As we all should know by now, FIFA 23 is the last title being developed by EA and FIFA, with the companies parting ways to produce FC 24 and FIFA 24, respectively.
When the news first broke that the split was happening, there was a war of words which signalled the start of an upcoming rivalry.
In his latest speech, Gianni Infantino doubled down on that, showing his willingness to go head-to-head with whatever title EA Sports puts out with FIFAs own - with news on FIFA 24 coming soon!
Fight Club
The split between FIFA and EA has been acrimonious, with each side slamming the other for various reasons and trying to lure the fanbase to its own football game offering.
Gianni Infantino has been elected FIFA President once again and in a speech at the FIFA Congress it wasn't just the state of real-life football he commented on, saying:
This echoes a previous statement made, in which he said:
It's clear that Infantino is ready for a fight, but will FIFA 24 be able to battle it out with EA Sports FC 24? Let's take a look at how things could shape up.
How did we get here?
Before we take a look at the future of each franchise, here is a quick overview of what has led to the situation.
After 30 years of creating football games together, rumours started to emerge that EA was unhappy with how much control and revenue FIFA wanted over the game, seemingly judging themselves as a bigger part of the FIFA franchise than EA considered them.
This led EA not to renew its deal with FIFA and continue the football series under a different name, with EA CEO Andrew Wilson reportedly saying:
Shortly after that, EA put out a promotional Tweet announcing EA Sports FC 24 as the next game in the series.
Of course, FIFA had its own business to take care of, and even before the split was announced they were looking toward other gaming companies to partner with.
In a swipe at EA, part of their statement read:
It was then that Infantino took on EA back, saying:
FC 24 v FIFA 24
From everything reported so far, it seems that FC 24 is in a far stronger position than FIFA 24.
For a start, EA already has the main bulk of a title to build from, refining the game, game modes and gameplay over 30 years to the product it is now as FIFA 23.
EA has also got multi-year partnerships with associations all over the world, helping build a comprehensive and inclusive game.
They know they are in a solid position going forward, as can be seen from a statement on their website:
So, what does FIFA have to combat that? Well, as far as we can tell - nothing!
The main lure the company has is its globally recognised name, which will definitely bring players to the title, but there needs to be a game to begin with.
The last that we knew, FIFA was still looking for a partner to develop their game with, a title that fans would expect to be released in a few months' time!
There was also a noticeable difference between the recent statement made by Infantino and his previous one relating to upcoming FIFA titles.
This time, he did not mention FIFA 24, instead saying "[t]he new FIFA game - the FIFA 25, 26, 27 and so on".
Could this be the first admission of failure in producing a game to rival EA Sports FC 24 from the start?
It is a new venture from FIFA, so perhaps they misjudged how quick the turnaround would be to have a game made at the same level as previous titles.
We would much rather see a well-created game released later than a rushed job dropped ASAP.
As Infantino said, "we will have news on this very soon”, so we await further details.