EA’s FIFA Series Changing Name to ‘EA Sports FC’ After World Cup
England’s Beth Mead fends off Kelsie Burrows of Northern Ireland during April’s FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 qualifier match in Belfast.
Charles McQuillan – The FA / Getty Images
The era of playing FIFA is coming to an end. EA’s long-running series of soccer games will end with FIFA 23, only to kick off a new season with the new name EA Sports FC.
EA and FIFA are finally parting ways after reports the scandal-plagued footballing authority tried to increase the $150 million fee EA paid to license the name. Fortunately for soccer supporters (in the US) and football fans (everywhere else), EA announced in a blog post that the game itself won’t change much after the rebrand.
More details about the new EA Sports FC game will be revealed in the summer of 2023. But in the meantime, EA reassured players EA Sports FC will still include more than 19,000 players in 700 teams across 30 leagues, including the UK’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A and MLS from the States. All that’s actually changing is the name — oh, and the game won’t include World Cup content as seen in previous installments.
FIFA 23, the final game in the series, will include women’s and men’s FIFA World Cup competitions for the first (and, apparently the last) time. The men’s World Cup kicks off in Qatar in November, while the Women’s World Cup takes place in Australia and New Zealand in July 2023.
Meanwhile, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has vowed to continue with a wider range of gaming experiences rather than tying up the brand with one series. “The FIFA name is the only global, original title,” Infantino said in a statement. “FIFA 23, FIFA 24, FIFA 25 and FIFA 26, and so on… the constant is the FIFA name and it will remain forever and remain the best.”
The FIFA game brand began with 1993’s FIFA International Soccer, making it one of the longest-running continuous gaming series.?
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