Rumors about changing the name of the FIFA game made by Electronic Arts have been circulating since late last year. The latest news says EA has given the green light to rename the FIFA game to 'EA Sports Football Club'.
This news comes from VentureBeat journalist Jeff Grubb who said several sources have confirmed that this popular soccer game franchise will soon be changing its name.
"EA Sports Football Club, EA Sports FC, that's the name of the game," said Grubb, as quoted by VGC, Sunday (27/3/2022).
"I saw the trademark for it, I thought it would just be a feature like an online mode, but I was wondering about the name, and it turned out to be the name," he added, referring to the previously revealed EA FC trademark.
Grubb speculates that EA will release a trailer for the game with this new name in the near future. Usually, EA starts issuing a FIFA game marketing campaign around June every year.
EA's 10-year contract with FIFA is believed to expire after the Qatar 2022 World Cup ends. VGC sources previously indicated that EA will use the FIFA 23 name for games released this year, and may be the last to carry the FIFA name.
In October 2021, it was reported that EA was exploring the possibility of changing the FIFA name due to the imminent expiration of the FIFA name agreement.
According to a New York Times report, negotiations between the two stalled because EA wanted to hold more licenses, and FIFA reportedly asked for the license fee to be doubled to $2.5 billion over the next 10 years.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson has even commented that the FIFA license actually hinders EA's ambitions to develop the game franchise. He claimed FIFA prevented EA from presenting more modes that players had requested.
"Our players want us to expand the digital ecosystem more broadly...our fans say they want us to participate in that space," said Wilson.
"Our FIFA license actually only prevents us from doing these things. Again, FIFA is just a name in the box, but they hinder our ability to be able to penetrate into the areas that players want," he concluded.