Back in 2022, EA announced that they would be ending their decades long partnership with the Federation Internationale de Football Association, meaning future EA football titles would no longer hold the FIFA name – instead being rebranded to EA Sports FC. While 2K appears to have obtained the licence for regular football games, EA’s long-time competitor Konami has now nabbed the FIFA name for its eSports releases.
Making the announcement on its official website (and translated by ResetEra user’Eroke’), Konami revealed that they have “signed an agreement with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to collaborate in the continued development of eSports worldwide. As part of this initiative, two FIFA World Cups will be held by the end of 2024, each of which will feature eFootball competition titles for mobile and home consoles.”
Full details on the competition itself can be found HERE, but more interesting is the fact that Konami have obtained the licence in some form or another – especially given the fact that the publisher directly competed with EA for decades in the football space with its own Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) series.
Even without the FIFA name, EA Sports FC has seemingly continued to thrive, and so it’ll be interesting to see whether Konami getting the licence makes a notable difference in terms of sales. We will have to wait and see.
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KitGuru says: What do you think of this announcement? Will EA remain the top dog of football games? Could 2K’s upcoming FIFA releases throw a spanner in the works? Let us know your thoughts down below.