[Marty-McFly]

Can't stand EA. Hopefully this pushes them to start making good games again.

 

[10101]

I know it's all unknowns at the moment but the rumours was that it was a combination of the increased fee and some additional terms about fifa having the ability to use their brand in other games that made the negotiation fail.

So they wanted to double the price and make EA lose exclusivity? Fuck me, they really overestimated their brand in that negotiation if true lol.

 

[Airbus Jr]

Win win solution for fifa is to partner with konami pro evo..pes + fifa license = everyone win

 

[SoloKingRobert]

Microsoft should just take this deal, they need to bring back their version of the game.

 

[balls of snow]

Friendship with EA over, 2k is my best friend now.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

FIFA 98 was the last good entry in the series, anyway.

 

[Spukc]

Fifa is cancer

 

[ANIMAL1975]

Game plays like Fifa, but at the end you play as a riot cop fighting off fans of the losing team.

And next year _ COF black OPS!
_ you're undercover cop infiltrated in the hooligan groups.
Zombie co-op MODE:
_ the crowd turned to undead and chase the guy with the ball.

 

[Flintty]

I can see Amazon coming in and picking up the rights, and then some golden handshakes with EA devs to jump over and make Amazon's FIFA Football Prime

 

[PaintTinJr]

So they wanted to double the price and make EA lose exclusivity? Fuck me, they really overestimated their brand in that negotiation if true lol.

It is yet to be tested - but probably, yeah given that the license probably was more essential in the physical games industry.

Before the total demise of anyone but EA or konami making a AA/AAA footy game, Codemaster's did Club Football, where they arranged to give each team a cut of the profits, and sold a unique SKU for each club IIRC - similar to what Konami seem to have with some teams for PES - so they could use stadiums, motifs, likenesses and squad names, etc. But even with such licensed rights the draw of the Fifa brand was probably still 100x greater, as club footy didn't sell well enough to stay in the game to even compete with PES - despite being a far better game than Fifa at the time - and IIRC a lot of the codies footy staff eventually moved to Canada to work for EA around the time that Fifa started playing a lot like club football, but with a bit more polish.

As I said in the other thread, the license transcends knowledge of gaming, to sell a game with the license to anyone, and so in days of old would have both demand and prominence on store shelves in supermarkets, etc.

Anyone that can think back to a time of 3d soccer games when Actua Soccer, Ronaldo versus football, This is Football, Olympic Soccer, Virtua Striker, Steven Gerrard's Total Soccer...to name just a few of the different developer attempts before the two horse Fifa and ISSProEvo race of license versus game will be intrigued to see if EA can do what Konami could - to survive making 3D footy games without football's official brand in the name.

I suspect Apple. Google and Amazon will all get in on the license now, with a kickoff/sensible soccer clone, sold for a few quid on their digital stores, and long term konami's PES may eventually wipe out EA's game, and other developers will re-join the 3D footy dev market, unless EA get the license back after Fifa lose money from shopping the license around.

 

[Lorianus]

Dont see any wins for Fifa here ?, most people i know just buy Fifa annualy for the roster updates of League Teams, and as long as EA doesnt call their National Competition mode in the next game Fifa World Cup they are good to go no ?, they still hold the rights to all Players and can just do a "World Championship mode" without calling it Fifa i guess.

 

[VolticArchangel]

This is like FIFA treating EA as an ex girlfriend who cheated on them, and in that anger, going to a 15-hooker-gangbang with all the other industry trash like activision, ubisoft, tencent, take-two etc.

Waiting for Fifa to leak ea's sextapes now...

 

[Markio128]

There used to be a plethora of footy games back in the day, some of which were super fun, like Sensible Soccer and Microprose Soccer. I’d love someone to develop a top notch arcade-like football game again.

 

[supernova8]

Win win solution for fifa is to partner with konami pro evo..pes + fifa license = everyone win

Would be funny if they got it and then literally just called it "FIFA 23" next year just to piss off EA (if they even can).

 

[PaintTinJr]

Would be funny if they got it and then literally just called it "FIFA 23" next year just to piss off EA (if they even can).

Surely, the workaround would be calling it Fifa 2023 ?

That is the big problem for EA, is that anyone using the license can even usurp the cover likeness, because the type face for the license belongs to Fifa, not EA, AFAIK.

Even in general discussion between friends - continuing with FUT without the license - I could see it getting annoying because they've probably referred to the game as fifa all these years. In fact, even if konami could afford the license abandoning the PES name/brand they've established over decades - to call their game Fifa - would be risky in the longterm IMHO.

 

[Kusanagi2086]

This really isn't a big deal, if EA plaster the EASports logo on the cover casuals will know what it is.

It is because they have to get the rights to use player likeness, teams etc etc and that is gonna be messy for them.

 

[reksveks]

It is because they have to get the rights to use player likeness, teams etc etc and that is gonna be messy for them.

As others have mentioned, those rights are from a different organisation and EA has those for longer. I am not 100% sure on the relationship between fifpro and fifa but think it's legally independent organisations.

