Football governing body FIFA has announced a new gaming strategy called Digital Football, formalising its shift to working with multiple developers and publishers following the breakdown of its long-running partnership with EA in 2022.
As part of the announcement, the organisation named the new FIFA title from new publisher/developer Delphi Interactive as FIFA World Cup Launch Edition. It described it as an “all-new FIFA World Cup simulation… letting you write your own World Cup story” and said it would arrive on Netflix in the summer.
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The announcement presents a unified brand for a series of partnership deals that FIFA has signed across the games industry since the termination of its EA deal. These form part of a “Digital Football Ecosystem” which includes:
FIFA said the ecosystem was considered with each game fitting into one of four categories: football action simulation (FIFA World Cup Launch Edition), football action non-simulation (FIFA Heroes), non-action simulation (Football Manager), and non-action non-simulation (FIFA Rivals). It said that it aimed to target 1.8 billion “football loving gamers” with the portfolio.
GamesIndustry.biz understands that the organisation is working on a number of additional partnership deals with different developers and publishers, with the overall goal of having a branded football experience available to all types of player globally. The announcement also includes specific reference to working with gaming creators, although no details were specified.
