AMSTERDAM — For 30 years, when you heard the abbreviation FIFA, you probably didn’t think of the sometimes ethically questionable organisation – you thought of a video game.
The connection between game developer EA’s long-running football series and the governing body was immense; and yet it only took one strange decision to sever it.
A little under two years ago, the New York Times reported FIFA wanted around $US1.2 billion ($AU1.75b) for every four-year World Cup period – for the name, the logo and to reproduce the tournament digitally.
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It was an enormous jump from the existing $US150 million per year rights deal, trying to double what was reportedly the biggest single agreement for FIFA’s coffers.
It’d be wrong to say the decision for EA was simple; the brand name had incredible cut-through in the market. But the financial benefits are obvious.
“It is a massive own goal by FIFA and will cost them about $221AUD million a year for doing very little,” Peter Moore, a long-time gaming executive including the former head of EA Sports, told The Times.
“It’s perhaps the most expensive own goal in football history, and they were pushing to get a lot more money that they neither justified nor deserved.
“That was placing EA in a position where they were saying, ‘Do we need this – what do they provide for us?’ They already had all the deals the fans look for – Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, UEFA. You only get the World Cup every four years – fans care about clubs and players.
“FIFA at that point completely and utterly miscalculated.”
Given EA still has an enormous list of rights deals with teams, players and leagues, it has effectively just rolled into the new era – with some twists to the old formula – by officially unveiling EA Sports 24 this past week in Amsterdam. (Foxsports.com.au was flown across for the event.)
While the World Cup is no longer part of the game, with superstars like Erling Haaland, Ronaldinho and Didier Drogba in attendance, the message was clear – we’re still one of the biggest games on the planet, with or without the name.
“Certainly it (the decision) made for a lot of intense conversation,” EA Sports’ senior vice president of brand Andrea Hopelain told Foxsports.com.au.
“And there was a there was a camp (inside EA making the call) that was very, very bullish, and a camp that was quite conservative, as you might expect.
“And I think that the more and more we thought through it, the more confident we felt in our ability to do it. And when we saw that our partners were all on board with us, it really was a needle mover for us.”
Financially for EA, it’s not just the money saved by not paying for the license, but the doors opened simply by removing FIFA’s shackles.
As seen during any World Cup, the organisation is very specific about who it partners with, and what it permits. EA had limitations to work within; it’s not as if the video game of the same name could team up with a rival company – Pepsi instead of long-time World Cup sponsor Coke, for example.
So it’s safe to say, with a heavy Pepsi presence in Amsterdam, EA is happily telling major corporations it’s now open for business.
“As you look around the event tonight, you know, you’ll see things like Pepsi, Gatorade – so partnerships is a big opportunity that it opens up for us to work with the breadth of partners,” Hopelain said.
“Not just football partners, but brand partners around the world that want to celebrate and elevate and push the game forward with us. And so that’s just the start.”
The danger with such a major change is confusing players, who may not understand or care about the business side, and just want the game they’ve always known.
Safe to say that won’t be a problem. Major sports games are always iterative, taking minor steps forward to make improvements – whether that be through gameplay, graphics or available features – along with the new season’s fresh rosters and jerseys.
EA is presenting FC 24 as a major leap forwards for the series – though those who aren’t following it closely won’t see an enormous difference – with new technology enabling greater realism.
Previously the way players were animated would have to be done by hand, or by getting athletes into a motion capture suit – you might’ve seen someone in a black bodysuit with fuzzy white balls around their body in a behind-the-scenes clip over the years – to track exactly how they move and emulate that in the game.
Now a system called HyperMotionV attempts to streamline the process, capturing footage from over 180 men’s and women’s professional matches and then machine generating the animations of the players involved. For example, your virtual character could pull out the aforementioned Haaland’s famous aerial goal against his former side Borussia Dortmund in last season’s UEFA Champions League.
There’s also even more detail in the player and clothing designs, so a tackling defender’s shirt and shorts will wobble in just the right way, along with a new system called PlayStyles which adds special traits to certain superstar players.
These are not revolutions; they are refinements. And that’s the point.
“It would not have been bright of us to make a massively material change that for players and fans would feel like EA Sports jumped the shark,” Hopelain explained.
“They wanted to know that we still had all of the clubs, all of the players, and the authenticity of the game that we’ve always delivered. And they expect us to deliver innovation to the game on an annual basis.
“And so our investment in the trinity of technologies that you saw tonight, with HyperMotionV, PlayStyles – all of that are some of the leaps forward that you’ll start to see us deliver.”
Max Laughton travelled to Amsterdam for the launch of EA Sports FC 24 courtesy of EA.
