Ok, so this one has been swirling around for some time. You may have heard that EA and FIFA are involved in a (pretty) public battle over the use of the ‘FIFA’ name. Apparently, the current license that EA has with FIFA is due to end soon (around the end of 2022) and to sign up again, FIFA is asking for a big sum – an apparently huge increase from the last arrangement (at least from EA’s perspective). You may also have noted that some EA officials have apparently said that the FIFA title is actually ‘holding them back’ and they would be more than willing to drop it.

Of course, a lot of this sounds like some pretty obvious hardball negotiation tactics. However, according to Jeff Grubb in his latest Grubbsnax episode for Giant Bomb, not only has FIFA (the football organisation) themselves updated their trademark to include video games, but EA has trademarked EA Sports FC (Football Club) as the name of their football game going forward. The details are not available at this time about exactly what this means, however, it could theoretically mean that FIFA will somehow start developing their own soccer video game and EA is indeed pressing forward with their series without the FIFA-emblazoned title we’ve become accustomed to. You can check out the video here – the FIFA chat is relatively short and approximately between the 12:10 and14:47 minute marks.

Of course, this also poses big questions about whether the FIFA name also includes the FIFA licenses for player likenesses and the relevant FIFA competitions (one would assume they would be involved), because this is probably one of the biggest reasons many players preferred EA’s football games over PES (which many argue actually featured the better gameplay). If EA no longer has access to the rights, and PES’ is sort of out of the picture now – what will next year’s soccer video games look like?

We know FIFA is huge here in South Africa so it will be worth keeping an eye on this one – however, from a Nintendo perspective let’s just hope EA Sports FC 2023 will have a ‘proper’ version on the Switch and not yet again some disappointing ‘legacy edition’ like we’ve had the last two years!

In the meantime, catch up on the latest Nintendo news by checking out this week’s episode of 1-Up 1-Down.