EA has implied that FIFA 22 might be the last in the long-running FIFA franchise, with the game potentially set for an entirely new name.
This year, Konami moved away from Pro Evolution Soccer in favour of eSports - and it looks like FIFA could well do the same.
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EA discussed the move in a press release celebrating FIFA 22’s opening weekend, which tallied 9.1 million players, 7.6 million Ultimate Team squads and 460 million matches.
“While we are only at the beginning of our journey with you in this year’s game, we’re also focused on where we go from here,” wrote EA Sports GM Cam Weber.
“We’re here to create the best experiences for football fans everywhere… As we look ahead, we’re also exploring the idea of renaming our global EA Sports football games. This means we’re reviewing our naming rights agreement with FIFA, which is separate from all our other official partnerships and licenses across the football world.”
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FIFA as a game has never rebranded, ever since its 1993 inception. There have been slight tweaks, though: FIFA 99 was followed by FIFA 2000 the following year, with the full year used in the name up until FIFA 06 broke this trend; The 2003 version was called FIFA Football 2003, in a naming convention which lasted until 2005.
Back in 2013, EA signed a deal with governing body FIFA which ends in 2022 - covering management games in addition to its annual football sim. By going public with the idea to change name, EA could be preparing fans for FIFA 23 to change name completely - or they simply could be trying to drive down the asking price of the worldwide license of the FIFA name.
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