Recently, EA revealed that they have been considering ditching the "FIFA" name from its annual soccer video game franchise. There were some definite questions raised as to why EA would even consider doing such a thing since FIFA is a hugely recognizable name.
Today, some light has been shed that could provide a good reason why EA was considering this move. According to a new report from the New York Times, there is currently a dispute between the football organization named FIFA and EA. The disagreement is apparently over costs and new revenue streams.
The New York Times' report says that FIFA wants to charge EA $1 billion (USD) every four years to use the FIFA license in its game. This would effectively double the amount that EA currently pays for the license.
FIFA also apparently wants to limit EA's monetization of the game. On the other side of the coin is EA, who apparently wants to explore even more monetization options for the franchise. These include producing "highlights of actual games, arena video game tournaments, and digital products like NFTs." Oh God, NFTs?
EA says that their partnership with FIFA is different from their other partnerships. This means that even if they lost the FIFA license, they would still retain the licenses to official teams and player names. The partnership with FIFA gives EA the FIFA name, logo, and the right to use the World Cup in their games.
A decision by EA could be made by the end of 2021. The studio has already trademarked the name EA Sports FC which could end up being the name of their annual soccer game going forward.
To put the profitability of EA's FIFA titles into perspective, it was estimated that just the "Ultimate Team" mode in FIFA was worth as much as $1.2 billion to EA just last year. Then you factor in all of the game copies sold and other microtransactions and you're looking at this series providing quite a bit of profits for EA.
The game’s profitability has grown through innovations like player packs, similar to trading cards, that require users to spend money within the game as they seek to build the best rosters. Piers Harding-Rolls, a gaming industry analyst at Ampere Analysis, estimated the in-game feature known as Ultimate Team was worth as much as $1.2 billion to EA last year.
