2023-10-09 21:40:00
The franchise FIFA ended up changing its name to EA Sports FC after the developer lost its license, as many may already know. However, what not everyone realizes is that Sony had the chance to obtain the license, back in the 90s, to launch its games.
At least, that’s what he claims Tom Stoneformer vice president of marketing at EA, in an interview with the portal Time Extension. According to him, ISL (responsible at the time for licensing) contacted the PlayStation of Europe without the company knowing and offered the rights. Stone says that:
Chris Deering [o presidente da Sony PlayStation Europe na época] met me and said: ‘We’ve been offered the rights to FIFA Soccer’. I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding. Serious? Did ISL contact you and ask if you would like an exclusive worldwide license for FIFA? After everything we’ve done for them?’ I was very angry.
But Chris told me: ‘I won’t sign this deal unless you can’t reach an agreement with FIFA. That’s your deal. You created this.’ Obviously, Chris was getting an overview of the support EA has given PlayStation around the world. I think it would have been an interesting conversation if Sony had signed this deal. I think EA would have responded very badly to this
This situation specifically happened in 1997 and EA was already working on the FIFA series before that. So you can imagine what a mess it would have been if Sony had accepted this “opportunity”. The Japanese even already had its own football game, the Adidas Power Soccer.
Either way, it’s interesting to imagine what would have happened. Meanwhile, EA Sports FC is now available on today’s major platforms, and its recent sales figures in the UK have been released.
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