EA considering renaming FIFA games in the future

EA SPORTS have revealed that they are “exploring the idea of renaming their global football games,” meaning FIFA 22 could be one of the last games named after the international governing body of football.

EA have worked with FIFA ever since releasing the first game in the franchise, 1993’s FIFA International Soccer, which saw Englishman David Platt and Polish star Piotr Świerczewski as their inaugural cover athletes.

Since then, the franchise has grown to be one of the biggest in the world, with modes like FIFA Ultimate Team revolutionizing the game and making FIFA a truly global title — much like the sport itself.

Now, though, they’ve announced that the game could be undergoing the significant change to no longer be named FIFA.

FIFA 22 released on October 1, 2021, and less than a week later players were already faced with the idea that it may be one of the last FIFA games they play.

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In a press release posted on October 7, EA said the following: “As we look ahead, we’re also exploring the idea of renaming our global EA SPORTS football games.

“This means we’re reviewing our naming rights agreement with FIFA, which is separate from all our other official partnerships and licenses across the football world.”

What exactly the end result of this could be remains unclear. Pro Evolution Soccer was always deemed a below-par competitor to FIFA thanks largely to the lack of naming rights the game had. Could FIFA end up the same way if they remove the namesake from their game?

Since the naming rights deal with FIFA is “separate” to the game’s other partnerships, presumably the game would retain most of its licenses to leagues, teams and players.

It’s unlikely that a decision will be made on this particularly soon, so there’s still a possibility that FIFA 23 will be next.