Take-Two Interactive has praised the FIFA brand following its recent split from Electronic Arts.
Last week (May 10), EA and FIFA officially announced they would be ending their partnership after 30 years, and the ongoing football game series would be renamed EA Sports FC.
Although the two companies have split, EA will still maintain over 300 licence partners, but it will no longer make its football games alongside FIFA, meaning FIFA is now a free brand open to new partnerships.
In a new interview with IGN, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said that he was keen to continue the company’s sports portfolio and is considering working with the FIFA brand.
“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,” Zelnick said.
However, as IGN pointed out in its interview, EA is still releasing FIFA 23 as part of the original partnership, so even if Take-Two goes after the FIFA license, nothing can manifest for a while.
Take-Two is the parent company of Rockstar Games, 2K Games, and Private Division. 2K is best known for its sports game publishing, having previously developed games in the WWE series and NBA 2K, so if a deal with FIFA were to go ahead, it’s possible this publisher will be the choice to create more football games.
After the split announcement, EA said that it would be sharing more information about EA Sports FC in June 2023, saying, “We exist to create the future of football fandom – whether virtual or real, digital or physical, it’s all football.”
In other news, THQ Nordic and Kit Games have revealed their new action-real time strategy game, The Valiant.
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