football: Why FIFA games will not be the same again

When it comes to FIFA games, those of us who’ve played them even casually know that we’ve loved them, irrespective of the short time the football simulator entered our lives. Some of us have grown up with them, trying out every new title year by year. Electronic Arts’ FIFA series of football simulation games have been there for over three long decades now. But now, things are about to change and while it may not look like a major one to some, it is certainly one for a chosen few of football lovers for whom the name ‘FIFA’ brings up fond memories of challenging a friend in a match, living the career of a football team manager or a player vicariously and paying special attention to learning new keyboard or controller tricks to ace their control of the ball. As it needed just one phrase for them almost all the time: “Let’s play FIFA”. It was that one word ‘FIFA’ which was enough.
So, the small (or big) change is that Electronic Arts is going to change the brand name of the FIFA games. In fact it has already done so and the new titles coming out after FIFA 23 won’t have the word ‘FIFA’ in their title. Instead, EA has chosen to go with the new brand name ‘EA Sports FC’ for the upcoming games in the series.

The cause for the move is that the partnership between the world football governing body and EA is ending. But other aspects of the game series may not see a lot of change as EA still has the licenses for over 300 football partners and active partnership with the major football leagues of the world like Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and more. The EA Sports FC titles may still come with features like the Career Mode, Ultimate Team etc. More details about the first game to be launched under the EA Sports FC series will be revealed in July 2023, as per a report by Engadget.