 

[10101]

It is yet to be tested - but probably, yeah given that the license probably was more essential in the physical games industry.

Before the total demise of anyone but EA or konami making a AA/AAA footy game, Codemaster's did Club Football, where they arranged to give each team a cut of the profits, and sold a unique SKU for each club IIRC - similar to what Konami seem to have with some teams for PES - so they could use stadiums, motifs, likenesses and squad names, etc. But even with such licensed rights the draw of the Fifa brand was probably still 100x greater, as club footy didn't sell well enough to stay in the game to even compete with PES - despite being a far better game than Fifa at the time - and IIRC a lot of the codies footy staff eventually moved to Canada to work for EA around the time that Fifa started playing a lot like club football, but with a bit more polish.

As I said in the other thread, the license transcends knowledge of gaming, to sell a game with the license to anyone, and so in days of old would have both demand and prominence on store shelves in supermarkets, etc.

Anyone that can think back to a time of 3d soccer games when Actua Soccer, Ronaldo versus football, This is Football, Olympic Soccer, Virtua Striker, Steven Gerrard's Total Soccer...to name just a few of the different developer attempts before the two horse Fifa and ISSProEvo race of license versus game will be intrigued to see if EA can do what Konami could - to survive making 3D footy games without football's official brand in the name.

I suspect Apple. Google and Amazon will all get in on the license now, with a kickoff/sensible soccer clone, sold for a few quid on their digital stores, and long term konami's PES may eventually wipe out EA's game, and other developers will re-join the 3D footy dev market, unless EA get the license back after Fifa lose money from shopping the license around.

Yep, will be interesting to see for certain. I remember back to those times and all those games you listed. For me at that time it was less about the name ‘FIFA’ and more about the Match of the Day type presentation, with well known commentators, real teams, player names etc. So from my point of view going forward they will be ‘fine’ as long as they retain those elements. That said, I haven’t bought one of these games in a very long time (FIFA ‘10 I think) as I got bored paying for essentially the same game each year. But times could have changed and the name may carry a lot of weight with players today - will be interesting to see how this pans out for both parties!

 

[Kokoloko85]

Nice. Time for EA to squirm.
Getting away for years doing nothing and idiots buying there games yearly

 

[kyliethicc]

As I mentioned in the other thread, it would be interesting if Fifa requires any game developed to be multiplatform like MLB. Sony might still take the deal.

Oh of course Jimbo would. He loves money.

 

[jigglet]

Madden next?

 

[Punished Miku]

What developers are going to be willing to pay the billions FIFA wants?

Tencent probably.

 

[Zero7]

Two greedy megacorps locking horns. Love it

 

[Star-Lord]

Give it to Rockstar. FIFA with the RAGE engine? Sign me up.

 

[K.N.W.]

Ala Raiden, we might say:
"Jack, I'm leeeeaving you!"
"Naaaaah, Rose, I don't care. It has always been a game for me."


Except for the fact that Fifa always liked EA's money. Nowadays everyone should care more about love

 

[Kadve]

How did PC gamer translate "Its for everyone best if a license is held by multiple companies" to "Never liked their current license holder"?

 

[VN1X]

I hope Ubisoft steps in and gives us the open world Soccer game set in the Tom Clancy universe that we've all so desperately wanted.

Technically FIFA is already set in that universe.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

Sure FIFA.

But you liked EA's money.

 

[Nankatsu]

Microsoft preparing that fat check.

 

[Deerock71]

So...Fifa's taking it's ball and going home, then?

 

[SoggyBiscuit]

FIFA told me EA has smol pp

 

[Ezquimacore]

Give it to Ubisoft, they are masters doing the same shit every year

 

[Bojanglez]

Tencent will probably park the money truck in front of the FIFA offices and offload to get hold of a license.

 

[ZywyPL]

This will be an end of an era for sure.

 

[Basil King]

I hope Ubisoft steps in and gives us the open world Soccer game set in the Tom Clancy universe that we've all so desperately wanted.

If I’m not climbing towers to spot all the stadiums in the surrounding area am I even playing soccer properly ?

 

[JackSparr0w]

Yeah lets blame EA and not the greedy corrupt FIFA that just doubled their asking price and has been caught in scandals time and time again.

 

[GasTheWeebs]

Please give the license to 2K , the one that made Top Spin 4, not the shit NBA we have today.

 

[LixhulHot]

Not sure what the loss is of the FIFA license, is it literally just the name on the cover? All teams, stadiums, names etc remain the same?

If that's the case then what the hell are FIFA thinking?

 

[IDKFA]

My first reaction. Having more than one choice of football game is a good thing, especially if the other game has the same player/club licenses that FIFA currently has.

However, thinking about it more, I'm sure FIFA isn't thinking of the public. They've seen the money EA pulls in with Ultimate Team and they want a slice of that pie. Expect more games carrying th me FIFA license, but games that are geared towards online play, loot boxes and other tactics to rinse as much money as possible from the public.

 

[cireza]

FIFA 98 was the last good entry in the series, anyway.

It had a great soundtrack.