EA Sports could end its long-standing partnership with the world football association. Meanwhile, 2K Sports seems to be interested in the FIFA licence, according to rumours.
The days of EA Sports and the football simulation FIFA could soon be a thing of the past in terms of the name – and the competition is ready as a successor. Because the publisher already announced a new brand name in October and FIFA is reportedly demanding over a billion US dollars for the new licence, the signs point to farewell. As of this week, Take-Two Interactive’s 2K Sports is indirectly bringing itself into the game.
FIFA, football’s world governing body, has itself emphasised in the recent past that it wants to expand its own gaming and esports commitment. Accordingly, the renowned sports simulation publisher 2K Sports comes into play, which enjoys great notoriety especially through the basketball series NBA 2K. As (videogameschronicle.com (VGC)) reported, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick spoke indirectly about FIFA licensing talks on Wednesday.
Investors in 2K asked Zelnick about the status of FIFA while he proudly announced the acquisition of developer Nordeus with mobile football manager Top Eleven. “This is a big step forward for us,” Zelnick is quoted as saying by VGC. “We haven’t been in this sport before. I think I’ll leave it at that today.”
Accordingly, Zelnick would not comment directly on FIFA licensing efforts, but has something up his sleeve because of the last sentence. This fuels the rumour mill around an actual interest. With EA Sports itself, 2K Sports would currently only have one competitor in terms of realistic football simulation – Konami had scored a virtual own goal with the release of eFootball 2022 and must first redeem itself in the coming months to silence the critical voices after the PR disaster.
🚨 BREAKING: 2K Sports are in discussions with buying the FIFA Football Licence from EA Sports. 😳
– FUTZone – FIFA22 (@FUTZONECENTRAL) November 4, 2021
FIFA World Cup winner MoAuba, meanwhile, seems less convinced about the possible changing of the guard. “2K has the worst servers in the world,” the German pro said on Thursday, visibly disinclined.
