2K Sports and FIFA. This could be our future. Take Two is said to be interested in FIFA's naming rights. But is EA Sports able to compete with its competitor?
You might start to think that there is more than just a game behind FIFA. If you look at the amount of money we are talking about in the dispute over the naming rights for the franchise, you almost believe that everyone is only thinking about the money. And you would never imagine that at all... right?
The international football association FIFA is demanding around 2.5 billion US Dollars from EA Sports for a contract extension over the next decade. The publisher doesn't want to get screwed over by – I love to repeat that again and again – the no profit organization and is looking for other solutions. FIFA could possibly be called EA Sports FC from next year.
But as you can imagine, the story is far from over. FIFA also wants to look for other partners. And there is enough interest. According to the latest reports, even Take-Two is said to be interested in the rights to FIFA. But what is behind it?
Take-Two and FIFA – Are we getting a 2K FIFA soon?
To be honest... it wouldn't be the worst outcome. FIFA 2K22. That sounds so American. Take-Two, the mother of 2K Sports, recently commented on the whole FIFA drama and did not give us many details about it. With the purchase of the developer studio Nordeus and its game Top Eleven, 2K sniffed the refreshing air of football for the first time. Commenting on the possible purchase of FIFA's naming rights, CEO Strauss Zelnick said: "This is a big step forward for us... and I'll leave it at that for today." So can we expect more news about this soon? We do think so.
EA Sports and Take-Two have already fought for various license rights in the past. Best example: PGA Tour 2K21, released by 2K last year. There has also recently been a partnership between Tiger Woods and 2K. Woods was previously an EA ambassador, for over 25 years, actually. EA plans to publish its own PGA Tour Game again next year. Will the two competitors clash again on the FIFA battlefield? According to the statement of the leading managers of EA Sports, there is still doubt about how aggressively the publisher is gonna compete for the license.
Who Will Win The FIFA License Fight?
As we have already reported, EA wanted to further expand its FIFA monopoly, but the association wanted to more than double the price for its product. At the same time, FIFA would like to give other publishers the chance, because the future of esports and football belongs not just to one group, but to everyone. Sounds sweet, but in the end, they just want to get more money.
So it could happen that the line with possible competitors is getting longer and everyone wants a piece of the cake. And if we're lucky, EA will be put under pressure and finally has to deliver good content. The game is regularly improved with the most recent title updates, but it's ridiculous that we have to wait many weeks for small patches. Which regularly let the community explode.
