EA and FIFA have announced an extension of their existing licensing agreement until December 31, 2022.
Under the terms of the agreement, EA SPORTS maintains exclusive rights to release FIFA-branded action and management video games. In addition, EA SPORTS also holds exclusive rights to release the official FIFA World Cup video game, as well as retaining its status as a Presenting Partner of the FIFA Interactive World Cup.
Andrew Wilson, Executive Vice President and Head of EA Sports, and Jérôme Valcke, FIFA Secretary General gave their thoughts on the EA and FIFA deal:
“EA SPORTS released the first FIFA-branded football game in 1993, and 20 years later our partnership with FIFA continues to be very strong. Our franchise has become the benchmark for quality and innovation in the sports video game genre, and we look forward to many more years of connecting with consumers around the world with our games carrying the prestigious FIFA name.”
“Our relationship with EA SPORTS is of high importance to FIFA. The FIFA videogames are a key experiential component in our work to communicate the FIFA brand and its values all over the world. This is highlighted by the 2.5 million football fans that have competed in this year’s FIFA Interactive World Cup, which is just one example of the power of our partnership with EA”.
The EA SPORTS FIFA franchise is one of the more popular franchises in video games right now, as FIFA 13 has sold 14.5 million and there are over 65 million games played weekly. Like every year you can expect another FIFA game – FIFA 14 – to come out around September.
Just as an off topic side note, but did anybody else get a weird feeling reading ‘2022’? It might be just me, but I felt, I don’t know, old, may’be, reading that. 2022 isn’t that far away and 2022 just has that fantasy futuristic quality about it. I don’t know, pretty weird, just an off topic random thought. Leave your comments on what you think about EA and FIFA extending their exclusive contract, or anything else about this in the comments below.
