What felt like forever was the relationship between Electronic Arts & FIFA. After decades of ongoing partnership, in 2022 both parties revealed that the relationship is coming to a sudden end. So with Electronic Arts refocusing its effort with a rebrand to ‘EA Sports FC’, this lead to other readjustments. In that, multiple FIFA games were met with delistings in 2023.
Similarly, Konami explored a similar fate when revealing its rebrand for Pro Evolution Soccer to eFootball. The decision did take some getting used to, but is now the norm for fans of the franchise. Recently, Konami has now entered a new sport with the same branding announcing eBaseball: MLB Pro Spirit which plans to hit mobile devices in the near future.
This week, Konami reveals a new partnership with FIFA to explore esports within football and already established two tournaments within eFootball as the first sign-on for this deal with FIFA.
At KONAMI, we have continued to take on challenges in the development of football simulation and esports. We are very pleased to be able to contribute to the promotion of eFootball in a new dimension through this collaboration with FIFAe. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to FIFA for providing us with this opportunity. We can’t wait for the FIFAe World Cup™ to begin. We look forward to sharing the enthusiasm, excitement, and joy of our players around the world through the FIFAe World Cup.
Koji Kobayashi, Konami Digital Entertainment Senior Executive Officer
FIFA CBO Romy Gai added: “We are incredibly excited to join forces with KONAMI. This collaboration aligns perfectly with our mission to promote football globally and to provide a platform for players to showcase their skills. We truly believe in an inclusive ecosystem which allows different communities to be part of the FIFAe competitions.”
The deal also shares roughly a dozen countries that will be featured as part of this new collaboration. Those nations are Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, England, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea Republic, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand, and Türkiye.
Are you excited for this new partnership between both Konami & FIFA?
Source: Konami
