Well, the headline sounds very exciting, right? The recent rumours suggest that FIFA and 2K Games are teaming up to develop a new officially licensed football game. This is interesting given that Take-Two Interactive confirmed in 2022 that they are not planning to acquire the FIFA license.
FIFA licensing was up for grabs ever since the partnership with EA ended
Before I can begin writing this rumour piece, I will take us back to a little history. All this info is there because Electronic Arts and the international football governing body FIFA ended their licensing agreement in 2022, and rebranded the popular football series.
Additionally, in October of the same year, it was reported that Electronic Arts considered renaming their entire FIFA IP following the contract’s expiry, as a result of which now we have the EA FC Mobile franchise, a bit of a revamp yet still carrying almost a similar essence.
With this decades-long partnership coming to a close, football fans globally awaited news of a new developer to take over the license. For two years now, there were no suitors, with multiple rumours making rounds on who would be the next in line, but looks like the creators behind titles such as NBA 2K Mobile and Civilization: Eras & Allies will be grabbing the opportunity.
Well, I have noticed different opinions about 2K and FIFA. Some like 2K for its offline modes in games like NBA 2K, but others don’t like how it relies too much on in-game purchases and online features, somewhat even I agree. FIFA gets criticized for not making enough changes and focusing too much on making money rather than improving gameplay.
However, having both 2K and FIFA compete against each other could be good because it might push them to make better games that gamers will enjoy more, and in the next section, I will explain why.
This move could be huge considering the dry football game market
If I were to describe the current state of the football game market, especially mobile, it would resemble a black smudge on a white canvas. By far the best game we have is KONAMI’s popular football franchise eFootball, but apart from the gameplay element it is just not very ‘entertaining‘ enough. Next, we have FC Mobile, which I don’t want to get started with since it is still FIFA Mobile under a new name.
Then there is Total Football and Dream League Soccer series which aren’t good enough to make the cut if you are an avid fan. Lastly, one of the major disappointments would be NetEase Games‘ ambitious soccer project, Vive Le Football which will remain ‘ambitious‘ as it has been close to two years since I last heard of it. Rest there are no notable games, and bringing life to this scenario would surely be 2K if they go ahead with the new title.
It’s just a rumour for now, so let’s not get too excited until we have more concrete information. However, if it does happen, it could be a big deal. As I mentioned about other games, a 2K x FIFA game would work wonders across multiple platforms. It will also help in stepping up the overall game for the other already available titles in terms of competition.
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