The excitement that washed through the scene and the German-language eSports media was great. Did Andrew Wilson, the CEO of EA, really say all those things about FIFA? An analysis by Holm Kräusche.
“FIFA is only four letters on our cover”, “FIFA, ironically, rather still prevents us from expanding our franchise”, “We have created one of the biggest entertainment brands in the world over the last 30 years and together with FIFA we have made a billion dollar profit”, “I would even say that ‘FIFA’ stands for the video game rather than the association”.
Such statements reportedly came from an all-staff meeting at EA in November. Now anonymous employees would have leaked the whole thing as transcripts to the website “Video Games Chronicle” (VGC). Problematic already: VGC reports in English and the German translations are heavily abbreviated. As outrageous as it may sound when Wilson says: “FIFA are only four letters on our cover anyway”, a mere reading of the VGC article makes it immediately clear: that’s not what he meant.
Rather, the situation is that Wilson has turned to his staff to frame the impending and perhaps already decided end of the partnership with FIFA. “I would argue – and this is perhaps a little biased – that the FIFA brand has more meaning as a video game than as the governing body of football.” Can the EA CEO be blamed for being “biased” in praising its strongest brand?
“We don’t take it for granted and we try not to be arrogant. We’ve worked really hard to make FIFA understand what we need for the future. “
Only four letters on the box?
According to VCG, he then goes on to give encouragement to his staff on the possibility of the licence being dropped:
“What we get from FIFA in a non-World Cup year is basically just the four letters on the front of the box, and that’s in a world where most people don’t even see the box anymore because they buy the game digitally. In a World Cup year, of course, we get access to the World Cup, but in the broader context of global football on an annual basis, the World Cup is important but not the most important thing. We have 300 other licences that give us the content that our players engage with most and most intensely.”
In other words, don’t despair, if FIFA is no longer there, we will lose the name and the World Cup, but not our 300 other licences.
According to VGC, he also elaborated on how he would like to develop his brand: deals with sponsors like Nike, which is impossible as Adidas is the current FIFA World Cup supplier. Furthermore, new forms of play away from 11vs11, but where FIFA is also blocking.
EA: No comment
eSport immediately contacted EA and asked for confirmation of the statements and a classification in relation to the FIFA licence. The answer was tight-lipped: they did not want to comment on it. Everyone has to interpret this for themselves. In any case, it is not a denial of Wilson’s statements.
