In the wake of EA’s announcement that FIFA 23 will be its last football game with the FIFA branding, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has revealed that the company has no plans to license the FIFA brand as of yet. Speaking to IGN before Take-Two’s quarterly earnings call, Zelnick responded to a question about Take-Two’s interest in working with FIFA to expand its line-up of sports games.
“We’re definitely interested in expanding our opportunities in sports, and FIFA has a great brand and incredible clout, but we have no current plans to discuss,” said Zelnick.
While most sports games popular these days tend to be EA releases, like FIFA (EA Sports FC from next year onward) and Madden, Take-Two has an essential monopoly on basketball and pro-wrestling games with its NBA 2K and WWE 2K franchises. Considering the reported costs of the FIFA brand are what ultimately drove EA to continue the franchise without it, Take-Two could be primed to license the brand for its own future football games.
In the wake of EA’s original announcement, FIFA itself has stated that it will look to keep moving forward without EA. In an update, the organisation revealed that it has projects under development with other studios and publishers. FIFA also revealed that it will now be adopting a non-exclusive model, which will essentially mean that companies won’t be able to license the brand on an exclusive basis.
EA announced its severed ties with the FIFA branding in the wake of reports stating that the football organisation was demanding licensing fees upwards of $2.5 billion from EA for every four years.
The only other major football games publisher, Konami, has yet to make any statement on the matter.