Back in May 2022, FIFA, the global governing body of football, and EA went their separate ways, ending a near three decade long partnership. The game we all know as ‘FIFA’ is no more. So while FIFA 23 is a huge hit, expect a game VERY similar to appear under the new name EA Sports FC in 2024 as the brains behind the game literally take their ball away.
However, that still leaves us with the (potentially confusing) fact that FIFA, football’s (often controversial and often quite shady) governing body and owner of the FIFA brand, can continue to lend their name to football games. And given their love of the coin (EA allegedly turned their back when FIFA asked for $1billion for a four year deal for their name and rights) it’s no surprise that rather than simply producing one ‘FIFA’ title, there’s a whole slew of them this time around, all timed to coincide with the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
After the writing was on the wall for FIFA’s EA deal, FIFA have been expanding into new forms of entertainment, including entering a multiyear partnership with Roblox last month. And – non-surprising given the launch of their recent FIFA+ Collect NFT collection – the new games show a distinct leaning towards on-trend Web3 tech.
“The new gaming integrations, all of which are designed with Web3 and the future of digital engagement in mind, are playable around the tournament and each have a unique twist on the globe’s biggest football tournament,” states FIFA on its website.
It hopes the new Web3 experiences will help the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 gain a wider audience. The so-far-announced slew of new games are being developed by Altered State Machine, Matchday and Uplandme.
Those FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Web3 experiences so far
AI League: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Edition is the first of the new games. Teams of four AI-controlled characters go head-to-head in Altered State Machine’s casual football title. Players take on a coaching role and collect and train characters to improve their teams.
Matchday Challenge: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Edition from developer Matchday is a casual social prediction game centering around football cards.
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in the Upland Metaverse is from developer Upland who have created the largest blockchain-based metaverse mapped to the real world, where players can buy and sell virtual properties, trade their assets with friends, and win prizes. Now they can collect official FIFA World Cup digital assets, including legendary video highlights of the tournament, while traveling to a replica FIFA World Cup Lusail Stadium and Village, shop for items representing their teams to customize their home in Upland,
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 on Phygtl. Phygtl is a fan engagement mobile application that “takes fandom into a new dimension”. The FIFA experience involves players being able to overlay a “golden globe football” onto their real world environments and own their own fragment of it to attach to favourite FIFA World Cup pictures and video moments.
And post winter World Cup? We await the brand’s next moves with interest.
The changing face of FIFA
EA’s final FIFA title, FIFA 2023 quickly jumped to the top of the UK physical charts, outselling the previous year’s title by 1.6 percent. Showing the game’s power and desire to spread its wings, the team from sports comedy Ted Lasso makes an appearance in the game, including Ted Lasso himself.
As for what the future holds for EA Sports FC 2024 (the game never-to-be-known as FIFA 24) time will tell but EA are working hard behind the scenes to ensure that the game survives without FIFA’s licencing and rights power starting with a new deal with Spanish LaLiga – home to El Classico giants Real Madrid and FC Barcelona – for a “one of a kind, the multi-year partnership” that’ll kick off the 2023-2024 season with EA as the official title sponsors for the league.
Jack Brassell is a freelance journalist and aspiring novelist. Jack is a self-proclaimed nerd with a lifelong passion for storytelling. As an author, Jack writes mostly horror and young adult fantasy. Also an avid gamer, she works as the lead news editor at Hardcore Droid. When she isn't writing or playing games, she can often be found binge-watching Parks & Rec or The Office, proudly considering herself to be a cross between Leslie Knope and Pam Beasley.
