May 12 – EA Sports FIFA video game, in the last season of its license of the FIFA name, has delivered a huge bonus for the gaming giant.
The video game maker reported an 11% year-on-year rise in revenue in its financial fourth quarter to $1.94 billion, contributing to $7.4 billion on the year’s net revenue.
The stellar performance in the last quarter was delivered by the FIFA 23 franchise which showed a massive 31% year-on-year increase.
In the six months since launch, EA Sports FIFA 23 has surpassed life-time sales of EA Sports FIFA 22, becoming the most successful launch in franchise history, said EA in its year end earnings report.
Next year FIFA has said it will use its brand name for its own game launch, having ended its relationship with EA after failing to reach a new agreement on license fees and commissions with EA for use of the FIFA name.
FIFA walked away with its name, but EA Sports retains the rights to the game and has deals in place with most of the major leagues and clubs worldwide to use their marks and player images in the rebranded version of the video game that will now be called EA Sports FC.
From the end of this year the football video game battle will move into a new phase, if FIFA can come up with a game to rival EA’s renamed game. It is a battle of FIFA brand against existing game product. EA’s advantage is that it already has millions of buyers of its video game and holds their details going into the new game release – most video gamers buy the new release every season. FIFA will be starting from scratch.
“We’re excited to continue our momentum, including the highly anticipated launch of EA SPORTS FC later this year. Record live services performance and increased engagement, particularly from our EA SPORTS FIFA franchise, drove better-than-expected Q4 net bookings, capping a strong finish to the fiscal year,” said Chris Suh, EA’s CFO.
FIFA look to have been well and truly outplayed in the esports sector and to rub salt in the financial have handed over a 31% increase in sales to EA on the way out.
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