EA has officially announced its replacement football (or soccer if you're nasty) franchise following the collapse of the publisher's deal with FIFA last year. Although we've known the title of the FIFA successor for a while, EA has now confirmed its new name is EA Sports FC in a new website that launched earlier today.
As you can see on the EA Sports FC site, the game will feature partnerships with some of football's biggest leagues, including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Women's Champions League, La Liga Santander, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A, CONMEBOL Libertadores, Barclays Women's Super League, NWSL, and many more, as indicated by the rotating series of logos. The only name that seems to be missing is FIFA's, which opted to find a new development partner for its long-running franchise of football games after negotiations collapsed with EA.
"This is where the story of EA Sports FC begins," said senior vice president and general manager Nick Wlodyka in a press release. "We’re building on 30 years of leadership and history creating experiences that bring the global football community together, and continuing to take it into a fan-first future. EA Sports FC will be a symbol for the sport, a symbol of innovation and change, and we’re energized to show our fans more about the future in July."
We don't know much about the upcoming game itself, but we can assume it'll be very much like FIFA 23, only without the FIFA branding. EA did provide an entire site dedicated to EA Sports FC's logo and typography, as well as an entire suite of branded football merch that'll surely go on sale soon.
For those who missed it, FIFA and EA had a very public falling out after FIFA demanded $1 billion to extend its license agreement. Thus, a 28-year partnership came to a screeching halt, with EA deciding to continue producing its long-running football franchise under a new name. We've known that name for well over a year now, but EA still hadn't officially announced it until just now.
As for FIFA, the football giant still seems to be in the process of finding a new developer to license its name to. Last we heard, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that FIFA 25--notably confirming that FIFA 24 will be skipped--will be "the best egame," whatever that means.
He also said to expect more news on the FIFA series "very soon," although it's been over a year and we still don't have any information on FIFA's plans for its next game. EA, however, seems to be plowing ahead with its rebranding. One can only wonder if perhaps FIFA has some regrets over the way it handled last year's negotiations.