'I'm Not Signing This'; PlayStation Rejected Great FIFA Rights Deal Out of Loyalty to EA
EA may have given up on an extremely lucrative deal with FIFA years ago. It didn't happen because of the very honorable behavior of a PlayStation representative.
FIFA is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable series in the history of video games. This year, however, the studio long responsible for creating titles in the series, EA Sports, has released its new work already without relying on its banner. We are, of course, talking about EA Sports FC 24. As it turns out, however, EA could have lost this lucrative license much earlier and to PlayStation, if not for Sony behaving honorably.
PlayStation and EA were pals
In an interview for Timeextension, Tom Stone - who in the past held the position of vice president of marketing for EA in Europe - told a story that shows that ISL, which in the past managed the license of FIFA, wanted to go behind the developers' backs to make a deal with the European division of PlayStation, offering it an exclusive deal.
This would undoubtedly have been a very lucrative proposition, had it been accepted. Stone mentioned that at the time he was met by Chris Deering, then president of PlayStation's European division, who was said to have told him that ISL had offered PlayStation the rights to the FIFA series, after which he added:
"I'm not going to sign this deal unless you can't come to an agreement with FIFA. This is your agreement. You created it."
Interestingly, according to Marc Aubanel, who produced the series in the 1990s and 2000s, EA was already considering dropping the FIFA license at the time, but was afraid that without it, subsequent installments might not be as recognizable. This has happened only now, and the result of the sequence of events is the aforementioned EA Sports FC 24.
PlayStation at the end of the last century had its own soccer game, which was also signed with the name of a well-known brand. The game in question was Psygnosis' Adidas Power Soccer International '97, which, as you may have guessed, did not even come close in popularity of FIFA.
