Since Electronic Arts and FIFA announced their separation in May 2022, the international organisation has been looking for a new partner to continue developing video games under its licences. EA, for its part, opted to develop the EA Sports FC brand, and things still seem to be going very well on its own. However, today we may have the first glimpse of a media earthquake between EA Sports and its main competitor in the genre: eFootball.
This morning, Europeans woke up to the news that Konami and FIFA signed a partnership agreement to develop the FIFA World Cup eSports competition using eFootball as the game. Quite a statement of intent to their former partners at Electronic Arts, and also an important step towards a future large-scale partnership.
The FIFAe World Cup will start its qualifying round today, 10 October, and all players playing the latest version of eFootball (4.1.0) are invited to participate if they reside in the qualifying countries: Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, England, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand and Turkey.
This partnership would also dispel rumours of a possible football title developed by Take-Two under the FIFA umbrella. Moreover, the deal will be a long-term one, as the press release on Konami’s official website points to a multi-year agreement. Could this be the seed for developing a FIFA Pro Evolution Soccer?