In my last video I spoke about FIFA 17 losing the Nou Camp because Konami snapped exclusivity in the deal with Barcelona.

If you haven’t seen that yet you can watch it here…

When making that video I found out by surveying a huge sample size of people that FIFA players………. are superficial ****heads.

I’m joking! They just don’t feel loyal any more.

My personal view is that with Ultimate Team, micro-transactions and aggressive marketing, people feel like EA just wants their dosh, they just don’t feel as loved any more.

And that’s not a dig at EA. They’ve got poor hungry shareholders to feed who get hungrier every year. On top of that they’ve got licencing deals to pay to keep you lot happy.

Who have EA got licences with?

FIFA (no **** Sherlock)

EA’s partnered up FIFA began back in 1993. In 2013 they renewed the FIFA licence and currently hold it until 31st December 2022. So we know we’re getting games till at least until FIFA 23.

This licence is exclusive and flippin’ expensive and it lets EA make FIFA branded “footy action and management” video games.

It also includes exclusive rights to release an official World Cup game and be the “Presenting Partner” of the FIFA Interactive World Cup.

At the time FIFA Secretary General, Jerome Valcke said,

“Our relationship with EA SPORTS is of high importance to FIFA. The FIFA videogames are a key experiential component in our work to communicate the FIFA brand and its values all over the world”

Which turned out not to be the best endorsement as Valcke was later charged with corruption and banned from all footballing activity for 12 years.

Individual Leagues

The deals with individual leagues aren’t as straight forward and have hit stumbling blocks in the past. Recently EA couldn’t strike a deal with the Brazilian league and it was left out of FIFA 15 and took out about a third of 5 star skillers with it.

Luckily EA does have licencing with most of the major leagues in the world but details vary and can be complicated.

With the FA for example as well as the rights to use the UK Premier and Football Leagues in the game they’re also their official technology partners which includes:

• The Goal Decision System (footy’s Hawkeye)
• EA branding on broadcast overlays
• EA Sports Player Performance Index
• The Fantasy Premier League game
• And they became sponsor of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) so its logo appears on the sleeves of referees and assistant referees throughout English professional soccer.

So god knows who pays who any more.

Individual Clubs

If that wasn’t enough, at the start of the 2013/14 season EA started partnering with top footy clubs across the world like it was going out of fashion. It seemed like a new deal was announced every other day! This time the deals were mutually beneficial and a lot of cross promotion was involved.

The deals made EA the clubs Official Football Video Gaming Partner and meant that fans could play FIFA at grounds on selected game days, Goal of the month Competitions, 360 degree 3D digital head scans of players and official clubs game covers.

EA Sports also produced a load of branded content for the clubs including match simulations, wallpapers, behind-the-scenes images and they held pro player tournaments.

Oh, and football clubs got to blag their reach to other investors by including FIFA players in their figures.

Since then some clubs have rolled over their partnerships – others haven’t and I have it on good authority that Konami are sniffing around certain other big clubs too. So don’t get complacent EA!

Closing words

So to close then – the takeaways from this vid…

• Licencing is important and worth an absolute fortune.
• It’s complicated.
• EA’s lawyers are busier than TmarTn’s defence team!
• And you lot are superficial ****heads. ;)

Would you still play FIFA 17 if EA SPORTS didn’t have the licencing deals it’s got?